St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra with Monique Lapins & Matthias Balzat
Saturday 17 October
Soloists Conductor
Monique Lapins, violin Michael Joel
Matthias Balzat, cello
Founded over 50 years ago, and based at St-Matthew-in-the-City Anglican Church, St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra is Auckland’s longest established chamber orchestra. Beginning as a string group formed to accompany performances of Bach Cantatas, the orchestra has developed into a classical symphony orchestra performing a wide repertoire of music. St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra is a non-profit cooperative made up of musicians who play for their love of music. The orchestra is dedicated to providing performance opportunities for New Zealand musicians, composers and conductors. Although it is an amateur orchestra, St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra rehearses and performs like a professional one and engages a different guest conductor for each concert. This provides concertgoers with an exciting variety of orchestral music performed to a very high standard.
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Symphony No 35 K385 in D ‘Haffner’
Charles Gounod | Symphony No 1 in D
Johannes Brahms | Double Concerto in A Minor Op. 102
Find out more about St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra here.
Soloist's Biographies
New Zealand-born cellist Matthias Balzat (born 1999) has gained recognition as an international soloist and chamber musician. He has won prestigious competitions, including the Schoenfeld International Cello Competition, Accordi Musicali International Cello Competition, 69th ROSL Annual Music Competition, and Sieghardt-Rometsch Concerto Competition. He has performed with leading orchestras such as the NZSO, Harbin Symphony Orchestra, CSO, Sinfonietta Köln, and St Matthews Chamber Orchestra, and collaborated with conductors including Jindong Chi, Guy Noble, Benjamin Northey and Rüdiger Bohn. Balzat has appeared at major festivals like Aspen Music Festival, Classiche Forme, and Edinburgh Fringe. He has worked with renowned musicians, including Daniel Müller-Schott, Johannes Moser, and Wolfgang Schmidt. After completing his postgraduate studies at the Robert Schumann Hochschule under Pieter Wispelwey, he now holds a Master’s and Konzertexam degree. This year he joins the NZTrio as a permanent member.
Monique Lapins is Associate Concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia. As a member of the New Zealand String Quartet (2016-2024), Monique’s participation included extensive collaboration with many artists including members of the Takács and Jerusalem String Quartets, Dénes Várjon, Horomona Horo, Matthew Barley, Wu Man, Nikki Chooi, and Anthony Marwood. Internationally, Monique has performed as soloist and chamber musician, and at festivals throughout France, the Czech Republic, Holland, Japan, Germany, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Australia, USA, and at the Open Chamber Music Seminars in Prussia Cove (UK), directed by world-renowned cellist, Steven Isserlis. She has worked with international artists including Pekka Kuusisto (Finland), Penderecki String Quartet (Canada), Piers Lane (NZ), Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective and Henning Kraggerud, Jian Liu (NZ) and with violinist Olivier Charlier (France), the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre Orchestra and has participated in a Concert duet with Olivier Charlier and Dénes Várjon. She is also a member of the Ghost Piano Trio. Monique performs on an 1883 Gand violin kindly on loan from the Rin Collection in Singapore.