RIYA Ensemble

On Sunday July 28 at 2.30pm the Globe Sunday Matinee series will feature an ensemble normally associated with Baroque music now presenting, with the exception of a Haydn trio, a program of essentially from the Romantic period of the nineteenth century, including names not commonly seen on the concert stage. The Riya Ensemble takes its name from the initial letter of the first names of the group – Roy Tankersley (piano and harmonium), Ingrid Culliford (flute), Yuri Park (violin) and Annie Hunt (cello).

English composer Frank Bridge was a student of Stanford and went on to be the teacher of Benjamin Britten. His early pieces such as the Miniatures which open the concert belong to his early lyrical style. Franz Doppler was a flute virtuoso and composer who became a sensation throughout Europe in the nineteenth century in concerts with his brother but also became popular as a composer and the arranger of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies for orchestra. The concert includes a Nocturne of his for the four instruments. Carl Maria von Weber’s trio contains a movement often played independently of the work as a whole – the evocative Shepherd’s Lament. Finally the ensemble performs a set of five Bagatelles – short pieces which Antonin Dvorak composed in 12 days. However speed of composition seldom led to anything mediocre from Dvorak and these works were amongst a number produced in 1878 which drew the attention of the musical world to the composer.

Yuri Park moved to Palmerston North from South Korea in 2000. She moved to Auckland with her family in 2011, where she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Music in Performance at The University of Auckland. Recently, she moved back to Palmerston North and has played as a soloist with the Manawatu Sinfonia.

Ingrid Culliford spent many years studying and working in London as a free-lance flautist where she worked with several known orchestras and chamber ensembles. Ingrid returned to New Zealand in 1994. She was Co-Head of Music at Nga Tawa School and a Senior Examiner for the International Baccalureate as well as an examiner for the NZ Music Examinations Board. In August 2015 she was recipient of the Chamber Music NZ Marie Vandevart Award and was appointed as a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM) in the 2019 New Years Honours list, for services to Music and Education.

Annie Hunt was born and grew up in Whanganui. She became a member of the NZ Youth Orchestra in 1971 and was leader of the cello section in 1976. Annie was a member of the Auckland Symphonia (Now Philharmonia) for two years. She then travelled to Britain on an Arts Council grant for post-graduate studies on the cello at the Guildhall in London. Having moved to North Wales in 1990 she spent 25 years teaching and doing professional freelance work in orchestras, quartets and theatres. She moved back to Whanganui in March 2017 and is currently teaching strings at schools in Whanganui and in Marton, giving private lessons and teaching for the Out of Hours Music classes.

Roy Tankersley is a music graduate of Victoria University and completed Post Graduate Studies at the Guildhall School of Music in London. He has been involved in music education at Secondary and Tertiary levels for 40 years, performs on organ and harpsichord and has directed various choirs including 10 years with the Wellington Bach Choir and 14 years with the Whanganui Schola Sacra Choir and Youth Chorus. Since 2003 Roy has worked as a free-lance performer, teacher and adjudicator and organ consultant based in Palmerston North. Until this year he was Chairman of the Manawatu/Whanganui region of NZ Choral Federation, and is a Fellow of the NZ Association of Organists and an Associate of the Royal School of Church Music. He was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in New Year Honours 2011 and was last year given a Civic honour by Palmerston North.

Admission is by donation, recommended from $5