On Friday, November 18, the Blue Mountains Theatre will host an outstanding ensemble of international musicians playing 18th century music like you’ve never heard before and featuring former Blue Mountains resident and accomplished violinist, Shane Lestideau in a stunning event aptly titled Frost & Fire – A Scots meeting of Baroque & Traditional Music.
Ignoring the stereotypes of what baroque music should sound like, or what folk music actually is, the result is a steaming melting pot of passionate fiddling, beautifully refined piping, and a basso continuo section with serious groove. You’ll hear Scottish sonatas and tearful laments, Purcell chased by sets of jigs, and a baroque dance suite by Muffat dissolving into a pulsing Cape Breton Strathspey.
Leading the concert are the renowned Canadian musicians Chris Norman and David Greenberg who are as comfortable in the trad world as they are in the baroque. Norman has been described by the New Yorker Magazine as “a flute player of spectacular and imaginative virtuosity”, while violinist David Greenberg has been critiqued as “one of the most impassioned folk-fiddlers you’ll ever hear”.
Shane Lestideau became a French citizen after a decade of working as a violinist in Brittany, France, and is thrilled to finally bring her fiddle back ‘home’.
“I remember dreaming that one day I’d return to the Blue Mountains as a professional violinist. Well, it looks like that day has arrived,” she said. “I’m thrilled to present the fabulous Chris Norman and David Greenberg to Mountains audiences and to see my group, Evergreen Ensemble, perform in the region for the first time.”
As a young child Lestideau lived in a remote corner of the Dharug National Park, a violin case tucked under her parent’s bed awaiting the day when she would be big enough to play it. Just after her ninth birthday her family moved to Lawson and she attended Korowal on an art scholarship and took up the violin. She went on to study violin performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and baroque violin at the Conservatorium of Bologne-Billancourt in Paris.
Having learnt classical melodies by ear through the Suzuki method, it followed naturally that she would be attracted to trad playing as well, which is aurally transmitted. Irish sessions in Katoomba led to a year spent in Ireland and Scotland as a teenager.
Over the following 20 years, Lestideau developed a career performing with classical and baroque orchestras and ensembles throughout France and Australia, and as a trad fiddler and composer with extensive performance and recording experience.
She formed the Evergreen Ensemble in 2014 as a way of developing her passion for the Scottish baroque repertoire - a repertoire which allows the player to unite folk music flair and baroque music technique in the same piece. Members and guests of the ensemble are amongst Australia’s most respected baroque music specialists, playing for the likes of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut, Opera Victoria and Ludovico’s Band.
Norman and Greenberg have busy international careers playing on Hollywood soundtracks, recording trad albums and touring with early music festivals. They are both well respected bearers of the Cape Breton musical traditional. This is the first time they will have visited and performed in NSW.
Chris Norman and David Greenberg with the Evergreen Ensemble, 8pm Friday, November 18 at Blue Mountains Theatre, 106 Macquarie Road, Springwood. Tickets are $35 and $30 Concession. To book, call the box office on 4723 5050 or visit: www.bluemountainstheatre.com.
