Patrick Burns

Friday night saw the Australian premiere of Jonathon Dove's The Enchanted Pig for the Yarra Valley Opera Festival.  The premiere was very well received by the large audience and the whole company is looking forward to 2 more shows next weekend.  We're also thrilled with the great review by Paul Selar published in Limelight Magazine. Read more here: https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/the-enchanted-pig-gertrude-opera-yarra-valley-opera-festival/

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It is only a month until the Australian Premiere of Jonathon Dove's The Enchanted Pig, presented by Gertrude Opera for the Yarra Valley Opera Festival. After last years wonderful production of The Handmaid Tale (Poul Ruders), this will be a very different experience for the audience. Featuring a great cast and directed by the esteemed Gale Edwards, this will be a production not to miss.  Full dates and details available at https://www.gertrudeopera.com.au/

A fabulous concert over the weekend featuring the Chorus of The Warrnambool Organ Festival 2019, along with soloists Louise Keast, Sally-Anne Russel, Louis Hurley, and Michael Lampard performing Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Dvorak's Mass in D.  They were accompanied by Craig Daugherty on organ and The Invictus Quartet.  Looking forward to another festival in 2020!

Very happy to have made my official debut conducting at the Sydney Opera Hosue last night.  I conducted Alice Topp's magnificent work Aurum with The Australian Ballet featuring The Opera Australia Orchestra and the music of Ludovico Einaudi.  Many thanks to all involved.

"Patrick Burns did a remarkable job in exposing its passages of introspective energy, turbulence and the terrifying world within. It was also a fabulous sight and sound with the orchestra arranged around three sides of the raised square stage." (Limelight Magazine, 2018)

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Click Here to read Paul Selar's full review for the 2018 Yarra Valley Opera Festival

I'm very excited to announce that I have been asked to conduct Gertrude Opera's production of Paol Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale for the 2018 Gertrude Opera Festival. This will be the Australian Premiere of this work. It was completed in 1998 and premiered in Denmark in 2000 before receiving performances in London and The United State. Performances will be on October 13 and 20. For more details follow the link below.

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https://yarravalleyoperafestival.com.au

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The inaugural Warrnambool Organ Festival Chorus gave their premier performance of Rossini's Petite Messe Sollenelle last night, with soloists Louise Keast, Naomi Summers, Kerrie Bolt, Asher Reichmann, and Christopher Clifford.  A fabulous evening for all involved and who came along.  A special thanks to Louise Keast as Artistic Director of the festival, for putting together this fabulous event. Mozart Requiem next year! 

A fabulous turn out for the intense weekend rehearsals for the upcoming performance of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle featuring the combined community chorus from Warrnambool and surrounding areas. Make sure you come along to support their fabulous efforts on Septebmer 1st as part of the Warrnambool Organ Festival.

A big audience in Ipswich for Ipsiwch City Symphony's "Musicals: The Golden Era" Concert. The orchestra welcomed special guest arts Sylvie Paladino, Tim McCallum and David Hibbard with a wonderful selection of music from the Golden Era of musicals.

Along with the Tintner Conducting Fellowship, Patrick has been awarded the Robert and Elizabeth Albert Conducting Fellowship Position with The Australian Ballet for 2018.  This fellowship will give him hands-on experience training to conduct Ballet and getting to work as a member of the Music Staff team with The Australian Ballet throughout 2018.

A fabulous performance featuring the combined Melbourne Intervarsity Choir 2018 in Melbourne Town Hall was held on Saturday evening, January 20th. The choir was accompanied by the Melbourne Opera Orchestra and special guest soloists Liane Keegan (contralto), Anna-Louise Cole (soprano), Andrew Goodwin (Tenor), and Raphael Wong (Baritone). It was the first performance in Australia of Elgar's early oratorio, The Light of Life. The program also featured Parry's I was Glad, Vaughan Williams' Toward the Unknown Region, Brahms' Alto Rhapsody and a new work by Michael Winikoff, Lamentations, Light and Hope. 

Congratulations to all the festival organisers on a great 10-day festival.

Rehearsals begin this Friday for the 2018 Melbourne Intervarsity Choral Festival.  Here is a link to a great article from Limelight Magazine, explaining the festival and the wonderful repertoire being performed.

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MIV 2018 Limelight Article

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The concert is on the evening of the 20th of January at Melbourne Town Hall. Tickets are on sale now and can be bought online by clicking on this link

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Don't miss this wonderful event!

The upcoming performances of Jonathon Dove's opera, Mansfield Park,  for XL Arts Inc at Beleura House have officially sold out.  Rehearsals have been going very well and all the cast and creatives are very excited to be presenting this wonderfully charming, witty and musically engaging opera. XL Arts is already working hard to bring some more performances of this wonderful work across the next 12 months.

