Review - Arthur Athan in concert 

BY: Carol Dall'Osto and the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition Committee

5 May 2017

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The John Hopkins Performance Fellowship 2015 recipient, and 2015 ACVC Open Instrumental winner, Melbourne pianist Arthur Athan, performed the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Perth on April 2nd 2017.
On a visit to West Australia ACVC President Cris Dall’Osto and Carol Dall’Osto had the pleasure of attending this concert and, while there, caught up with Raymond Yong who was conducting the Orchestra. Raymond is well known to Townsville audiences as he has conducted the Barrier Reef Orchestra and some of the ACVC winners’ concerts in the past.
The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra has a well-established audience base and for this concert there was almost a full house. The orchestra is similar in size to the Barrier Reef Orchestra and produces four concerts a year.
Cris was able to speak briefly about the ACVC at the beginning of the concert.  He also reminded guests that Coral Paget, a cellist from Perth, was the first-time Open Instrumental winner following the Competition's expansion from a local North Queensland to a truly global competition. He also took the opportunity to hand out announcement flyers for this year's competition.
The concert was romantic programming personified with the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto featured in the second half. Arthur was absolutely splendid with his rendition of this very popular work, and the audience response was tremendous. Arthur gave one of Scriabin’s Etudes as an encore. Really sublime!
The challenge for Arthur was performing on the Stuart concert grand piano that belonged to the auditorium. Whilst this is a wonderful instrument, it was one that Arthur had not met before, making his performance even more remarkable. It was obvious that he and Raymond, himself a pianist, worked very well together.

About the John Hopkins Performance Fellowship 
The John Hopkins Performance Fellowship was conceived by the late John Hopkins OBE AM (1927-2013) to foster musical opportunities through community engagement. The award, which is in its eighth year, is supported by a generous anonymous donor. John Hopkins, one of Australia’s foremost conductors and music educators, was an advocate for developing musicians and community ensembles. He also had a long running hands-on involvement with ACVC.
The Fellowship provides an opportunity for its recipient to perform as a soloist with one of Australia’s many community orchestras. The specific orchestra is determined annually and the Fellowship covers all travel and accommodation costs for the soloist. The performance is scheduled within two years of the Fellowship's being awarded.