Pianist Kathryn Selby is well known for bringing together exceptional chamber musicians for acclaimed programs. She continued this tradition with the second Selby and Friends concert tour of the year.

Joining Selby and Friends for the first time was violinist Kristian Winther, Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence and former member of the TinAlley String Quartet, alongside cellist Clancy Newman, a Princeton University faculty member and Selby and Friends regular.

Kristian Winther, Kathyrn Selby and Clancy Newman. Image supplied

The program opened with Soviet-born Austrian-American composer Lera Auerbach’s second piano trio, This Mirror Has Three Faces.

Originally co-commissioned by the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio, of which Newman was cellist, the trio explores the “dramatic, ritualistic side of music” in triptych form.

Newman recounted visiting Auerbach’s apartment while collaborating on the piece, noting the composer’s penchant for eccentric and often macabre art, which mirrored her feeling that something was always ‘not quite right’ about her music.

This sense of something ‘not quite right’ permeates the musical landscape of This Mirror Has Three Faces, manifesting in its unsettling undertones. The work evoked stylistic echoes of notable 20th century composers. Selby’s deft execution of cascading arpeggios and Schnittke-like Alberti bass...