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Welcome to Planet MusicTony Ryan is a conductor, composer, educator and reviewer
based in Christchurch, New Zealand |
Interview recorded on 30 December 2022
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Tony's Latest NewsLook out for Resonance Ensemble's next concert on 22 September: Bohemian Rhapsody - Music by Dvořák, Suk, Dohnányi (see details below and at https://www.resonance.net.nz/ ) Book Now
Tony’s latest Troubleshooter features his thoughts on the NZ government’s ideas that music education could be deferred in order to improve reading and maths. Resonance Ensemble's hugely successful concert of music by New Zealand composers on 30 June - Celebrating Matariki - was exceptionally well-received by a large and enthusiastic audience. You can watch this concert on YouTube. Previously, Resonance Ensemble's equally successful concert on 24 March - Spirit of the Land - explored three composers' spiritual connections to their respective homelands. The concert opened with Weber's Oberon Overture followed by two symphonic poems - Vltava and Šárka from Smetana's Ma Vlast which celebrated the 200th anniversary of the composers birth, while Sibelius' Symphony No. 3 proved to be a notable highlight for both audience and orchestra. Tony's illustrated talk called Planet Opera - A Parallel Universe was presented again on 26 March 2024 to a very enthusiastic audience from Christchurch's U3A Central at the Christchurch Art Gallery Auditorium. The CSM Sinfonia opened the Christchurch School of Music's first Soirée of 2024 to great acclaim with stunning performances of music by Bernstein and Dvořák in the fabulous acoustic of the Cashmere High School auditorium. The 2023 Schools Festival Symphony Orchestra which Tony conducted, received a very enthusiastic reception for its performances at the Christchurch Town Hall in early November with music by Stravinsky and Richard Strauss and Tony's own newest composition HAKA III - Matariki. You can watch the performances on Tony's YouTube channel. On 17 September 2023 Resonance Ensemble presented Confluence, a programme of 20th century Russian and American works, including Shostakovich's extraordinary Symphony No. 9 and a selection of Aaron Copland's Old American Songs with soprano soloist Helen Charlton. |
Don't miss Resonance Ensemble's next concert on 22 September 2024
Resonance Ensemble presents:
Bohemian Rhapsody
Music by Czech and Hungarian composers
Resonance Ensemble's next concert will comprise works by Dvořák, Suk, and Dohnányi at 3.00pm on Sunday 22 September at The Piano in Christchurch
Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 is notably more dramatic than the more widely-known New World Symphony, and its abundance of inspired melody, colourful Slavic orchestration and expressive intensity make it one of the finest symphonies of the nineteenth century. Although the New World is probably Dvořák’s best-known work alongside his ever-popular Slavonic Dances, Serenade for Strings and Songs My Mother Taught Me, to name a few, many consider Symphony No. 7 to be one of the composer’s finest creations.
If Dvořák’s Silent Woods for solo cello and orchestra is less well-known, it remains one of his most beautiful and lyrical shorter pieces. Silent Woods has been performed and recorded by many famous soloists, and in this concert Resonance Ensemble’s wonderful principal cellist Janet Cubey joins their ranks.
Josef Suk was not only Dvořák’s favourite pupil, but he also became the older composer’s son-in-law when he married Dvořák’s daughter Otilie. Suk’s Fantastic Scherzo was written in 1903, the year before Dvořák died and, like his teacher’s music, it demonstrates a similar melodic flair as well as a wide range of colourful and spectacular orchestral effects.
Although Ernst von Dohnányi is known as a Hungarian composer, the shifting boundaries of Eastern European countries resulted in his birthplace (now Bratislava) becoming part of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Dohnányi’s 1909 ballet The Veil of Pierette contains some of his most appealing music, and Resonance Ensemble gives the New Zealand premiere of the ballet’s delightful Waltz, to complete yet another of the orchestra’s uniquely imaginative and innovative programmes.
