Recitals Australia Presents
Lunch Hour Spring Series
North Adelaide Baptist Church Hall – Tynte Street, North Adelaide
Commencing at 12.30pm
Program
With Vanya Quartet
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
Hoagy Carmichael (1899 – 1981), arr. Michael Lowenstern
Georgia on My Mind
for Solo Bass Clarinet
Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856)
Fantasistücke, Op. 73
Anne Cawrse (b. 1981)
Ruby
for Solo Clarinet
Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Première Rhapsodie
ABOUT Gordon
Gordon Richter completed his studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2023 and has recently started a Masters of Music at the Elder Conservatorium. He is an aspiring clarinettist who has studied with many renowned teachers, including Ben Mellefont, Chris Richards, Frank Celata, Edgar Heßke and Lloyd Van’t Hoff. He has been a principal clarinet for all ensembles at the Conservatorium during his studies, as well as principal bass clarinet. He was a member of SYO Flagship for 2 years, becoming Principal in 2023. Career highlights include playing Mahler 8, Rite of Spring in the Sydney Opera House.
ABOUT Vanya Quartet
Established in 2025 at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, The Vanya Quartet is made up of four passionate chamber musicians studying at the University of Adelaide. The quartet recently took part in the international pathways program at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, Queensland, with the unique opportunity to have learned from international artists and some of the top chamber musicians from across Australia. Back in Adelaide, the quartet have participated in the Elder Conservatorium’s String Quartet masterclass programs.
Having been mentored on several occasions by the Australian String Quartet, the quartet is looking forward to performing at their upcoming 40th anniversary gala.
The Vanya Quartet is deeply grateful to its sponsors Recitals Australia, Chamber Music Adelaide and Size Music. Their generous support has enabled the quartet to share its enthusiasm for the string quartet repertoire to new audiences across Australia.
ABOUT Stephen 
Stephen van der Hoek, after having strangely been born in Florence Italy, grew up in Adelaide. He took up piano at an early age, and studied privately with Irina Lioubimova. During his teenage years, he won various first prizes for piano and composition, including the Adelaide Eisteddfods, the Young Composers’ Award, and the McDonalds Performing Arts Challenge. He also studied harpsichord and organ, and has conducted various choirs in the Adelaide area.
After high school, he studied theology at the Luther Seminary in North Adelaide (which later was renamed, the Australian Lutheran College). At the end of 2008, Stephen was ordained as a pastor in the Lutheran Church, and has since served three parishes in Gippsland, Victoria, Mt Barker, South Australia and Maryborough, Queensland. In 2005, Stephen married fellow musician Mary-Ann, and since then they have had seven children.
In Stephen’s final year of seminary, he won first prize for the Adelaide Eistedfodd Piano Concerto Competition with his performance of Medtner’s Piano Concerto No 2, and the Young Performer of the Year Award in Sydney. As the AETT scholar of 2008, he took up his scholarship studying and performing in the USA in 2010, with a special focus on church music. Stephen continues to perform in local performances, and regularly composes sacred music.