Please read: We are proud to have a full program of seven concerts lined up for the 2021 Season of Song and will do our utmost best to keep it like that. However, please understand that details of each of the concerts can be subject to change even at short notice. Therefore, please keep an eye on announcements on this page or via email regarding changes in program or ticket availability. Subscribe to our email list on the contact page or make sure to check this page a few days before each concert to be aware of changes in performers, times, et cetera. If you have booked tickets for a performance, you will of course be notified of changes if you have provided a valid email address that you regularly check.
For the time being, virus-related physical-distancing restrictions require that the maximum audience capacity of the Wesley Music Room is reduced below 100%. Each concert is therefore planned to be 45 minutes long and to be given twice – once at 3pm and again at 4.15pm. There will be no interval within each concert and no after-concert gathering. Mingling of the two audiences will be strongly discouraged. The Music Room will be thoroughly cleaned between performances. Admission to each concert will be by prior booking, achieved very easily through www.trybooking.com. Bookings will need to be made specifically for either the first performance (3pm) or the second (4.15pm). Life members (entitled to free admission) must still book at no charge; there is provision for this on trybooking. Online booking links will be provided as each concert approaches; special booking arrangements will be offered to Members of Art Song Canberra not having access to online facilities.
Kaleidoscope
Sunday 21st February at 3pm
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Jade McFaul (soprano) and Lucus Allerton (piano)
This concert will feature Australian art songs by Sutherland, Glanville-Hicks, Tregaskis, Bowman and others about the varied and brilliant colours of the Australian landscape in all its moods.
To book tickets online please click here
Concert details may be subject to change. Please read the information at the top of this page.
Sonia’s Art Song/Lieder Book
Sunday 21st March at 3pm & 4.15pm
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Sonia Anfiloff (soprano) and Kylie Loveland (piano)
The songs usually learnt in early studies were somehow missed by Sonia. While at ANU she had a more utility voice and never had the time to sing the wonderful repertoire from the usual suspects. Brahms’ ‘Von ewige Liebe’, Schumann’s ‘Widmung’, Strauss’ ‘Zueignung’. Typical composers with their most famous songs. Have they been overdone, or can you listen to them again and again?For the first time, Sonia is free to sing these much loved songs and is very much looking forward to it.
To book tickets online please click here
Concert details may be subject to change. Please read the information at the top of this page.
Fairy Tales from Home
Sunday 23rd May at 3pm & 4.15pm
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Susannah Lawergren (soprano) and Maciej Pawela (piano)
Susannah and Maciej will perform music from the great composers of their homelands: excerpts from the great Polish composer Szymanowski’s Songs of the Fairy Tale Princess for coloratura soprano, exquisite miniatures by the great Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar and, of course, music from Australia: an arrangement of Brenda Gifford’s beautiful song to the sky, Miriwa in Yuin language, and a song cycle about the many characters of the ocean by major 20th century Australian composer, Miriam Hyde.
To book tickets online please click here
Concert details may be subject to change. Please read the information at the top of this page.
Members’ Soirée
Sunday 20th June at 3pm
St Alban’s Church, 34 Chappell Street, Lyons
A Members’ Soirée is scheduled for Sunday 20th June at 3pm at St Alban’s Church, 34 Chappell Street, Lyons. In a manner reminiscent of the earliest Lieder societies, members will sing a few songs for each other, their friends and other members. Bronwyn Brown and Kathleen Loh have kindly agreed to be available as accompanists. You can, however, sing with your own accompanist if you prefer.
If you wish to take part, please contact us by Sunday 30th May. For the time being, please plan to sing up to three songs. All members are very welcome to attend this free event as part of the audience on the day. Bookings are necessary because of COVID-19 venue limitations, please book here.
Love and Other Traps
Sunday 18th July at 3pm & 4.15pm
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Piera Dennerstein (soprano) and Lucus Allerton (piano)
Explore the throes of love and life in four languages, over four centuries. From the imaginations of childhood, to the innocence of first love, to the solemnity of faith, expect no stone of the human condition unturned.
