PSO 2012 Soloists

Jenny Liu  soprano
Robert McDougall  baritone

Jenny Liu and Robert McDougall are among a talented generation of young singers emerging from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Jenny has been a finalist in eisteddfods and several prominent singing competitions, and
has performed, broadcast and toured in recitals, opera and oratorio with the Conservatorium. With a broad background in music theatre and jazz
as well as classical singing, Robert has more recently appeared in opera and concert performances with the Conservatorium, as well as performing in music theatre and for numerous corporate events.

Cowley Fu  piano
Alexander Knight  baritone

Alexander Knight is currently completing an Advanced Diploma of Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. As well as appearing with Penrith Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah (2010) and Haydn’s Nelson Mass

(2011), he has recently appeared with the Sydney Symphony (Peer Gynt) and with Sydney Chamber Opera as the Gamekeeper in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Fifteen-year-old Cowley Fu was named 2011 Sydney Conservatorium High School Outstanding Student of the Year, earning him this solo appearance with Penrith Symphony Orchestra. His early successes include progressing to Stage II of the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, and being selected to participate in masterclasses at the Shanghai World Expo and with Lang Lang at the Sydney Opera House.

David Pereira  cello

David Pereira is outstanding lead versatile cellist who is in wide demand as a soloist and chamber musician. He was for eleven years the cellist of the Australia Ensemble, for
seven years Principal Cello with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and for three years Principal Cello with the Sydney Symphony. His solo performances and extensive discography
feature numerous contemporary works, including many by Australian composers, as well as the classic cello repertoire. In 2010 he received a Canberra Critics’ Circle Award and the CityNews Ar tist of the Year Award for his Canberrabased David Pereira Cello Series.

Michael Kieran Harvey  piano

Precocious compositional talent is to the fore in a program featuring three works conceived by composers under 26. In Soirées Musicales, based on piano pieces by Rossini, Britten already gives a glimpse of the masterly orchestration that would become his hallmark. Rhapsody in Blue, originally written for solo piano and jazz band almost 20 years before the version most often performed today, was controversial in its fusion of classical and jazz elements but has become an enduring favourite in the symphonic repertoire. Andrew Howes, the inaugural recipient of a commission under the Penrith Symphony Orchestra Support for Young Composers Scheme, is attracting attention as one of Australia’s most gifted young composers. Alongside these three striking, youthful works, Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony stands as one of the mighty pillars of the nineteenthcenturyorchestral literature.