27 October 2009

2009 Evening concert series begins

The first performance in this year’s Evening Concert Series at the University of Dundee takes place on Thursday October 29th, featuring one established performer and one of the rising stars of the classical music scene.

Baritone Astmar Olafsson and Dundee-born pianist Joseph Fleetwood will be playing work from Beethoven, Vaughan Williams and Tony Speight at the concert in the University Chaplaincy Centre on Thursday evening.

The University’s music co-ordinator Graeme Stevenson is looking forward to another year of welcoming some of the best young and upcoming classical musicians to the city.

'We have a very good programme of events ahead and the concerts offer a great chance for people in Dundee to see some of the performers on their way to being the next big names on the classical scene,' said Graeme.

'We know there is a keen audience out there for classical music and in the Chaplaincy Centre here at the University we have a lovely, intimate setting which allows you to see the performers close up as well as offering wonderful acoustics.'

Icelandic baritone Ástmar Ólafsson studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has performed widely around the UK and Iceland.

Joseph Fleetwood was born in 1980 in Dundee. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and at the Royal College of Music in London.

In recent years Joseph has built up a considerable reputation as a solo pianist and is also much in demand as an accompanist. In the current season Joseph has given a series of concerts performing the six Bach Partitas for keyboard at Bluthner’s London Piano Centre.

The concert takes place on 7.30 pm on Thursday in the Chaplaincy Centre, Cross Row. Tickets are £8, £4 (concession) and £1 for school children.

The University also continues to offer free Friday lunchtime concerts at the Chaplaincy Centre, offering a wide variety of music performed by local performers. The repertoire can cover anything over the last 500 years: Big band numbers, Bach, musicals, Beethoven, Mozart. Running at lunchtime, there is a loyal audience who turn up at 1.20pm each Friday to be entertained, free of charge for half an hour.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902