To book tickets online please click here
Concert details may be subject to change. Please read the information at the top of this page.
Persons of Interest
Sunday 5th September at 3pm & 4.15pm Postponed; no concert will be held on 5th Sep
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Christina Wilson (mezzo-soprano) and Alan Hicks (piano)
Passed down the generations are sung stories that celebrate human experience and achievement – continuing still as part of our society’s collective memory. Classical art song composers have added to this human musical history; inspired to write of men and women, real and imaginary, from myth and legend, from history and literature, to make known and keep alive their names and fate. Come and meet some memorable characters, hear their tales and judge for yourself whether they have something to say to us in 2021.
Schumann and Britten – Love and War
Sunday 10th October at 3pm & 4.15pm Postponed; no concert will be held on 10th October
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Kent McIntosh (tenor), Robert Johnson (horn) and Sharolyn Kimmorley AM (piano)
The Tasman Soloists are thrilled to return to Wesley with this arresting program. The wonderful combination of French horn, tenor and piano will take you from the depths of love lost to the heights of love gained via the lyrical brilliance of Robert Schumann. The program concludes with Edith Sitwell’s haunting poetry, set by Benjamin Britten, about London’s Blitz in World War 2.
Bright Star
Alternative program!
Sunday 14th November at 3pm & 4.15pm
Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest
Sarahlouise Owens (soprano) and Ronan Apcar (piano)
Bright Star is a concert offering a glimmer of light after the long lockdowns and the opportunity to reflect on where we are now after the significant events of 2020 onwards, inspiring hope and healing. Featuring pieces by Canberra composers Dooley, Greenaway and Legge-Wilkinson, commissioned by Sarahlouise as part of the Arts ACT Homefront grant offered in 2020, emotions are touched on and expressed through the songs’ storytelling and expressions of comfort and hope.
Limited seating. To book tickets online please click here
Concert details may be subject to change. Please read the information at the top of this page.
The Artists
Winner of the Australian Singing Competition’s Marianne Mathy Award and prize winning graduate of The Canberra School of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and the National Opera Studio, London, mezzo-soprano Christina Wilson has appeared in performances throughout the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia. She has sung as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and in recital at the Wigmore Hall, the Temple Square and the Paris Conservatoire. With Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Belfast Opera and the State Opera of South Australia she has sung the roles of Clitemnestre, Carmen, Cenerentola, Rosina, Cherubino, Dido, Dorabella and in recent years for Handel in Theatre, the roles of David (Saul), Irene (Theodora), Dejanira (Hercules) and Storgé (Jephtha) staged at the Canberra Playhouse and conducted by Brett Weymark.
Christina is currently a core member of Songmakers Australia, Australia’s only professional art song ensemble, performing regularly at the Melbourne Recital Centre in concert and broadcast for ABC Classic FM. As an artist with the Flowers of War project, she has sung in concert around Australia, in Paris and Amiens, France and Oxford and London, as well in recordings for the Australian War Memorial and ABC Classics – in 2017 A race against Time, songs of Frederick Septimus Kelly with Alan Hicks, piano and in 2019 with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in a selection of Kelly songs orchestrated by the project director, Christopher Latham. A lecturer in Voice at the ANU (2009-12) and in Voice and Performance at the University of Canberra (2013-18), she is now Sydney-based and teaches Classical Song and Voice Works at the Sydney University Conservatorium Open Academy and is a Performance Tutor at UNSW. She has given masterclasses at AIM, NIDA, die Universität fur darstellende Kunst, Vienna, and adjudicated at the Sydney, National, Wollongong and Taree Eisteddfods and the Melbourne Liederfest.
Alan Hicks is one of Australia’s foremost vocal coaches and accompanists. Formerly a staff member at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and Head of Voice (2008-12) at the ANU Canberra School of Music, he currently works in Vocal and Opera Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as coach, accompanist and tutor in diction. After postgraduate study at the RNCM in Manchester Alan remained in the UK for 15 years, performing in song and chamber recitals at the Wigmore Hall, St Johns Smith Square, the Purcell Room, Three Choirs Festival, for Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now! and in recordings and broadcasts for the BBC.
