The Torbay Suite, Rob Zielinski & Manuela Centanni

On Saturday the 30th of January, Rob Zielinski from Western Australia and Italian flautist Manuela Centanni will perform Rob Zielinski’s Torbay Suite in the beautiful acoustic of All Saints' Anglican Church in Dunedin.

The Suite is an original 50 min piece divided into two halves, Torbay Day and Torbay Night. The Day timepiece maps the pristine Torbay inlet from dawn to dusk near where Rob lived, in Western Australia’s remote south coast. The Night timepiece was inspired by many nights around his campfire, and also by something an aboriginal friend once told him: that night time is the only time you can see out through the holes in the blanket, the stars.

Rob is also a violin maker and will be performing on a violin he made for himself. While making this violin he was going down to the inlet every day and when he finished the violin he had the piece, so it is as if the two are very much connected.

Rob Zielinski grew up in Perth learning from Sean Doherty and later Mick Doherty. Mick came from a family of travelling fiddle players, storytellers and tinsmiths from Donegal. At the age of 17, Rob went to Ireland where he lived for 14 years on the West Coast, soaking up the music of the older generation of traditional players. He has taught in the Galway School of Traditional Irish Music for three years and in the year 2000 won Ireland’s Michael Coleman Traditional Fiddle Player of the Year Award.

Manuela Centanni has a bachelor degree in classical flute from The Conservatoire of Bologna. She started to play Irish Traditional music on the wooden flute in 2017 and has become a fixture of Dunedin’s music scene, regularly attending the Irish session on Tuesdays and being the only flute player in the Dunedin Scottish Fiddle Orchestra.