Melba Recordings

 

Melbourne audiences have the opportunity to hear internationally acclaimed tenor Steve Davislim, now celebrated in all the major European Opera Houses, sing Schubert’s poignant and powerful song-cycle Winterreise, a haunting depiction of unrequited love. This is his only Melbourne performance.
 
He will be accompanied by pianist Anthony Romaniuk and together they will perform Schubert’s emotional and evocative work at Melba Hall, University of Melbourne on Tuesday 30 October 2007.

Also appearing are the very exciting TinAlley Quartet, recent prize winners in the Banff International Chamber Music Competition. They will play Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A minor (the “Rosamunde” Quartet), D. 804, Op. 29.

TinAlley Quartet has established itself as one of Australia’s brightest young chamber music ensembles. Awarded the grand prize at the Australian Chamber Music Competition in 2005, the quartet has studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada; International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, United Kingdom; Norfolk Chamber Music Festival as part of the Yale Summer School of Music; St Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford University, and in 2006 was based at the Australian National Academy of Music as Visiting Young Artists. TASQ is mentored by the Tokyo, St Lawrence and Keller String Quartets and works closely with many of Australia’s finest musicians.

Steve Davislim is a highly sought after tenor who has established a stellar international career working with the most prestigious orchestras in Europe, the US and Australia and with some of the most esteemed conductors.  
 
Davislim is making a series of five CDs with Melba Recordings including the recording of Winterreise plus the world premiere recording of Hélène, an opera written by Camille Saint-Saëns especially for Dame Nellie Melba.

Davislim’s voice is full of colour and warmth and informed in every note by an all too rare combination of intelligence and imagination. "he has achieved phenomenal success in Europe, and we are thrilled to have him perform in his home town at this very special recital  which will be a rare treat for lovers of great singing", says Maria Vandamme, Executive Director of The Melba Foundation. 

Melbourne born Davislim, one-time pupil of Dame Joan Hammond and Victorian College of the Arts graduate started his international career with the Zurich Opera and includes roles with the German State-Opera Berlin, The Hamburg State Opera, the Royal Opera-London, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, the Volksoper in Vienna, the Helsinki Opera, the Paris Châtelet, the London Barbican, the Chicago Lyric Opera, The Liceu in Barcelona and the Schleswig Holstein Festival.
 
He has performed with the most prestigious orchestras in Europe, the US and Australia including the Cleveland, San Francisco and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Chamber and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestras of Zurich, Vienna, Turin, Madrid, Dresden, Brussels, Lyon and the London BBC Symphony Orchestra and worked with some of the most highly praised conductors internationally.

 

 

John Slavin (The Age)
"it was in the ultimate heroic tone of defiance and ironic acquiescence that Davislim came into his own. This in an actor singer of thrilling intensity and musical beauty. The sensitive accompaniment of Anthony Romaniuk didn't steal his thunder ... TinAlley String Quartet ... gave a sensitive and spirited reading of Schubert's Rosamunde Quartet."

 

"TASQ opened with the popular String Quartet No.13 in A minor (Rosamunde). The quartet ... demonstrates strong focus, unmannered ensemble, solid technique and a remarkable balance between the lower strings ... Davislim has a remarkable instrument, with firm baritone qualities extending well into his middle register, and excellent resonance. A strong emotional connection with the material was apparent ... [his] operatic talent was abundantly clear."