Classical musicians set to wow Oamaru

Classical music fans are in for a treat next month, with a baroque evening and a solo concert by a Dunedin classical guitarist.

Auckland-based viol players Polly Sussex and Dunedin-based David Burchell hope to thrill their audiences in performances using authentic copies of old musical instruments.

The duo will perform on October 4 at St Lukes

Church pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and one of his famous sons, Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, plus music from French composers Francois Couperin and Carl Friedrich Abel, who wrote exclusively for the six-string bass viol.

Burchell is the musical director of City Choir Dunedin and has worked in Dunedin as a classical musician for 25 years.

Sussex studied violoncello and piano in Prague and at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Burchell said the Oamaru concert aimed to “bring unusual and beautiful music to those who enjoy a special musical treat”.

Meanwhile, classical guitarist Braden Southee last performed in Oamaru in his 20s in a rock band opening for The Feelers.

Now 35, he will be performing Six Strings at Six, an exploration of classical guitar in the Empire Room at the Oamaru Opera House on October 6.

Southee has been playing classical guitar from the age of 6 and said classical and baroque do not often “get around”.

He hoped audiences will support the classical-baroque genre in what is also known as Western art music.

“It falls under the same umbrella, but it’s just a different era.”

He has attended masterclasses with Academy Award-winning guitarist David Russell and classical and flamenco guitarist Pepe Romero, and toured New Zealand with his concert Spain To The Americas last year.]

Six Strings at Six will explore the classical guitar repertoire of Albeniz, Barrios, Tarrega, Villa Lobos and more, Southee said.

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