What a Wonderful World

Saturday 11th March 2023 at 2pm

SunPAC Theatre, 470 McCullough St., Sunnybank
Adults $38, Concessions, student and group bookings available - children under 5 free
Bookings:

• Online: www.sunpac.net.au
• Phone: 3323 9650
• At the door: if not previously sold out

Saturday 18th March 2023 at 2pm

Church of Christ Kenmore Community Centre
41, Brookfield Rd. Kenmore
Adults $30, Concessions $26, Students $12 and under 5 free
Book on line: trybooking.com/cfjsy, or Call Maree 3378 2384, and tickets also available at the door if not previously sold out. 

This year will be an exciting year of celebration for the Brisbane City Pops Orchestra as we reach our 50^th anniversary! We have decided that our first concert in 2023 will be a musical celebration of the stunningly beautiful and simply amazing world that we live in – entitled “What a Wonderful World!”

We have chosen a diverse program of beautiful pieces, ranging from light classics to wonderful latin rhythms, favourite musicals, a little opera and some great timeless medleys, each piece chosen because the music reminds us What a Wonderful World we live in!

We are thrilled to present a Satchmo Medley of fabulous pieces, including the very beautiful What a Wonderful World, as well as the exciting Light Cavalry Overture by Von Suppe. The orchestra will also perform the popular Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance No 8, as well as the playful Dance of the Tumblers by Rimsky-Korsakov and the very simple but beautiful Autumn Leaves by Kosma.

Everyone will be tapping their toes as we remember some great Broadway hits, in Broadway Tonight, as well as some delightful Melodies from Jerome Kern. The audience will be delighted to revisit the fabulous music from Oliver!

We are extremely excited to welcome back one of Brisbane’s most popular baritones, Daniel Smerdon, who will entertain us with a variety of well-known songs, as well as an amazing cello solo! What a talent!

What a fantastic way to start our concert season in 2023! Please come along and join the Brisbane City Pops Orchestra for a very memorable afternoon that celebrates “What a Wonderful World” this is with so much beautiful music!

Andrew Robinson (Conductor)

Former resident conductor of the St Lucia Orchestra (now BCPO), Andrew Robinson has conducted many of the leading orchestras in Australia and the US. Winner of the ABC- Westfield Young Conductor of the Year award in 1997, he was Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1998-2001, performing with the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He has also conducted performances at the New York City Ballet and with numerous other American orchestras, as well as working with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. In Australia, he has appeared with the Queensland Symphony, the Tasmanian Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony, the Canberra Symphony, the State Orchestra of Victoria, and the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, among numerous others. From 2007-2012 he led the Queensland Philanthropic Orchestra, a charitable music project that raised nearly $40,000 for Queensland medical research.  

An experienced music educator, Andrew served from 2000-2002 on the conducting faculty at the University of Southern California, one of the premier music schools in the US. He was Music Director of the inaugural Auckland Philharmonia Summer School in 2000, and from 2003-2008 held the same position with the Young Conservatorium Symphony at Griffith University. 

Andrew first studied flute at the Canberra School of Music before turning to conducting. In 1998 he was selected as one of three young conductors from around the world to perform in Carnegie Hall at the inaugural Carnegie Hall Conductor’s Workshop, and subsequently was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts. An accomplished flautist, Andrew won the 7 th Australian Flute Competition in 1995, and continues to perform occasionally around Brisbane. He qualified as an optometrist in 2006 and is now a partner in private practice in Bardon.

Daniel Smerdon

Daniel Smerdon studied music at the Queensland Conservatorium, Brisbane, graduating with a Bachelors Degree (Cello) and a Graduate Diploma and Master of Music Studies (Opera).

Since 2012, he has worked extensively with companies such as Queensland Conservatorium, Berlin Opera Academy, Balance Arts Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera Gold Coast, Brisbane City Opera, Co-Opera, Eurasia Opera Festival, Varna Opera Theatre, Figaro Opera Society, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar.

On the opera stage Daniel has sung the roles of title roles of Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Varna Opera Theatre Bulgaria, and Co-Opera, Adelaide Australia); The Mikado (Co-Opera, Adelaide Australia) Gianni Schicchi (Opera Gold Coast), Eugene Onegin (Eurasia Opera Festival, New York USA) and Don Giovanni (Lyric Opera Studio, Weimar, Germany).

Other operatic roles include: Doctor Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) Papageno (Die Zauberflote), Marcello (La Boheme), Le Sacristan and Le Gaoler (Understudy – Tosca), Dark Invader (Opera Galactica), and Le Dancaire (Carmen), Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Harasta (The Cunning Little Vixen) and The First Messenger (Kiss Me Kate) and understudying the roles of TruLove (The Rakes Progress), Le Sacristan and Le Gaoler (Tosca).

Concert repertoire includes the title role of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” (Brisbane Symphony Orchestra), Carl Orff’s  “Carmina Burana” (UQ Symphony Orchestra), Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” (Queensland Camerata), Hector Berlioz’s “L’enfance du Christ” (St Andrews Sinfonia), Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio (Canticum Chamber Choir)  and Requiems by Gabriel Faure, Maurice Durufle, and Michael Haydn.