Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre and Friends of the Hall joined forces on 11 April to welcome the community back to our refurbished Community Centre with a double barrelled event.

Concert 2 in Phillips Hall, 3pm Sunday 07 September

Online ticket sales are now closed. Tickets will be available at the door.

This concert brings beautiful folk & world music involving these two local groups:

The Peppercorns

The Peppercorns are Craig Sinclair and Lara Norman. The group was born and bred in the open expanses of Western Australia, delighting audiences across the state for years with their homespun songs, beautifully delivered harmonies and acoustic textures. Now based in Blackheath, they are active in the New South Wales folk music scene, and host regular house concerts. Their show combines old-timey, bluegrass, Cajun and Celtic influences on their original and traditional material, featuring violin, guitar and banjo. https://www.craigsinclair.com.au/peppercorns

Wombats Crossing

Wombats Crossing consists of locals Christine Wheeler, Rebecca Daniel and Leigh Birkett. Wombats Crossing is a Celtic trio with chamber music overtones, featuring three voices in harmony, Rebecca on violin, Leigh on guitar and mandoli, and Christine on whistle and Irish flute. Christine spent many years as a touring musician with Musica Viva in Schools. She founded and continues to lead the Heathens, Blackheath’s community choir.  Rebecca’s distinguished career as a a soloist and orchestral violinist gave her a love for beautiful melodies, which she finds in abundance in the rich veins of Celtic song and instrumentals. Rebecca leads the Blue Mountains based classical Kanimbla Quartet. Leigh, also the musical accomplice of respected Irish-Australian singer songwriter Martin Doherty, is a skilled and intuitive guitarist who draws on influences from many musical genres to add texture and depth to their 3-part arrangements.

Concert 1 in Phillips Hall, 6pm Friday 11 April

Altitude ensemble

This concert brings sublime classical music with solos, duets and trios involving piano, cello and violin:

James Tandy – piano

A native of Australia, pianist James Tandy grew up in the United States and began piano lessons at the age of five. He has been an active soloist and chamber musician giving numerous performances in the United States, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, and Australia including his solo debut in Carnegie Hall in March of 2008. James has been the winner of various piano competitions and scholarship awards including the 2007 New York Artist International Awards and the Presidents Scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. James Tandy received his master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and his Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance from Kent State University. After receiving his master’s degree, James spent three years pursuing post graduate studies in performance and the Russian language at the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in Russia. James Tandy and his wife reside in Blackheath, NSW.

Deborah CoOgAn – Cello

After completing a Bachelor of Music at the NSW Conservatorium, Deborah studied in France with Paul and Maude Tortelier. On returning to Australia, she played regularly with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. As a freelance musician, Deborah has played with various chamber groups including the string Quartet Crisantemi for Musica Viva, Halcyon, the Glenaen Ensemble and more recently, Three Piece Suite. She has toured in orchestras to Japan and around Australia and has performed in various musicals and recording sessions. She was an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board for 13 years and has had her own teaching studio for over 35 years. Deborah completed a Masters in Arts from UTS in 1997.

Rebecca Daniel – violin

Rebecca studied at the Royal Academy of Music with The Amadeus String Quartet,
Emanuel Hurwitz and Trevor Pinnock, before the Australian Chamber Orchestra invited her to Australia. Rebecca has worked with the SSO, Pavarotti, Barbra Streisand, John Denver, INXS, John Farnham, James Galway and the Chieftains and Men at Work. She was Concertmaster for Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast and The Sound of Music, and collaborated with pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins, recording five albums of original compositions, and in 2019 toured the USA culminating in a performance at Carnegie Hall, New York. Rebecca plays an Andrea Castagneri violin, dated 1741.

A big thank you to the Katoomba branch of Bendigo Bank who are the sponsors of the Welcome back to Blackheath Community Centre Concert Series