The Annual

 Glebe Music Festival

In conjunction with The Glebe Society Inc

Saturday 15th November at 1900hrs,
Glebe Town Hall, 160 St John's Rd:

Robert Weatherburn
Piano Recital

Piano recital by Robert Weatherburn to recreate Australian music composed and performed in 1915 – to commemorate the ANZAC action in World War I and to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, Saturday 15^th November at 7pm, Glebe Town Hall

2015 will mark the centenary of the first military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. It will also mark the centenary of the opening of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music.The Australian pianist, composer and arranger Robert Weatherburn is recreating music from this period, performing music by Alfred Hill, Roy Agnew, Iris de Cairos-Rego, and himself.

An article by Andrew D. McCredie in the Australian Dictionary of Biography about Alfred Hill CMG OBE (1869-1960) notes that he was the sixth son of Charles Hill, hatter, and his wife Eliza Ann, both of whom were born in Bristol, England. The family had moved to Auckland in 1872 before Alfred became “stranded” in Sydney with Belgian violinist Ovide Musin in 1897. His career took off and in 1913 he was appointed to the advisory committee for the establishment of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. On 18 January 1916 he became the first professor of theory and composition.

One of Hill’s distinguished pupils was Roy Agnew (1891-1944). An article by Dorothy Helmrich in the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes that Agnew was the son of a cordial manufacturer, and was educated at Chatswood and Hornsby public schools. He was taught piano by Emanuel de Beaupuis, an Italian pianist living in Sydney, and by Hill. His success was assured after a performance by Benno Moisweiwitsch of his Deirdre’s Lament and the Dance of the Wild Men at a matinée at the Sydney Town Hall in 1920.

According to an article in the Dictionary of Sydney by Graeme Skinner, Iris de Cairos-Rego (1894-1987) was a “prodigiously gifted child pianist”, who had studied in Berlin and London from 1907. Returning toAustralian in 1910, she began teaching at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music in 1915.

In addition to performing music by these composers, Robert Weatherburn will also perform his own South American/Cuban-based and bluesy jazz music, Mnajdra, Mystras, Dreamtime Suite and Ebro Dance Sequence.

For a bio please visit Robert Weatherburn's website.