May2013_Symphony on the Mountain

The St Lucia Orchestra – Sunday 26th May at 2.00pm

The St Lucia Orchestra begins the Mt Mee Hall’s 2013 Sunday concert season on 26th May with “40 Years Young”, a celebration of reaching their fortieth anniversary.

The SLO was formed in 1973 when a small number of professional musicians, music teachers and amateur players were brought together under the leadership of the late Ron Toussaint and rehearsed in a St Lucia church hall.  The late Ron Hamner arrived in 1976 with a special arrangement of Gershwin’s  “Someone To Watch Over Me” and one of Queensland’s earliest community orchestras was well under way.  Hamner was an extraordinary leader, a fine conductor and a gifted composer and arranger.

The orchestra prospered.  That early enthusiasm has never waned, and the SLO has survived the financial difficulties common to community groups dedicated to the arts, and has brought enormous pleasure both to audiences and to players over four decades.

This concert will revisit some most loved pieces from those four decades.  It will feature Ron Hamner”s iconic composition “Pastoral” – remembered nostalgically (especially with its seemingly unresolving key change) as the theme for the long running radio serial “Blue Hills”.  There will be a Hamner arrangement entitled “Thanks for the Memory” which leads into “Land of Hope and Glory”, and other material will include the brooding Sibelius “Finlandia”, and a selection from “Oliver”.

We will also hear the famous circus piece “March of the Gladiators”, written at the turn of last century by Czech brass composer Julius Fucik – ( known as the “Bohemian Sousa”, perhaps because of his difficult surname.)

And there will be lots more!

The conductor will be Neil Flottman, whose musical career includes stints as flautist with several major Australian orchestras, including QSO.  In 1984 he won the prestigious Willem van Otterloo memorial conducting award and studied in both Sydney and London.  More recently, in addition to varied conducting gigs, he has been lecturing at the NSW Conservatorium, the Queensland Conservatorium and QUT in flute, musicianship, opera studies and conducting.

We have two remarkable guest artists who will perform both individually and together.

Soprano Leslie Martin is well known to Mt Mee audiences as a brilliant opera singer and performer.  But she has also produced a number of iconic unconventional opera events both in New South Wales and in Queensland.  Leslie is now a major figure in Australian opera.

We have not previously seen tenor Gregory Moore at Mt Mee – nor have many other country halls for that matter!  Gregory is an original member of the famous “Ten Tenors”!  Other credits include the Australian tour of “Pirates of Penzance” and the world tour of “Scotland the Brave” as tenor soloist.  In 2013 he will be touring the UK with his own show, “Southern Son”.  Like Leslie, he is also a prolific producer and he too has become a very significant figure in Australian opera.