Chamber music trio returns

TOP Australian chamber ensemble, the Seraphim Trio, is returning to Ballarat next Saturday 6 June at 2pm.

The trio is one of most Australia’s most acclaimed chamber music groups, sharing a lifelong friendship, and they will perform at the Anglican Cathedral Synod Hall.

The group formed in Adelaide in 1995 with its current membership – Helen Ayres, Tim Nankervis and Professor Anna Goldsworthy – dating from 1998.

Ayres is a freelance violinist and teacher, who is passionate about broadening performance opportunities for young instrumentalists in South Australia.

As well as her performances with Seraphim, Ayres teaches at the Elder Conservatorium of music, gives regular solo recitals and is a presenter for 5MBS FM.

Cellist Nankervis is a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, has performed widely throughout Australia as a soloist, and as a member of the Australian World Orchestra.

He regularly tutors the Australian and Sydney Youth Orchestras.

Professor Goldsworthy is director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, and an award-winning pianist and writer.

She performs extensively throughout Australia and internationally.

“Ballarat holds a very special place for the Seraphim Trio, an old friend that we have visited every year for almost two decades,” said Nankervis.

“Seraphim Trio performs works by Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

“We return this year with a program that includes some other favourites, from the elegance and wit of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to the stormy intensity of Ludwig van Beethoven and the sweeping lyricism of Felix Mendelssohn.

“This program traces the evolution of the piano trio across a century of musical change.

“Mozart’s radiant Piano Trio in G major opens with charm and conversational brilliance, before Beethoven’s dramatic C minor Trio, Op. 1 No. 3 pushes the genre into darker, more daring territory.

“The concert culminates in Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66, a work of restless energy, rich Romantic colour, and soaring melodic invention.

“Together, these three masterpieces reveal the piano trio transformed from refined salon entertainment into a vehicle for profound emotional expression and virtuosic power.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be returning to Ballarat to see our dear friends, and to bring a program that sparks pure lyrical joy from start to finish.”

Book at seraphimtrio.com