Sun in my fingers
A piano concert by South African pianist
Lara Kirsten
Fynbos Golf & Country Estate, Eersterivierstrand
21 December 2022
In December Lara is touring the Western and Eastern Cape with a delightful and charming selection of piano favourites for young and old.
To put a spring in your step this summer, the program is centred around the waltz, but butterflies, stars, dreams, monsters, dogs and trolls will also be sneaking in.
Seeing that it is school holidays, bring the children along! (Both classical and popular piano pieces will feature).
The Program
Chopin – Valse du petit chien (The Little Dog Waltz)
Tchaikofsky – Sweet reverie & Neapolitan song (from the Children’s Album opus 39)
Sibelius – Waltz (from Ten Pieces opus 24)
Grieg – March of the Trolls
Sinding – Frühlingsrauschen (aka The Rustle of Spring)
Durand – Waltz in E-flat
Tiersen – L’autre Valse & La Valse des monstres (from the soundtrack of the film Amélie)
Mozart – 12 Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman (aka Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Thomé – Papillons Roses (Pink butterflies)
Sytsma – Redemption
Billy Joel – Root beer rag
Nyman – The Heart asks pleasure first (from the soundtrack of the film The Piano)
Artist’s bio
Lara Kirsten is a pianist and performance poet. After completing her high school career at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg in 1997, Lara received her BMus and BMus Honours degrees, both cum laude at the University of Pretoria. Joseph Stanford and Wessel van Wyk were her mentors in solo piano and chamber music respectively. In 1999 she was awarded a SAMRO bursary for undergraduate students. In 2002 she received her chamber music licentiate from UNISA. She was appointed junior lecturer at the University of Pretoria where she taught piano from 2003 to 2005.
For the past twelve years Lara has been active as both a solo and chamber musician performing with musicians such as coloratura soprano Linda van Coppenhagen, soprano Gwyneth Lloyd, tenor Sandile Mabaso, clarinetist Morné van Heerden, cellists Wessel Beukes and Francois le Roux, flutist Kaolin Thomson, pianist Laura Pauna and conductor Richard Cock and his Chanticleer Singers. She often performs her poetry within her music recitals. She has performed in venues such as the Sandton Theater on the Square, the Baxter concert hall in Cape Town, the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, the Guy Butler Theater in Grahamstown, the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg and Northwards House in Johannesburg.
Lara has performed at the Wakkerstroom Music Festival, the McGregor Poetry Festival, the AfrikaBurn Festival in the Tankwa Karoo, the opening ceremony for the International Aquarium Congress hosted at the CTICC, the Woordfees in Stellenbosch, the Hilton Arts Festival, the Michaelhouse Music Festival in KwaZulu-Natal and the Voorkamer Fest in Darling.
For the last twelve years Lara has created and performed various installation/performance art pieces incorporating poetry, found objects, costume, body paint and calligraphy. Pieces include Ingrid Jonker Dans Weer, Frames, The Poem as Mirror, Tankwa Reflex and mond: asemrowende spelonk.
From 2014 to 2020 Lara has been invited to serve as adjudicator for the Pietermaritzburg Eisteddfod of the South African Society of Music Teachers.
As of November 2019 Lara settled in the Overstrand region of the Western Cape - her new base from where she works, rehearses and teaches.
Lara's poetry has been published in the South African Literary Journal New Contrast. In 2008 she became part of the Eastern Cape poet-group, Ecca, who presents readings and publishes collectively each year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 poems by Lara have been selected to feature in the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology. She has compiled and edited three poetry books Poetry @Steampunk Coffee (2017) and Poetry next to the railway (2018 & 2019).
Lara’s poetry, videos, photos and creative projects can be viewed on her blog at http://laraafrika.blogspot.com/