Recent recital, theatre and festival work include the world premieres of The Diggers Requiem in Amiens, France and The Weight of Light at The Street Theatre, Canberra, where he also performed as Alain/Claude in the award-winning Bijou, subsequently touring NSW and in seasons at La Mama Courthouse, Melbourne, the Depot Theatre, Sydney, and The Butterfly Club, Melbourne. He is a member of the Trio Campanaccio, an official accompanist for the Australian Flute Festival, and the Australian Opera Foundation. A regular performer in The Flowers of War project concerts, in 2016 Alan recorded songs of Frederick Septimus Kelly for the ABC Classics CD A Race Against Time, and in 2018, completed a major project for the Australian War Memorial, recording 100 songs and pieces of music from the AWM’s collection of sheet music which can now be heard via the following website: https://www.awm.gov.au/visit/exhibitions-online/Music-WW1
Sonia Anfiloff completed a Master of Music degree at the ANU in 2010 where she received the Kornfeld Scholarship. Whilst studying at the ANU School of Music she performed many roles, including Sly in the world premiere of Grimm and the Blue Crown Owl by Josh McHugh, and Minna in Rautavaara’s Gift of the Magi for the CIMF. During and since her studies she has performed often as a soloist in several Requiems, Masses and Passions. In 2009 she revisited her role as a Dame in Co-Opera’s production of The Magic Flute. In 2012 Sonia performed Strauss’s Four Last Songs and in 2013 was awarded first prizes in the Australian National Eisteddfod and the Orange Eisteddfod.
2013-14 also had Sonia performing her first role in Vienna as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo. As well as giving five concerts in Australia in 2015 she was a semi-finalist in the Elizabeth Connell Dramatic Soprano Singing Competition. In 2017 Sonia returned to the stage for Verdi’s Requiem and Mass in Blue by Todd, as well as two toured concert programs throughout the ACT, NSW and Melbourne; the cabaret show A Waltzy, Stolzy Evening from Vienna and the classical program In an Elemental Mood for Art Song Canberra.
Having returned to Canberra from Vienna in 2019, after 9 years, Sonia is now the Head of Choirs at Canberra Girl’s Grammar School and is teaching voice privately.
Kylie Loveland graduated with a Master of Music degree in piano performance and accompaniment from the ANU School of Music in 2009, studying with Susanne Powell and Dr Geoffrey Lancaster. She has performed as a soloist with the National Capital Orchestra, participated in the Tel Hai International Piano Masterclasses in Israel and has accompanied choirs and soloists regularly around Canberra for over 15 years. Throughout 2014-15 Kylie studied Injury-Preventive Keyboard Technique with Dr Barbara Lister-Sink (USA). Kylie then undertook further lessons under the guidance of Prof Larry Sitsky. Kylie is currently piano teacher and accompanist at Canberra Girls Grammar School. She also teaches piano at St Clare’s College and at her private home studio and is Vice President of ACT Keyboard Association.
Soprano Susannah Lawergren holds an Advanced Diploma of Opera from the Sydney Conservatorium and has worked with vocal coaches and studied languages in Rome, Stockholm, New York and London where she has close family. She has worked with some of the foremost ensembles in Australia including Opera Australia, Australia Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring and Sydney Chamber Opera and international ensembles like Voces8 and the Wallfisch Ensemble. From 2011 to 2019 she was a full-time member of the Song Company, singing an incredibly diverse range of music. She has sung at many major Australian music festivals including the Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide Festivals. Susannah has worked with many established and emerging composers, this year singing with Elena Kats-Chernin at the piano and premiering a new work by Ross Edwards at the Art Gallery of NSW with Bernadette Harvey. She returns to the Canberra Festival this year to sing in the concert Great Hall Rising as well as joining old Song Company colleagues in Katy Abbott’s fascinating Hidden Thoughts. She is featured in the Bach Akademie Australia’s 2021 Season, including the stunning Wedding Cantata in August, and in October will perform with tenor Andrew Goodwin and harpist Georgia Lowe for Resonate at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Maciej Pawela is a piano teacher and performer who was born in Poland, and after immigrating to Australia in 1983 now lives and works in Sydney.Maciej attended the State School of Music in Bytom and went on to study piano performance at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He completed his Master of Arts degree with Distinction in 1981.
