 Welcome to our 2012 Festival
Welcome to our eighth Woodend Winter Arts Festival! WWAF is a celebration of fine music, literary and visual arts in intimate local settings. You can attend it intensively over one day or spread it out over the Queen’s birthday long weekend to allow you time between world-class performances to enjoy the natural beauty of the Macedon Ranges, the local wineries and restaurants. The concerts are of just one hour’s duration to accommodate the lifestyle element of the Festival. Only fifty minutes from Carlton, WWAF presents concert hall artists without the concert hall prices and literary events that have been compared favourably to major annual events in our capital cities. International special guests in 2012 are Osmosis from The Netherlands, a classical wind quintet made up of players of universal standing, and, from Italy, the virtuoso baroque violinist Davide Monti, sometime leader of the European Baroque Orchestra. They will feature in their own concerts but also combine forces with vocal soloists, Ensemble Gombert and some of Australia’s finest period-instrument musicians in Haydn’s glorious Harmoniemesse. The same concert will feature rising star soprano Siobhán Stagg in Mozart’s brilliant Exsultate jubilate, while our winter festivities at last feature Schubert’s winter journey, Winterreise, performed by two more rising stars, Robert Macfarlane and Leigh Harrold. In contrast to the dark Faustian theme of last year, we visit Arcadia and its exploration of pastoral values. In a production commissioned especially for the period-instrument ensemble Accademia Arcadia, you can hear Max Gillies and Barry Jones lock horns in heaven while cantatas of the original Arcadian Academy are performed. Davide Monti will lead a fresh rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the Tinalley Quartet with Josephine Vains will perform Schubert’s beloved String Quintet, and renowned pianist Ian Munro will play masterpieces by Chopin, Schumann and Liszt. Jazz musicians Paul Grabowsky and Julien Wilson will open the Festival to a sumptuous meal of local produce in the glorious surrounds of Jackson Hall, Braemar College (originally Clyde School, home to the schoolgirls of Picnic at Hanging Rock fame). Some favourite illustrations from the Dromkeen Collection of Australian Children’s Literature will be on display in Woodend for the first time. Our popular literary events will feature, amongst others, Arnold Zable, Alice Pung, George Megalogenis and Lindsay Tanner. The sessions will consider aspects of Australian history and culture. The extensive program includes Yarns at the Pub with Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky and participatory workshops. For the first time the Festival offers a masterclass in comic art with the entertaining presenter/artist Bernard Caleo. We encourage you to book early, as the majority of our tickets are pre-sold. Weave a long weekend around WWAF and create a European-style boutique cultural experience. We hope you enjoy our program and make the most of the beautiful surrounds of the Macedon Ranges. Artistic Director and Founder |
