Greytown Music Group – Aroha Quartet with Diedre Irons

The Aroha Quartet will revisit Greytown for a concert on 30 June with guest pianist Diedre Irons, who is widely known as one of New Zealand’s best piano soloists and accompanists.

They will be performing an interesting and appealing programme of old and new music.

First up will be Mozart’s String Quartet “The Hunt”, a high-spirited joyful work, both rustic and sophisticated. Its popularity is reflected in its use in various films, as diverse as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Star Trek:Insurrection.”Unbound”, by Aucklander Brigid Bisley will complete the first half of the concert. The group describes the work as expressive, heartfelt, and enjoyable.

Diedre Irons joins the quartet for the Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor. The quintet began life as a string quintet, but a friend of Brahms thought that strings alone didn’t do justice to the work, so Brahms rewrote it for two pianos, and finally as a piano quintet, to give a real breadth and strength of sound.

Founding members of the Aroha Quartet, violinist  Haihong Liu and viola player Zhongxian Jin, plus cellist Robert Ibell who has played in the quartet for the last 10 years, are pleased to have Orchestra Wellington lead 2nd violin Konstanze Artmann become the 4th member of the group.

Apart from their regular orchestral work, and performances of chamber music, the Aroha Quartet members have committed themselves to musical education. They have estatblished the ASQ International Music Academy, holding annual week-long chamber music courses in Wellington, and now also in China, for student and adult amateur players of a minimum standard of Grade VI. They provide ensemble coaching, masterclasses and tutorials, bringing in tutors from NZ and abroad.

The concert will be at 4pm on Sunday 30 June, at 57 Wood St, Greytown. Admission $25, students $10. Bookings are advisable: ring Ed and Juliet Cooke on 304 9497, or email them on efjac@xtra.co.nz.