During his student days he was awarded the Frederic Chopin Society scholarship in Warsaw twice, was awarded first place at the Prokofiev competition in Katowice, was a prize-winner at the Polish Piano Festival in Slupsk and was the winner of the Piano Trio category in the All-Poland Chamber Music Competition in Lodz. Since immigrating to Australia he has taken an active role in the musical life of his new homeland, including recordings for ABC radio and television, SBS radio, 2MBSFM radio and Channel 7 TV. His chamber music collaborations include Richard Tognetti, Georg Pedersen, Wanda Wilkomirska, Natalie Chee, Alex Todicescu and Christina Leonard amongst many others. Maciej has also organised several concerts as the president of the Chopin Society of Sydney for young Australian musicians and contemporary Australian composers. He runs a busy studio and teaches at Sydney Grammar School and in association with the University of New South Wales.
Piera Dennerstein secured a place on 3MBS Radio’s The Talent program in 2020. In 2019 Piera performed her first leading role in a grand opera: Adina in Melbourne company, GBD Productions’ tour of L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti. The second half of the year was spent engaged with the legendary Finucane & Smith as a guest artist in international performances of The Rapture and The Rapture Chapter II. She continues to perform regularly at corporate events, particularly for Vavachi Productions and Entertainment International. In the first half of 2018, Piera travelled to France to take her place at the Fabrique Lyrique Operatic Young Artist program in Bourges where she played the Coquette in the world premiere of Fêtes et Cendres. The second half of 2018 had her in China, performing as Constanze Mozart in the children’s show Magical Mozart for Australian International Productions. She reprised this role in 2019 owing to the success of the initial production. In 2017, Piera covered the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea for Lyric Opera of Melbourne. The year before, she toured China playing the Second Spirit and covering Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Australian International Opera Company. In addition, Piera performed the roles of Virtù and Pallade in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Trentino Music Festival in The Dolomites in Italy. She also toured a mixed genre program in regional Victoria with associate artist Pamela Christie. Piera completed a double Bachelor in Music and Arts degree with First Class Honours at The Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University. Upon graduating, Piera was awarded the Friends of the Opera Studio Fellowship to study for a full year as a Studio Young Artist in the 2015 Performance Program at The Opera Studio Melbourne – Gertrude Opera.
Lucus Allerton graduated from the ANU School of Music with Honours in Piano in mid-2013. At the piano, Lucus enjoys ensemble and accompaniment work most of all, in 2012 winning the Margaret Smiles Accompaniment Prize, and reaching the Finals of the Sydney Eisteddfod’s 2013 Victoria Jennifer Warren Piano Accompaniment Award. Now employed as an accompanist for vocalists at the ANU School of Music, Lucus is active on the art song scene, travelling to Perth for masterclasses run by the venerated art song master Graham Johnson. In Melbourne, he hunted down more masterclasses held by members of Melbourne’s Songmakers Australia (whose ranks include Art Song Canberra familiars Andrea Katz, Christina Wilson, Merlyn Quaife, and Nicholas Dinopoulos). Lately Lucus worked with both Peter Coleman-Wright OA, and Cheryl Barker OA, as a pianist for The Cuskelly College of Music’s Academy of Vocal Performance’s opera production of Puccini’s Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi in 2020. Lucus has very much enjoyed a number of musical partnerships and ensemble memberships, through and outside the ANU School of Music. He continues to accompany around Canberra, is regularly involved in the Canberra’s choral scene and conducts the Centauri Voices choir at the Woden Valley Youth Choir.
