The Rotorua Civic Theatre hosted Coppelia by the Royal New Zealand Ballet on Wednesday. Photo/Supplied
The next Opus concert will feature Canadian pianist Diedre Irons and music from Brahms.
Opus Orchestra is the regional professional orchestra and this concert will be performed in the Banquet Room of the Rotorua Civic Theatre on Sunday, June 22 at 3pm.
Ms Irons first put the Brahms Piano Concerto
No 2 on her "to do" list when she was a student at the illustrious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. But after years of playing lots of other concertos in her native Canada, in the United States, and here in New Zealand Diedre's first opportunity to perform Brahms 2 came in 2011 when the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra mounted a week-long Brahms Festival in Wellington.
Ms Irons has been a regular guest with Opus Orchestra. She has performed all of the Beethoven piano concerts with Opus and felt Brahms was the next logical step. "This is one of my all-time favourite pieces apart from the brilliant piano part, it is incredibly rich for the Orchestra," said music director Peter Walls.
The Piano Concerto is the culmination of a programme that begins with Haydn's Symphony No 85, nicknamed La Reine (The Queen) and is followed by Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Haydn.
