Music for flute, violin/viola, guitar and cello

The next concert in the Globe Sunday Matinee series features a colourful line-up of instruments playing an equally colourful line-up of pieces. Guitarist Cristian Huenuqueo and cellist Sasha Routh have invited flute player Diana Neild and her daughter Sylvia Neild on violin and viola to join them in their return to the Globe after their last 2019 concert.

Sasha Routh was born in London and educated in Bristol. She studied music at Dartington College of Arts in Devon where her teacher was Michael Evans, cellist in the Dartington String Quartet. Sasha lived in Durham from 1990 to 2001 and moved to New Zealand in 2002 to take up the post of Itinerant Teacher of Strings at high schools in Palmerston North and Feilding. Sasha has enjoyed a wide range of playing opportunities appearing regularly as a 'cello soloist, chamber music player and with the Manawatu Sinfonia. She especially enjoys the role of 'cello continuo in Baroque works.

Cristian Huenuqueo was born in Chile and moved to NZ in 2010. He has participated in courses, concerts, seminaries and competitions in various countries around the world. While he was in Chile he was an active member of the “Ensemble of Guitar of Chile” and also when he moved to NZ Cristian was part of the Guitar ensemble of New Zealand during 2010. During the last few years Cristian has been performing and teaching Classical guitar and Music theory in the Manawatu area.

Diana Neild studied flute many years ago with Amelia Skinner and Nancy Luther Jara, and has loved sharing music in the community ever since. She plays regularly in Trio Bella, functions band Moxy, saxophone quartet Palmy Sweethearts, and with her own family. She is a published children’s writer and enjoys all things creative – including making up words.

Originally from Palmerston North, Sylvia Neild graduated from Waikato University in 2018 with a Bachelor in Music, majoring in classical performance viola studying with Lara Hall and Amalia Hall. Sylvia has been a member of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, and attended Adam Summer School for Chamber Music. In 2018 she attended the International Viola Congress in Rotterdam and performed in a masterclass with Jerzy Kosmala. Sylvia recently moved to Wellington to pursue a law degree.

The concert opens with movements from the London Trios which were
written in 1794 for two flutes and cello during his second journey to England. London, with its bustling musical scene, always provided Haydn with welcome surroundings at a time when the flute was extraordinarily popular among English amateurs. The Earl of Abingdon, an accomplished flautist, was a member of Haydn’s circle of acquaintances in London and a composer in his own right. Neither man could have foreseen the huge success that these cheerful and straightforward pieces would enjoy among music-lovers all over the world.

Less familiar to audiences will be the name of Gary Schocker, though he is very well known in the American concert music scene as a flutist, composer and pianist. He performed with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 15, and has since been soloist with other major American orchestras as well as touring and teaching throughout the world. He is the most-published living composer of flute music, with over 200 works in print. The four musicians will play his Garden Music (1998).

The concert will conclude in a lyrical vein with three movements from a charming quartet for guitar, flute, viola and cello which was believed to have been written by Franz Schubert. Now we know that Schubert only provided it with one movement not played in this programme, and a cello part. The original was a trio by Bohemian composer Wenzel Thomas Matiegka. Schubert’s adaptation of this dates from 1814.

Admission to the concert is by donation – recommended to be from $5.