Music Celebrates Spring

Brisbane quartet, Angel Strings will herald in Spring with a delightful program for strings at the University of Southern Queensland’s next Twilight Recital.

Founded in 2004, the quartet comprises Katie Sillar (violin), Eugenie Costello (violin) and Tuuli Rantanen (viola) under the direction of cellist Kathryn McKee.

“We met through the Brisbane music scene and share a common passion for both beautiful classical music and edgy pop/rock arrangements,” said Kathryn.

“For us, the string quartet is the ultimate string-playing experience as each instrument has an individual voice that is crucial to the whole ensemble.

“As a group, this will be our first public performance in Toowoomba, although we have played up there for weddings in the past.

“I also have quite a bit of family history in Toowoomba and still have cousins in the area.

“My mother was born and partly raised in Toowoomba and my grandparents and great-grandparents (Carmichael and Gabbett) had active roles in the community, and my grandfather wrote for the local newspaper and worked at Bailey's and Pigotts.

“I will be coming up early to catch-up with Toowoomba- in all its Spring glory – before the concert.”

Their Twilight program will celebrate the season with the ever-popular strains of Vivaldi's Spring from his Four Seasons, the easy jazz of George Gershwin’s Lullaby for String Quartet, Lakme’s beautiful Flower Duet by Delibes, Piazzola’s Libertango, Respighi’s grand Bergamesca (from Ancient Airs and Dances’ Suite 2) and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Spring!).

“We will also be sharing some of our personal favourites; Allegretto and Minuetto from Haydn’s Quartet No 9 and the second movement from Philip Glass’ Quartet No 5

“The recital will finish with Love is in the Air which featured in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom; a fun way to sum up the magic of springtime.”

Angel Strings are professionally trained musicians with national and international performance experience with the Queensland Symphony and Pops Orchestras, Saint Martin in the Fields and the Australian Youth Orchestra as well as artists including Nigel Kennedy, Andrea Bocelli, Cleine Dion, Kanye West, Vince Jones, Il Divo, Harry Connick Jr, Julian Lloyd Webber, Rolf Harris, William Barton, Anthony Warlow, John Rowles and Guy Sebastian.

The Twilight Strings Recital commences at 6pm in the USQ Arts Theatre on Wednesday 5 September.

Tickets are $18.50 Adult, $15.50 Concession, $13.50 Student, $8.50 Child and can be purchased through the USQ Artsworx Box Office on 07 4631 1111.

This recital is proudly hosted by the USQ Faculty of Arts.