Dvořák - Symphony No. 7; Silent Woods; Suk - Fantastic Scherzo; Dohnányi - Waltz from The Veil of Pierette
BOOK NOW
Bohemian Rhapsody
Music by Czech and Hungarian composers
Resonance Ensemble's next concert will comprise works by Dvořák, Suk, and Dohnányi at 3.00pm on Sunday 22 September at The Piano in Christchurch
Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 is notably more dramatic than the more widely-known New World Symphony, and its abundance of inspired melody, colourful Slavic orchestration and expressive intensity make it one of the finest symphonies of the nineteenth century. Although the New World is probably Dvořák’s best-known work alongside his ever-popular Slavonic Dances, Serenade for Strings and Songs My Mother Taught Me, to name a few, many consider Symphony No. 7 to be one of the composer’s finest creations.
If Dvořák’s Silent Woods for solo cello and orchestra is less well-known, it remains one of his most beautiful and lyrical shorter pieces. Silent Woods has been performed and recorded by many famous soloists, and in this concert Resonance Ensemble’s wonderful principal cellist Janet Cubey joins their ranks.
Josef Suk was not only Dvořák’s favourite pupil, but he also became the older composer’s son-in-law when he married Dvořák’s daughter Otilie. Suk’s Fantastic Scherzo was written in 1903, the year before Dvořák died and, like his teacher’s music, it demonstrates a similar melodic flair as well as a wide range of colourful and spectacular orchestral effects.
Although Ernst von Dohnányi is known as a Hungarian composer, the shifting boundaries of Eastern European countries resulted in his birthplace (now Bratislava) becoming part of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Dohnányi’s 1909 ballet The Veil of Pierette contains some of his most appealing music, and Resonance Ensemble gives the New Zealand premiere of the ballet’s delightful Waltz, to complete yet another of the orchestra’s uniquely imaginative and innovative programmes.
Dvořák - Symphony No. 7; Silent Woods; Suk - Fantastic Scherzo; Dohnányi - Waltz from The Veil of Pierette
BOOK NOW
- 30 June 2024: Resonance Ensemble presented Celebrating Matariki. Music by a cluster of New Zealand composers
- 16 March 2024: The CSM Sinfonia orchestra performed music by Bernstein and Dvořāk
- 24 March 2024: Resonance Ensemble presented Spirit of the Land. Music by Sibelius, Smetana and Weber
- 26 March 2024: Illustrated talk at the Christchurch Art Gallery Auditorium entitled Planet Opera - A Parallel Universe
- Tony's latest reviews can be found on Theatreview, The Press (Stuff) and on the Christopher's Classics website
Below: Resonance Ensemble rehearses their Matariki concert of New Zealand Composers
Watch this concert on YouTube
Watch this concert on YouTube
Below: Resonance Ensemble's Spirit of the Land Dress Rehearsal
Below: Resonance Ensemble's Shall We Dance? Concert and Dress Rehearsal
Below - Conducting CSM Sinfonia's Flashmob at Northlands Shopping Centre on 4 November 2023
Below: Sinfonia warms up before their concert at The Charles Luney Auditiorium on 19 August
Below: Resonance Ensemble warms up before their Danzón concert at The Piano on 25 June to a full house!
Below: Resonance Ensemble rehearses with saxophone soloist Mark Walton for their Danzón concert at The Piano
Below: Resonance Ensemble presented A Tuba Comes to Town on 4 December at The Piano in Christchurch.
The highlight of this programme was the premiere of Tony's Tuba Concerto
with soloist Thomas Allely, Principal Tuba of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
The highlight of this programme was the premiere of Tony's Tuba Concerto
with soloist Thomas Allely, Principal Tuba of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Below: A few pictures from CSM’s final event for 2022
Tony conducts the CSM Intermediate Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia in music from the fifteenth century to the twenty first
Tony conducts the CSM Intermediate Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia in music from the fifteenth century to the twenty first
Below: Tony conducts the Christchurch Schools' Music Festival Symphony Orchestra
for its hugely successful performances at the Christchurch Town Hall on 1-4 November 2022
for its hugely successful performances at the Christchurch Town Hall on 1-4 November 2022
Below: Tony's CSM Sinfonia presented a Flashmob at two Christchurch Shopping Centres (Merivale and Northlands) on 3 September 2022
