Programme
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J S Bach
2 Chorales (arrangement for 4 hands by Leonard Duck) - Gottes Zeit ist der allerbeste Zeit - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring W A Mozart Sonata in F major, K332 - solo piano C Debussy Petit Suite for 4 hands |
Interval
F Chopin - solo piano Nocturne in E minor, Op.72 No.1 Waltz in C# minor, Op.64 No.2 N du Preez Through it All - solo piano George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue by (arrangement for piano duet) |
Niel du Preez has inspired live and radio/television audiences in the UK, continental Europe, the Far East and his native South Africa with his expressive and poetic solo playing, performances with leading orchestras and collaborations with chamber musicians. His most recent collaboration comes in the form of a duo with Paris-based clarinettist Myriam Carrier, as well as with Swedish cellist Kristin Malmbørg. He is the Artistic Director and Founder of the newly established International ArtePiano Festival & Piano Competition with residencies in Italy and Germany.
Niel was awarded DAAD & SAMRO scholarships for overseas studies and has won numerous prizes at various national and international competitions, including the Oude Meester and FORTE music competitions in South Africa and the International Silvio Bengali Piano Competition in Italy. After his years as a music scholar at the Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth South Africa, he continued his piano studies at the Stellenbosch Conservatoire of Music in South Africa, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in Germany. Former teachers include Kaya Han, Christopher Oakden, Peter Nelson, Simone Kirsch and Barbara Van Wyk, and over time he has engaged with various acclaimed pianists and teachers such as Ari Vardi, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Peter Feuchtwanger, Andzrej Jasinsky, Peter Eicher, Martino Tirimo, Anton Nel, Nelly-Ben Or, Melvyn Tan and Graham Fitch. Upcoming performances are scheduled for England, South Africa, Germany and Italy. Recent solo appearances include performances in Tbilisi Georgia, Rieti in Italy, Latymer in the United Kingdom, a series of three concerts for the London-based CityMusic Live platform, a recital for the University of Stellenbosch Foundation in London, solo and duo recitals in Perth Australia, Beijing China, Frankfurt Germany and St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. John’s Smith Square in London. Other past performances include recitals for the London based Blüthner Piano Concert Series, the Schubert Society, Winchelsea Arts, a concert tour in South Africa, as well as performances of Saint Saëns’s Piano Concerto No.5 and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2 in central London. Niel regularly is invited to give piano master classes across the globe. Previous such engagements took him to China, Colombia, England and Germany. Masterclasses and workshops for 2023 are planned for Italy, South Africa and the United States. He also has a strong passion for composing with a specific interest in film music. Today, Niel is teaching piano at St. Paul’s Cathedral School and at King’s College School in Wimbledon. “The music reached a state of profound intimacy through his strongly expressive playing” – Badische Neueste Nachrichten www.nieldupreez.eu “The music reached a state of profound intimacy through his strongly expressive playing” – Badische Neueste Nachrichten |
Mark Nixon is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the University of Cape Town and UNISA. His teachers have included Laura Searle, Lamar Crowson, Håkon Austbø, Graham Johnson and Andrew Ball. From 2000 to 2002 he was the Anthony Saltmarsh Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music.
Mark has received many prestigious awards, including first prizes in the Adolph Hallis Piano Competition in 1994 and the Nederburg-UNISA National Piano Competition in 1998. He was awarded the SAMRO Scholarship for Pianists and the UNISA PJ Lemmer Scholarship for Performers. He was selected on three occasions a ‘Young Concert Artist’ of the National Federation of Music Societies in the United Kingdom (now known as ‘Making Music’). He has performed as concerto soloist with all the South African orchestras, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and with several orchestras in England. As recitalist he has appeared extensively in South Africa, as well as at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Linbury Theatre Covent Garden in London and at numerous music societies across the UK. In 1999 he won the Guildhall School’s Schubert and Ireland Prizes and the accompanist’s prize in the English Singers and Speakers Union Song Competition in London. In 2006 he won the accompanist’s prize at the Great Elm Vocal Awards held at Wigmore Hall, London. Engagements have included concerts in Holland, France, Greece, China, Italy, the UK, the USA and many recital tours of South Africa with singers and instrumentalists. Also a dedicated and busy teacher, he lives in London where he is Head of Keyboard at King’s College School, Wimbledon and also teaches at the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2010 he released a CD of songs by Grieg, Wolf, Rachmaninov, Wilding and de Villiers in collaboration with the soprano Erica Eloff. In 2012 he launched a CD of works for solo piano by Liszt, Brahms and Debussy on Stringwise Records. He is a member of the Piano Week teaching faculty and has given masterclasses in China, Italy and in many venues in the UK on these courses. He recently travelled to the United States, where he taught and performed several concerts at the Universities of Akron and Youngstown in Ohio. In September 2019 he gave a weekend of masterclasses in Italy. He is artistic director of the Latimer Music Festival, an annual chamber music festival in the Chilterns, just outside London. |