Jade McFaul was born in 1996 in South Australia and moved to Canberra at the beginning of 2014, recently completing a Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree at the Australian National University. She was a recipient of the 2014 ANU Christel Larko Music Scholarship, the 2015 Bill Hyslop Prize in Voice, the 2016 Llewellyn Choir Prize, and was the ACT Young Virtuoso of 2016. She has been a chorister with Gondwana National Choirs since 2011 and is regularly involved in local ensembles, including the Canberra Bach Ensemble and Kompactus Youth Chamber Choir. She conducts Nova Voices of the Woden Valley Youth Choir. Her recent research advocates for the programming and performance of Australian art songs, exploring the relationship between poetry and music in this form.
Born in Auckland, Kent McIntosh began his professional musical life as a French horn player in the RNZ Navy Band. He studied voice performance in NZ, Sydney and Canberra, where he graduated M.Mus in 2001 and won the Kornfeld full scholarship. Roles include Tamino/Monostatos/Armoured Man: The Magic Flute, title role: Albert Herring, Quint: The Turn of the Screw, Don Basilio: The Marriage of Figaro (Canberra) Servant/Chauffeur: Capriccio, Registrar: Madama Butterfly (Opera Australia). Kent is a hugely experienced song recitalist and oratorio soloist. Repertoire includes: Evangelist, St John Passion: Soloist, Messiah: Haydn, Creation: JS Bach and CPE Bach, Magnificat: JS Bach, Mass in B minor: Mendelssohn, Elijah: Monteverdi, Vespers: Puccini, Gloria: Beethoven, Symphony No.9: Schubert, Die Schöne Müllerin: Schumann, Dichterliebe, and Liederkreis Op 40: Janacek, Diary of one who disappeared: Britten, Winter Words, and On this Island. He has been broadcast twice live on ABC Classic FM, most recently in the Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in 2012. Kent is a senior chorister with Opera Australia and has sung over 2500 performances with the company.
Robert Johnson studied the French horn at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. After holding the principal horn positions with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia Orchestra, he was appointed Principal Horn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1986, a position he retired from in 2017. During his time with the SSO, he performed as soloist in works by Mozart, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten and Ross Edwards, and in 2005 he was the horn soloist in the SSO’s first performance of Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars. In 2009 he commissioned and premiered with the SSO a new horn concerto, Lightfall, by Sydney composer Christopher Gordon. He has also appeared as guest principal with all the major Australian orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has played chamber music with the Australia Ensemble, Sydney Soloists and New Sydney Wind Quintet, and has appeared at the Huntington and Townsville chamber music festivals. As a teacher he has worked as Senior Horn Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Canberra School of Music, and he has appeared as Artist in Residence at universities and music schools in Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Hong Kong. In addition to playing the horn, he sings Mediæval and Renaissance songs in his ‘other life’ as a countertenor and has conducted ensembles of musicians from the SSO on a number of occasions as The Chamber Soloists of Sydney in “off the beaten track” repertoire.
After studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sharolyn Kimmorley joined the Music Staff of The Australian Opera and has assisted in the preparation of a vast range of works with many distinguished singers and conductors. In 1985 she became Principal Repetiteur for The Australian Opera and in 1987 was appointed Head of Music Staff. From 1994 to 1999 she was the company’s Artistic Administrator, following which she was Opera Australia’s Director of Music Administration until June 2003. Sharolyn is regarded as one of Australia’s finest vocal coaches and accompanists. She has recorded for ABC Classics, taken part in Chamber Music Concerts, and accompanied some of the world’s most distinguished recitalists including Dame Joan Sutherland, Håkan Hagegård, Neil Rosenshein, Bryn Terfel, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Sir Thomas Allen, Désirée Rancatore, Barbara Bonney, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, David Hobson, Keith Lewis, Yvonne Kenny, Inessa Galante, Dennis O’Neill, Ian Bostridge, Kathleen Battle, Jonathan Lemalu, Peter Coleman-Wright and Cheryl Barker.
