TEN FINGERS RUN ROOTS: A PIANO CONCERT WITH LARA KIRSTEN

SATURDAY: 8TH JULY 2023

ARRIVAL FROM 3PM

SHOW STARTS 4PM

VENUE: & KIN - THE OLD MUSHROOM FARM

BYOB. FOOD WILL BE AVAILABLE ON SITE

TICKETS: R150PP ADULTS. R80 PENSIONERS + SCHOLARS

*******PRESS RELEASE ******

Lara returns to her beloved Midlands with this stirring program. An eclectic variety encompassing vast spaces and emotions. Joyous, resplendent, rollicking, rippling revelries will be radiating from Lara’s fingers to run roots through the keys and anchor all in attendance with riveting revelations that will make minds sing deeper and hearts fly higher.

Some highlights will include a piano version of the famous ”Storm” movement from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the endearing 12 variations on the melody of Twinkle, twinkle little star by Mozart, mesmerising music by the contemporary composers Einaudi and Tiersen and ragtimes by Scott Joplin and Billy Joel – a program that promises to delight both young and old!

Included as well - improvisations and spoken word that will unify all the exuberance.

Lara Kirsten is a pianist, piano teacher 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 fifteen 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, clarinettist Morné van Heerden, cellists Wessel Beukes and Francois le Roux, flautists Thomas de Bruin and 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 Theatre on the Square, the Baxter concert hall in Cape Town, the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, the Guy Butler Theatre 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 fifteen 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 served as adjudicator for the Pietermaritzburg Eisteddfod of the South African Society of Music Teachers.

In November 2019 Lara settled in Sandbaai in the Overstrand region of the Western Cape - her new base from where she currently 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, which presents readings and publishes collectively each year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 poems by Lara were 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).