What: Antipodes Quartet

When: 7.30pm Friday, September 12

Where: Church of St George & St John

Tickets: www.trybooking.com/nz/ZBB or The Good Life, or door sales with $5 surcharge per ticket.

Music Whakatane, in partnership with Chamber Music New Zealand, is proud to present the Antipodes Quartet, an ensemble of young musicians on the cusp of professional careers.

Bringing together four distinct artistic voices in a programme that spans three centuries and multiple continents, the Antipodes Quartet explores the vast possibilities of the string quartet, where individuality meets cohesion, and music becomes a conversation without words.

New Colombo Plan scholar and winner of the Junior Category of the Queensland International Chamber Music Competition, violinist Eden Annesley, has roots in regional NSW, Australia.

She obtained her Bachelor of Music (Distinction) at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, graduating as the highest-achieving third year student. She has performed across Australia as part of the Australian Youth Orchestra, Queensland Youth Symphony and Ensemble Q.

Sponsored by the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan, in 2024 Eden undertook a year of exchange in Yamanashi, Japan, researching Japanese cultural influences in the violin music of Tōru Takemitsu.

Māori/ Japanese violinist, Mana Waiariki (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) completed her Bachelor of Music at Te Kōki New Zealand School of Music with Helene Pohl at the end of 2023. Mana was generously supported by the Deane Endowment Trust throughout her undergraduate studies, and they will continue to support her as she pursues her postgraduate studies specialising in Chamber Music with Peter Clark in 2025.

She has played in performing art festivals and orchestras across Aotearoa such as the Fringe Festival, Classical on Cuba, Cuba Dupa, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, Marlborough Civic Orchestra, Nelson Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the New Zealand String Quartet.

Mana plays a violin on loan to her through the Hill Family Foundation’s Instrument Bank by Karla Mitchell.

Born in Sydney and based in Aotearoa, violist Tal Amoore is a recipient of the NZSM Director’s Award and is completing his Bachelor of Music at Te Kōkī, New Zealand

School of Music, studying with Peter Clark and Gillian Ansell. In 2019, he founded the Eden Quartet, which held performances across New Zealand, engaging with audiences through innovative programming and collaborations such as with Steinway Artist Jason Bae.

A versatile orchestral musician, Tal has performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, NZ Opera, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Orchestra Wellington, Wellington Opera, the Hawke’s Bay Symphony Orchestra, and the Nelson Symphony Orchestra. He has also participated in the Gisborne International Music Competition, National Concerto Competition, and the National String Competition, where he was a semi-finalist.

Tal was recently awarded one of two Royal Over-Seas League Pettman Scholarships. He has also been an Emerging Artist at the At the World’s Edge Festival in 2022 and 2024.

Nelson-born cellist Lavinnia Rae moved to London following her undergraduate studies in New Zealand, where she completed a Master of Performance with Distinction at the Royal College of Music with Richard Lester. As a Leverhulme Arts Scholar she completed a MPerf with Distinction in Orchestral Artistry in association with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under the tutelage of LSO principal cellist Rebecca Gilliver.

In 2023 Lavinnia was on trial for tutti cello with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and freelances with the LSO. Recently, she was on contract with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as acting principal cello of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Her chamber music highlights include performing at the Hellensmusic Festival alongside Tom Poster, Maya Iwabuchi, and Lawrence Power, and the three-week intensive String Quartet Seminar mentored by the Takács Quartet at the Music Academy of the West.

Warner Haldane, President of Music Whakatane, said: “It is a pleasure to welcome this group of talented young musicians to perform in Whakatāne, especially as one of them, violinist Mana Waiariki, has a strong connection to our area.”

This performance will tour seven centres and will feature Salina Fisher’s Heal, Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, op. 50, no. 5 ‘Dream’, Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz, and Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major.