“Usually, our programs come about because we want to play the music of specific composers but in the case of this program, it was a performer that was the catalyst. Melbourne has been lucky to have extraordinary pianist, Paavali Jumppanen, in our musical community as Artistic Director at ANAM and we really wanted to play with him, and not just one piano quintet but two! Both Grazyna Bacewicz and Dmitri Shostakovich were accomplished pianists themselves and Bacewicz was also a violin virtuoso, incidentally. I’m looking forward to exploring her music for the first time and discovering how her deep knowledge of the instruments as a performer shows itself in her writing. Shostakovich was so busy performing his popular new piano quintet on tour with his friends of the Beethoven Quartet following its premiere in November 1940 that he hardly had time to compose for six months.”

~ Wilma Smith, violin