Northern Lights

A delightful collection of classics performed by the Central Otago Regional Orchestra (CORO). CORO has been in the Central Otago region for the last thirty years and during this time has considerably grown in strength, as evidenced in the review of their last concert in June this year in the Wanaka Sun (see link below). The orchestra is currently under the baton of Ashley Hopkins. We are very fortunate to have Patrick Cornfield playing Grieg's well known Piano Concerto in A minor on the Steinway piano in the Wanaka Centre. Add some more Grieg in the form of “In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Morning" from Peer Gynt, then flavour the programme with Dvorak's Slavonic Dances 1 to 4 and Webers Oberon Overture and.........Voila! a musical feast fit for any mountain king basking in the Northern Lights.

Our featured soloist (see images) has many talents hidden in his hands, both right and left!

Patrick ‘Paddy’ Cornfield is an English pianist from Auckland. He has performed with the Devonport Chamber Orchestra annually since 2004, collaborating with Ashley Hopkins until 2015. Patrick did not repeat a work in over a decade, and has a taste for pairing multiple concertos in one concert. In 2014, he put Ashley through the challenge of conducting the Ravel Left Hand and Gershwin Concerto in F, whilst sandwiching an encore in between (to warm up his right hand!) He has pushed the description of ‘chamber orchestra’ to the limit, and has a relaxed approach to music making.

Reference: https://thewanakasun.co.nz/news/9391-review-coro-superb.html