PUT together a renowned conductor, award-winning pianist and a top orchestra – and the current Kirklees concert season will finish on a high note.
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Huddersfield Town Hall on Friday June 12 for its second major concert in a matter of weeks.
On this occasion, the orchestra will be conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes and will feature as soloist, the multi-award-winning pianist, Andrew Brownell.
Owain Arwel Hughes is a name familiar to many music lovers and especially so here in Huddersfield as he is a former conductor of Huddersfield Choral Society.
He has worked with the world’s leading orchestras and is seen as the driving force behind the success of one of the UK’s major music festivals, the Cardiff Welsh Proms.
Owain Arwel Hughes returns to conduct in Huddersfield for the first time in a number of years and, says Dougie Scarfe, concerts director for Opera North should help guarantee an extraordinary finish to the season.
So too will the presence of soloist, Andrew Brownell.
Andrew is an American pianist who was in Huddersfield two months ago, playing at St Paul’s Hall as part of the Huddersfield Music Society season.
His playing then, of a programme which included music by Bach, Mozart, Hummel, Schumann and César Franck, was praised by both his audience and by Examiner critic Chris Robins.
Opera North, keen to include a Leeds prizewinner in the concert season, were delighted when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic were able to fulfil their request.
“We asked for them to include a Leeds winner and they are bringing this concert programme here specially for us,” said Dougie.
Andrew Brownell has won many prizes at leading international competitions. He took first prize at the J N Hummel International Piano Competition four years ago and in 2006 won second prize and the Benjamin Britten prize at the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition.
Born in Portland, Oregon, Andrew began studying the piano at the age of four.
He has studied in Oregon and at the universities of Houston and Southern California (Los Angeles) and is now working on his doctorate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
He will be in Huddersfield to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 21 in C major, one of the composer’s most popular piano concertos.
The concert will also feature Dvorak’s Carnival Overture and Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 in D minor in which the Russian composer reflected on the dangerous times in which he lived and expressed hope for a better world.
The evening will begin with a pre-concert talk at 6.40pm followed by the concert at 7.30pm.
Tickets, priced from £7 to £21.50 (plus concessions) from Kirklees booking offices or on the ticket hotline on 01484 223200.