In January 2009 Sharolyn became a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her work as an accompanist and the nurturing and mentoring of emerging artists. Sharolyn is currently Artistic Adviser to the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust, Artistic Director of The Opera Club (Christchurch) Chorus Director for Opera New Zealand (Christchurch) and Guest Vocal Coach at the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl, Austria.
A performer of great versatility, the distinguished soprano Merlyn Quaife received an Order of Australia Award in the Queen’s Birthday 2013 Honours List for significant service to music. Merlyn continues to perform opera, oratorio, Lieder, chamber music and contemporary music to great acclaim throughout Australia and Europe. Merlyn has appeared with all the State Opera Companies in roles ranging from the bel canto Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor to the minimalist Chiang Ch’ing in Nixon in China.
She has performed with all the Symphony Australia orchestras, featured in repertoire of every conceivable style from Handel to Ligeti, as well as recorded a number of CDs including Aria for John Edward Eyre by David Lumsdaine which won her a Sounds Australia Award. Of recording labels, she appears on Naxos, Move, Tall Poppies and ABC Classics.
The young bass-baritone Nicholas Dinopoulos studied at The University of Melbourne with Merlyn Quaife AM and furthered his training at The Opera Studio Melbourne. A prolific concert artist and recitalist, he is frequently heard in live-to-air broadcasts on ABC Classic FM and 3MBS FM and is a core member of Songmakers Australia under the artistic patronage of Graham Johnson. He recently created the role of The Poet in the world premiere performances of Constantine Koukias’ The Barbarians (Helpmann Award nomination, Best Opera category) for IHOS Opera / MONA FOMA 2012. The 2013 season marked debuts for both Victorian Opera (Melbourne) and Pinchgut Opera (Sydney).
A pianist, accompanist and vocal coach of extraordinary versatility, Argentine-born Andrea Katz is equally at home with chamber music, German Lieder and grand opera. She studied piano with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris and Alexander Tamir in Jerusalem and specialised in the interpretation of German Lieder with Graham Johnson in London. A prolific recital pianist, she performs regularly with prominent Australian and international singers and ensembles, including a yearly season at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is the founder of Songmakers Australia. Since 2009 she has been Director of the Vocal Ensemble at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
She has released two CDs with soprano Merlyn Quaife, Lest we Forget and Fortune my Foe.
Sarahlouise Owens graduated from ANU BMus (Hons) and postgraduate studies from Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. She has worked in many of Europe’s illustrious theatres, including for several years with the Bayreuth Wagner Festival, under the batons of celebrated conductors and worked with noted stage directors, singers and vocal coaches.
Since her return to Australia in 2007, Sarahlouise has established herself as a concert artist and recitalist of art song, having performed with the Canberra Choral Society, University of Canberra Chorale, National Capital Orchestra and the Canberra International Music Festival. She has given regular recitals for Art Song Canberra and Wesley Music Centre. She co-established ‘Opera in a Nutshell’ which performed La Traviata, and an early music ensemble, ‘Les musettes’.
Ronan Apcar is a young Australian pianist and composer based between Sydney and Canberra. His love for music across many styles – jazz to the avant-garde, classical to contemporary music – translates into his open-minded, exciting and unique work as a musician. Beginning as a self-taught pianist, Ronan has since performed as a soloist in concert halls and unique and intimate venues, as a member of ensembles like Canberra Sinfonia, and as an orchestral soloist with the Penrith Symphony Orchestra, the ANU Orchestra and the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra next year. Ronan has also appeared in festivals, including the 13th International Music Festival in Moscow and the 2021 Canberra International Music Festival where he was the Young Artist. In June, he released his debut album, Dulcie Holland Crescent, which was made ABC Classic’s feature album of the week in August. Though always striving to be a well-rounded musician, Ronan excels in modern and contemporary music and has a passion for breaking the stereotype of classical piano.