Date Nights with WAAPA
By Kids in Perth, 26 Feb 2020
We kick off our first date recommendations from Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
Book the babysitter, in-laws or whoever is closest and grab partner and head out to one the great shows that WAAPA puts on year in year out!
This year marks WAAPA’s 40th anniversary so we are celebrating with a veritable feast of performances, ranging from the classical to the contemporary and the virtuosic to the boldly experimental, promising to inspire and captivate audiences of all ages.
DANCE
1 – 3 April, 7.30pm + Sat 4 April, 2.00pm matinee
State Theatre Centre of WA, Studio Underground
Choreographers: Rainer Behr, Michael Whaites and Sue Peacock
Performed by: LINK Dance Company
WAAPA’s LINK Dance Company goes underground and presents a stunning double bill of contemporary dance works at the State Theatre Centre. Visiting guest artist Rainer Behr, long-standing member of Pina Bausch’s renowned dance company Tanztheater Wuppertal, choreographs a site- responsive new work on the LINK dancers. The program also features the second collaboration between LINK’s artistic director Michael Whaites, a Pina Bausch company member from 1995 to 2000, and WAAPA’s Head of Dance Sue Peacock. Well promises an imaginative, dynamic and arresting evening for lovers of contemporary dance.
MUSIC
Defying Gravity Under The Stars
Fri 27 March, 7.00 – 9.00 pm
Fremantle Arts Centre
Music Director: Tim White
Performed by Defying Gravity Percussion Ensemble with Joshua Webster (Kaboom!)
Defying Gravity’s annual FAC performance is a joyous and uplifting night of music. The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts’ accomplished percussion ensemble, led by Tim White, has won a legion of fans for their sublime talent, quirky programs and unmatched enthusiasm.In 2020, Defying Gravity are joined by percussion virtuoso Joshua Webster. FAC’s charming Inner Courtyard will be filled with the rapturous sounds of ancient and modern percussion. The generous program includes the energy and rhythm of music from Latin America as well as compositions by Pavan Kumar Hari, The Dark Knight, The Police’s Stewart Copeland and more.
Don’t miss this unforgettable night of music under the stars.
Thu 2 April, 7.30pm
St Mary’s Cathedral, Victoria Square, Perth
Music Director: Kristin Bowtell
Performed by WAAPA Chorale, Classical Voice students, String Camerata, WAAPA Brass Ensemble, Stewart Smith (organ) with special guest Nicole Youl (mezzo soprano)
The WAAPA Chorale and soloists, brass, strings and organ entwine in St Mary’s Cathedral as we continue our tradition of presenting the greatest choral music performed by the nest young performers. Featuring Allegri’s haunting Miserere, Schubert’s beloved Mass in G with legendary organist Stewart Smith, and culminating in Mascagni’s Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana with Australia’s opera sensation and WAAPA Classical Voice lecturer Nicole Youl, this concert will move and delight you.
Wed 8 & Thu 9 April, 7.30pm
Richard Gill Auditorium, ECU, Mount Lawley
Music Director: Tim White
Performed by Indian Ocean Ensembl
Chamber music at its best! WAAPA’s elite Indian Ocean Ensemble performs one of the world’s most-loved works, bringing to life Camille Saint-Saëns’ lively and charming Carnival of the Animals accompanied by Nick Enright’s witty home-grown poetry. String, wind, brass and percussion students join in to entertain you with their own favourite chamber music works – including a vibrant new creation from WAAPA’s Seven Seas world music ensemble.
The German Romantics: A Lieder Recital
Sun 10 May, 3.00pm
Government House Ballroom, St Georges Tce, Perth
Music Directors: Emma Matthews and Anna Sleptsova
Performed by Classical Voice and Piano students
Come on a journey through the romantic Lieder repertoire with music by Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Wolf and Brahms. Performed by Classical Voice and Piano students, this mid-afternoon concert in the beautiful Government House Ballroom also features Head of Classical Voice, Emma Matthews, and Head of Piano Studies, Anna Sleptsova.
Thu 7 & Sat 9 May, 7.30pm
Geoff Gibbs Theatre, ECU, Mount Lawley
Music Directors: Jeremy Greig and Chris Tarr
Performed by Benny Green (USA) and Jazz students
Benny Green has been hailed as the most exciting, hard-swinging, hard-bop pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Benny has recorded, performed and collaborated with celebrated artists including Ray Brown, Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson. In this special concert, Benny will share his outstanding artistry accompanied by WAAPA’s talented instrumentalists and vocalists in an evening of exceptional swing and groove. Benny will lead us through jazz’s roots and offshoots – including the blues, bebop, hard-bop and more modern styles.
Benny Green’s visit is generously supported by Brigid and Ronald W. Woss AM of the Woss Group of Companies.
Fri 8 May, 7.30pm
Richard Gill Auditorium, ECU, Mount Lawley
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Sat 9 May, 7.30pm
All Saints’ College Centre for Performing Arts
All Saints’ College, Ewing Ave, Bull Creek
Music Director: Jessica Gethin
Performed by WAAPA Symphony Orchestra with finalists of the 2020 Warana Prize
WAAPA’s three leading instrumentalists join the WAAPA Symphony Orchestra to battle it out in the final of the prestigious 2020 Warana Prize. Each student performs their favourite concerto movement in a night of drama and superb musicianship. Internationally-renowned conductor Jessica Gethin also leads the orchestra though Hector Berlioz’ ravishing Roman Carnival Overture and Jean Sibelius’ soaring and electrifying Fifth Symphony. A wonderful evening of virtuoso soloists and orchestral music at its best.
PERFORMANCE
2-7 April
Enright Studio, ECU, Mount Lawley
Directed by Melanie Beddie
Devised and performed by 3rd Year Performance Making students
This powerful theatrical pairing sets selected scenes from Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard against a performance of Wild Cherries by award-winning Australian playwright Daniel Keene. The former is Chekhov’s classic tale of social change in Russia at the start of the 20th century; the latter examines modern slavery through the hidden lives of a group of indentured labourers.
From Melbourne, visiting guest artist Melanie Beddie directs the final year BPA students in this innovative performance project about displacement and identity.
2-8 April
Roundhouse Theatre, ECU, Mount Lawley
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Sean O’Shea
Performed by 3rd Year Acting students
Actor and director Sean O’Shea returns to his alma mater to direct William Shakespeare’s definitive revenge tragedy. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is called home from university to end his life turned upside down. His uncle Claudius has murdered his father and taken the throne; his mother has married the usurper. Hamlet’s mission to expose the truth and avenge his father’s brutal death is a perilous journey of murder, madness and lost love that has devastating consequences for his family and the kingdom.
