"...Whetting the musical appetite, the Evergreen Ensemble’s fascinating program explores the musical life of eighteenth-century Edinburgh through the lens of castrato Giusto Tenducci...The lustrous tone and engaging presence of countertenor Austin Haynes bring Tenducci’s repertoire to life...Soloist Donald Nicolson, playing with his customary flair, wrings every last melodic and harmonic flourish out of the music...Evergreen artistic director Shane Lestideau brings expansive, lyrical elegance to Corelli’s Sonata for Violin in A, Op. 5 No. 1, sensitively supported by Nicolson and Lucy Price on period cello." (Tony Way)
Read Shane Lestideau's interview with Limelight Magazine about the 'Scotland's Tenducci' project.
The glorious voice of Austin Haynes features in our
'Scotland's Tenducci' digital concert release through MSO.Live
Austin is a countertenor originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Having finished high school in Melbourne, he is now studying English Literature at the University of Oxford. Most recently, he appeared as a soloist in the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s performance of Handel’s Dixit Dominus, with Limelight Magazine describing his performance as a ‘gripping display of virtuosity’ while Sydney Morning Herald praised his ‘poised pure sound and smooth line’. In Oxford, Austin has sung with many groups including Schola Cantorum, New College Chamber Opera, Oxford Opera Society, and the Korrigan Consort. He also sang as a choral scholar with the choir of Queen’s College. Austin trains with Dermot Tutty in Melbourne, and is fortunate to have sung in masterclasses with Emma Kirkby, James Conlon, and Paul Dyer.
INTRODUCING AUSTIN HAYNES
THREE ALBUM RECORDINGS in 2022
'Wintergarden Fantasias' - Shane Lestideau (violin) & Donald Nicolson (keyboards)
'Your Loving Father' - Shane Lestideau (violins, violin d'amore, viola d'amore)
'The Bell Birds of Scotland' - Evergreen Ensemble, environmental recordings by Andrew Skeoch & mixed samples
Each album contains world-premiere recordings of music from three Scottish-Australian manuscript collections of the 19thC
Curious Caledonians
&
One Hundred Days Away
Two new albums
from
ABC Classics
A little note on Scottish-Australian music...
Our two 2019 album releases have explored historical Scottish-Australian music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The inspiration to dive into this repertoire came from the desire, as period instrumentalists and singers, to know more about our own historical music traditions here in Australia. Shane Lestideau, artistic director of the ensemble, is studying the historically informed performance of Scottish-Australian music manuscripts for her PhD and has brought her own research to the ensemble's programming. The most surprising and exciting parts of these creative expeditions through Australia's past have sometimes been, in fact, not musical at all. They have been the profound reconnection to family and place, people and land...to our own personal stories as Australians.