Latest news with #saxophone
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Alice Morgan's Matariki homecoming
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Saxophonist Alice Morgan Photo: Supplied Alice Morgan is on the line from her Sydney workplace, ahead of her return to Aotearoa. This Sunday she'll be back in her home town to play Tony Ryan's saxophone concerto - part of an all-New Zealand Matariki Concert by the Resonance Ensemble in Christchurch's music venue The Piano . Morgan's latest gig is part of a multi-faceted career which ranges from playing saxophone with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, to chamber music, to music programming. Tony Ryan wrote his soprano sax concerto for Mark Hobson who was Morgan's teacher when she was growing up in Christchurch. Saxophonist Alice Morgan Photo: Supplied She's excited to be coming back to play the work with the composer conducting. Morgan spoke to RNZ Concert about her decision to leave Christchurch to study in Sydney, and then her decision to stay once she'd completed her studies. These days she also plays the clarinet, and when not making music you'll find her helping to organise music festivals in the Blue Mountains or programming concerts for the young-at-heart orchestra Ensemble Apex . Its latest gig involved seating the audience onstage with the orchestra for a performance of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. Morgan also performs chamber music, and loves playing new works, like the piece in the video below. Swivel & Swerve was written especially for her by Holly Harrison.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
From the police to The Piano: Alice Morgan's Matariki homecoming
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Saxophonist Alice Morgan Photo: Supplied Alice Morgan is on the line from her Sydney workplace - the New South Wales Police. She's not a member of the force, at least not the part of the force that sometimes asks you to help them with their inquiries. But she is a full-time member of the NSW Police Band, and she's speaking to RNZ from its practice rooms, ahead of returning to her home town to play Tony Ryan's saxophone concerto this Sunday. It's part of an all-New Zealand Matariki Concert by the Resonance Ensemble in Christchurch's music venue The Piano . Morgan's job as musician on the police beat is just one part of her multi-faceted career which ranges from playing saxophone with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, to chamber music, to music programming. Tony Ryan wrote his soprano sax concerto for Mark Hobson who was Morgan's teacher when she was growing up in Christchurch. Saxophonist Alice Morgan Photo: Supplied She's excited to be coming back to play the work with the composer conducting. Morgan spoke to RNZ Concert about her decision to leave Christchurch to study in Sydney, and then her decision to stay once she'd completed her studies. These days she also plays the clarinet, and when not making music you'll find her helping to organise music festivals in the Blue Mountains or programming concerts for the young-at-heart orchestra Ensemble Apex . Its latest gig involved seating the audience onstage with the orchestra for a performance of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. Next time they plan to do it with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring . Morgan also performs chamber music, and loves playing new works, like the piece in the video below. Swivel & Swerve was written especially for her by Holly Harrison.
Times
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Lionel Richie review — wave after wave of pure disco karaoke
Soon to turn 76, Lionel Richie's response to the ageing process has been to make it a punchline. 'I'm in pain, so much pain,' he pretend-complained midway through an exhilarating, hit-strewn performance at Dublin's 3Arena. There was also a long speech about how, when he inevitably forgot the words to one of the umpteen smashes, he expected the audience to bail him out. The crowd lapped it up like parched kittens presented with a trough of milk. Richie delivered his banter with the relaxed air of a veteran coasting on muscle memory. That wasn't to say he was on autopilot. Beginning — obviously but satisfyingly — with his drippy 1983 power ballad Hello he was soon drenched in sweat while the huge grin that gleamed beneath his trademark moustache rarely dimmed. The evening crested wave after wave of pure disco karaoke. Accompanied by an enthusiastic saxophone player, Running with the Night was soul-pop cheese on a swizzle stick, while the Motown-era Commodores favourites Easy and Three Times a Lady showcased Richie's still luxuriant croon and dextrous piano tinkling. If the concert had a weakness, it was that there weren't quite enough stone-cold hits to fill the near two-hour set. The pace slackened notably during the funk-by-numbers Brick House, a disposable artefact from his Commodores days. It arrived with huge jets of flame from the back of the stage and an ill-judged James Brown impersonation out front by Richie, who lacked the molten charisma to sell the part. But he pulled the show out of its tailspin as a gloriously giddy Dancing on the Ceiling was followed by a heartfelt Say You, Say Me — featuring that effervescent increase in tempo right at the end. Then came We Are the World, the US music industry's response to Band Aid, which Richie had bashed out with Michael Jackson in a hurry in 1985. He introduced it with an impassioned appeal against prejudice and a reminder that we were 'all human beings' — a spiel delivered with the fervour of a preacher working the pulpit. A gig light on surprises concluded with the inevitable All Night Long (All Night), fuelled by a chorus of almost supernatural slinkiness. Richie is surely too self-aware to believe age is just a number, but throughout this crowd-pleasing masterclass, he made it feel an irrelevance. ★★★★☆ Touring to Jun 15