Patrick will be joining the British Youth Opera summer program for 2017 working as an assistant conductor on the production of Judith Weir's opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom. The program runs across two months and will culminate in 4 performances (September 2, 6, 8, 9) at London's Peacock Theatre in conjunction with the Southbank SInfonia.  As part of the program Patrick will conduct the final matinee performance on September 9.

Patrick has won the 2017 Hephzibah Tintner Conducting Fellowship. The award is given to an emerging talent who the judges consider will contribute to the cultural and artistic life of Australia. As well as a monetary prize of $50,000, the Fellowship provides training and mentorship opportunities for two years at The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where the recipient is included in the conducting process.

To see more, click here for the Limelight Magazine Article.

On Saturday, June 10 at 8 pm Patrick will be conducting the Australian Premiere of Jonathan Dove's one act church opera Tobias and the Angel.  This will be a joint collaboration between XL Arts Inc. and will feature a chorus of 200 singers coming from the combined choirs of the School of Hard Knocks. The production will be one of the feature performances for the Melbourne International Singers Festival held over the June Long Weekend (June 9 - 12). Tickets for Tobias and the Angel are available at www.trybooking.com/QCBT

A big thank you to all the artists involved in last nights wonderful concert. Special mention of guest soloist Alejandro Duque who performed the Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez, soprano Angela Jacobs, mezzo-soprano Shikara Ringdahl, Ballerina Laura McLean and the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir. Also thanks to our wonderful audience for the very moving standing ovation. We are truly grateful for your ongoing support.

Also a big thanks to Wayne MacDonnell for the wonderful review in the QT paper:

https://www.qt.com.au/news/ipswichs-extraordinary-orchestra-simply-intoxicati/3179944/

For the last two months, I have been working as an assistant conductor at the National Theatre of Serbia, Belgrade. Through my time here I have helped to musically prepare a new production of Verdi's La Forza del Destino and also a production of Bizet's Carmen and Puccini's La Boheme. My time here finished with me conducting a performance of Verdi's Otello.  It has been an amazing two months here working with the wonderful artists, orchestra, chorus and members of this theatre

It was great to return to Brisbane for the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University French Horn Scool Alumni Concert which featured a number of massed items of some of the school alumni from the last 20 years and also performances from the current students at the school.  It was also great to pay tribute to Peter Luff and Ysolt Clark whose teaching and dedication to this program continues to produce a wealth of great musicians. This was probably more evident with the wealth of alumni who weren't able to make the trip back for the concert due to playing commitments from diverse places throughout the USA, Europe, the U.K. and the capital cities of Australia. Looking forward to the next alumni concert!

I have been invited as one of the live on air judges for the 3MBS live show "The Talent", which is broadcast every Tuesday evening at 7pm in Melbourne. It's been very exciting to be able to hear all of the outstanding young performers and their eclectic choice of repertoire. The programs are available on podcast and well worth tuning in for.  The program is on air until November 22nd.

On October 30, Patrick will be conducting The Melbourne Metropolitan Sinfonietta in a program that will feature four new works from Australia composers for chamber orchestra.  

This concert features new works by Ben Bates, Leah Blankendaal, Micahel Mathieson-Sandar & Ian Whitney and will feature  soloists, Reuben Lewis (Trumpet) & Alethea Coombe (Violin). 

As a special part of the concert, Patrick has made a new arrangement of Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder & is very lucky to have Dramatic Contralto, Liane Keegan, to perform this new arrangement.

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Program

B. Bates - Conglomerate
L. Blankendaal - Hoon
M. Mathieson-Sandar - Jongleur Histories
R. Wagner - Wesendonck Lieder
I. Whitney - The Shepherdess & Other Saints

XL Arts is proud to present it's third installment of its Rare Sounds Concert series, which features rarely performed works by Australian composers for voice and instruments.

Fritz Hart was an English composer, conductor and teacher who worked in Australia from 1908 to 1935. Along his many notable artistic achievements he was one of the first lecturers to allow Female students into his composition classes at the Albert Street Conservatorium. As a result he taught a number of Australia's most notable female composers including Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Esther Rofe, Margaret Sutherland, Linda Phillips and Phyllis Batchelor.
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This concert, which has been curated and will be compered by Dr. Joel Crotty from Monash University, will feautre a selection of Art-Song by the first school of female Australian composers mentioned above. We also have special guests Justin Jacobs (Piano) and Terence Teow (Flute) performing the Sonata for Flute and Piano by Phyllis Batchelor.

Welcome to Patrick's new website.