Van Diemen's Band Presents New Series Of Tuesday Lunchbox Concerts

Once again, the 'Baroque super group' Van Diemen's Band has partnered with the City of Hobart to present a new series of Tuesday Lunchbox Concerts in the city's beautiful nineteenth-century Town Hall Ballroom.

VDB Artistic Director Julia Fredersdorff was adamant the concerts this year had a price tag that bucked the inflationary spiral.

'Lunchbox audiences have been incredibly loyal to our musicians over the two worst years for the arts in living memory," she says. "They turned out in increasing droves and gave our artists much-needed performance oxygen, plus some cash for their efforts, thanks to the generosity of City of Hobart and the profit-share arrangement we have in place. The more people who come, the better the return for musos in difficult times. We wanted to thank our patrons by keeping the magic $10 price per concert for those who book online - at least for the rest of the year."

Again, audiences in Hobart get plenty of musical bang for their few bucks: a further four concerts until the first week of September, and then a second five-concert season from 15 November to 13 December.

The next concert in the season (16 August) brings the acclaimed London-based Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean back into town for her single Tasmanian appearance, weeks after her spectacular début at the famous Aldeburgh Festival in the UK. This young star will be partnered by one of the world's finest harpsichordists, French virtuoso Aline Zylberajch in a programme that includes music by the trailblazing Baroque woman composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, a child prodigy at the seventeenth-century court of Versailles who was a favourite of the Sun King, Louis XIV. In Zylberajch's only Australian appearance she'll be playing the new Titus Crijnen harpsichord hand-built in Spain especially for Van Diemen's Band.

Subsequent programs include a Lunchbox return appearance by the Ukrainian piano virtuoso Alexey Yemtsov (who brought the audience to its feet the first time around) leading an ensemble in the world-premiere public performance of a major chamber work by Tasmanian composer Albert Hannemann (23 August), and a wild journey through the music of the Balkans, Macedonia, and Bulgaria with the folk ensemble Xenos (30 August).

The season ends with a Town Hall first; a recital on three keyboards by the extraordinary Chad Kelly (5 September) after a conducting stint with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He'll perform on the Ballroom's Steinway piano and famous organ, plus the VDB harpsichord. Not at the same time, of course!

Tickets are $10 for an online purchase at https://vandiemensband.com.au/lunchbox-concerts/. If you're an impulse buyer and decide to front up in person on the day, entry is still only $15. Concerts begin at 1.05PM and run through to approximately 1.50PM.