This recital is presented as part of the Hanson Dyer Hall Concert Series. All concerts in this series can also be streamed live via our website.

Contrasts: Music for Flute and Bassoon

Featuring the contrasting heights and depths of woodwind sounds, this concert for flute and bassoon gives a tour of solo and duo works of contrasting styles and musical colours - including the Australian premiere of Žilvinas Smalys' Duettino for Flute and Bassoon and the world premiere of a new work by Robert McIntyre - composer and Associate Artist of the Australian Music Centre.

Join flutist, Simone Maurer, and bassoonist, Lyndon Watts, in this performance for a rare, but vibrant, instrument combination.

Artists

Simone Maurer, flute
Lyndon Watts, bassoon

Program

Eugene BOZZA

Contrastes I for flute and bassoon (1977)

Žilvinas SMALYS

Duettino for Flute and Bassoon (2022) Australian premiere

i. Allegretto scherzando

ii. Cantabile

iii. Con anima

Elizabeth YOUNAN
Fantasia No. VIII for solo bassoon (2022)

Lora AL-AHMED
Two Skazkas for Solo Flute (2017)

Robert MCINTYRE
Remnants of a Resonance: duo for flute and bassoon (2024) world premiere

Heitor VILLA-LOBOS

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6, W 392 for flute and bassoon (1938)

i. Ária (chôro)

ii. Fantasia (Allegro)

About the artists

Simone Maurer

Simone Maurer is a classical-contemporary flutist, music psychology researcher, and tertiary educator based in Melbourne (Naarm). Her early career encompassed orchestral performance with state and national youth orchestras and an internship with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. After completing a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours and receiving two university medals from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Simone relocated to the UK. During her MPhil degree at the University of Cambridge, Simone continued orchestral and chamber performance, including projects with the Britten Sinfonia—an associate ensemble at the Barbican in London. It was at this time that Simone began collaborating with composers to assist the creation of new works for and with flute. On returning to Australia, she began a PhD in Music Performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Simone’s doctoral thesis investigated the body language of flute players and explored contemporary works for solo flute. In Melbourne, Simone continues to perform as a soloist and chamber musician with Forest Collective, Six Degrees Ensemble, and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music New Music Studio at the Melbourne Recital Centre and Melba Hall. Simone recently toured the USA for a month, presenting and performing at universities and flute festivals in Mississippi, Atlanta, New York City, and Virginia.

Lyndon Watts

Lyndon Watts became principal bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 22. After 18 years in this position Lyndon chose to move back to his home country Australia to accept the position of lecturer in music (bassoon) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM). Since 2019 he has been Convenor of the annual MCM Concerto-Aria Competition, and since 2020 Convenor of the MCM Early Music Studio. He is a founding member of the Australian World Orchestra and has performed as a soloist or guest principal with numerous European and Australian ensembles on both modern and period instruments. In 2002 he became the first Australian woodwind player to win a prize in the prestigious ARD International Music Competition, in combination with a special prize for the best interpretation of a newly commissioned solo work by Heinz Holliger, who has described Lyndon’s playing as possessing “an ideal balance between utmost precision and wild spontaneity.” From 2005 to 2015 he was professor of bassoon in Switzerland at the Berne University of the Arts, where he also taught chamber music and contemporary music. Lyndon has premiered many compositions for bassoon by composers from his hometowns Munich and Melbourne. Most recently these included Elliott Gyger’s Elude for solo bassoon, two new works for bassoon and percussion by Miriama Young and Linda Verrier, Elizabeth Younan’s wind quintet Kismet, and the first performance of the bassoon and piano version of a new bassoon concerto by Matt Laing. Lyndon loves living close to the Australian bush and surf, and enjoys keeping fit with his partner and their son.

Banner L-R: Simone Maurer, Image by Daniel Rabin. Lyndon Watts.

ACCESSIBILITY

All venues at the Southbank campus are wheelchair accessible. To read more about access services available at our venues, please visit: https://finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/access-our-events.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Due to current University guidelines, there are a number of conditions currently in place for our in-person events.

• The University continues to strongly encourage individuals to remain up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations, but no longer requires evidence of vaccination in order to access campus.
• You are welcome to wear a face mask anywhere on campus for personal and community safety.
• Please stay at home if you feel unwell or have been ordered to isolate.
  Walk-ups and latecomers will be admitted at the discretion of front of house staff.

To read more about the University's COVID-19 response, please visit: https://www.unimelb.edu.au/coronavirus.