Meet Penelope Mills

Penelope Mills has performed the great soprano roles with leading Australasian symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, opera companies and choirs. The purity of her voice and her sensitive interpretations of emotionally complex musical works have won her many accolades. We are looking forward to her concert for Sydney Mozart Society.

 

                                         Penelope Mills

                                                          Photo by Keith Saunders

 

The joys of life and the power of love are the themes in Penelope’s concert for the Sydney Mozart Society on Friday 21 March 2014 at the Concourse Concert Hall Chatswood,  featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Spohr.

Joining Penelope will be  close friends and virtuoso musicians Sharolyn Kimmorley, leading Australian pianist, Francesco Celata, Associate Principal Clarinet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Catherine Hewgill, Principal Cello Sydney Symphony Orchestra. “I am looking forward to performing with these ‘superstars’ – we are lucky to have such fine musicians in Australia” said Penelope.

Penelope shared her thoughts about the works she will be performing in her Chatswood concert, starting with three Mozart songs: “Every time you pick up a piece of Mozart’s music you uncover new insights. He has such a sense of humour but also real depth of soul, and these songs reflect those qualities.

“It is wonderful how Mozart can portray emotions through music so deftly and intimately and I think in his songs you get a sense of that more even than in his operas. The songs are intimate – it’s just the piano and voice and the piano is often completely equal to the voice, at some times expressing the same and at other times different aspects. These songs are real little jewels. They are very special to me.

“The next four songs are by Beethoven. They are wonderful yet not often performed and my favourite is the second, T’intendo, si, mio cor,  it is a beautiful, beautiful poem and the piano portrays a heartbeat. The poet says: “my heart is just aching with love that I can’t express”, which is something most people have felt at some time in their lives.  It is one of the most beautiful songs ever written so I am thrilled to be able to sing it with Sharolyn at the piano.”

Penelope will also perform Schubert’s  hauntingly beautiful Trio The Shepherd on the Rock:  “This is one of my all time favourite pieces of music. It is such a special song – very dramatic, with an extraordinary melody and the piano part is equally impressive. To sing it with Frank Celata – it’s just a gift. We have sung the work many times together. Sydney  audiences are very familiar with Frank’s playing, which is just extraordinary. I feel when I’m singing with Frank playing that he is ‘singing’ too; his clarinet sounds like a voice to me.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on Sunday, 23 February 2014 at 11pm