Selby & Friends presents Youth & the Dance

Selby and Friends_Grace Clfford, Clancy Newman, and Kathryn SelbySetting the tone for the year in chamber music with delightful new discoveries alongside favourite beauties, Selby & Friends launch their 2017 season with a national tour of Youth & the Dance throughout March 2017.

Youth & the Dance highlights the diversity of the piano trio genre, with works ranging from a youthful Beethoven and Saint-Saëns, and culminating in the ever-popular gem, the folk-melody-inspired ‘Dumky’ Trio by Dvorák.

True to form within Selby & Friends’ rotating ensemble format, Artistic Director/pianist Kathryn Selby AM has invited two internationally acclaimed guest artists for this tour: rising star Australian violinist Grace Clifford and bravura American cellist Clancy Newman – pairing her youthful ensemble with delightful, exuberant works.

Violinist Grace Clifford makes her much anticipated return after debuting with Selby & Friends’ highly successful and unique ‘Development Artist’ program in 2014. Having competed as a 13-year-old in a highly selective group of participants in the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, she went on to win the top prize at the ABC Symphony Australia ‘Young Performer of the Year’ Awards in 2014. Now studying under the Young Artists Initiative Program at the famed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Grace has a burgeoning stellar international career.

Acclaimed cellist Clancy Newman has established himself as one of the USA’s top young chamber musicians. Newman is a winner of two of America’s most prestigious awards, the Walter W. Naumburg International Competition and the Avery Fisher Career grant. A former member of the Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center, he has also toured with the internationally acclaimed ensemble created by Rudolf Serkin, Musicians from Marlboro.

A member of Chicago Chamber Musicians, he also performs at festivals and universities throughout the USA. A composer in his own right with multiple commissions under his belt, and enormously popular on YouTube with solo versions of iconic Pop music ‘covers’, Newman has also composed new work for past tours with Selby & Friends.

“It will be terrific to have Grace and Clancy together again for this exciting upcoming tour,” says Selby. “Great friends for some years now, it is a thrill to see both these stunning young artists continue to wow audiences around the world with their superb artistry and gentle on-stage personality and charisma. This is the perfect program in which to show them off at their best!”

Kathryn Selby AM, pre-eminent Australian pianist and entrepreneur, began her piano studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then attended the famed Curtis Institute of Music and Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, and earned her Master’s degree from New York’s Juilliard School. She is the recipient of both the prestigious Churchill and Australia Council Fellowships, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours in 2013.

Miss Selby boasts a string of international and Australian performance awards, and has performed extensively, nationally and internationally as a guest artist with some of the world’s leading orchestras and festivals. She has recorded extensively, been a presenter for 2MBS-FM and ABC Classic FM, and teaches privately both advanced piano students and chamber music ensembles, and is the co-founder of the Sydney Academy of Chamber Music. 2017 sees the 11th concert season of Selby & Friends.

Youth & the Dance
Elder Hall – University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide
Performance: Sunday 5 March 2017 – 2:30 pm

James O. Fairfax Theatre – National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Performance: Monday 6 March 2017 – 7.30pm (sold out)

City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
Performance: Wednesday 8 March 2017 – 7.00pm

Deakin Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne
Performance: Thursday 9 March 2017 – 7.30pm

Mittagong Playhouse, 114 – 116 Main Street, Mittagong
Saturday 11 March 2017 – 5.00pm

Turramurra Uniting Church, 10 Turramurra Avenue, Turramurra
Sunday 12 March 2017 – 2.30pm

For more information and bookings, visit: www.selbyandfriends.com.au for details.

Image: Grace Clifford, Clancy Newman, and Kathryn Selby AM (supplied)