OUR FIRST EVENTS IN APRIL 2025
SUNDAY 13 APRIL
1.00 pm: Annual General Meeting
2.00pm: ‘Talk and presentation by Violist Tobias Breider, Principal Violist, SSO
Venue:
The Goethe Institut, Event Hall (upstairs), 90 Ocean Street (cnr Jersey Road), Woollahra
Tickets:
$25 members, $35 non-members and $10 full-time students
DETAILS TO COME
About Tobias Breider
Before his appointment as Principal Violist of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2011 Tobias Breider has held Principal Viola positions in prestigious German orchestras like the Rhine Opera Düsseldorf, the Hamburg State Opera (under Simone Young) and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. As a guest Principal he frequently performed with other European top orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Radio Orchestras of Vienna, Berlin and Cologne. In chamber music he regularly collaborates with many of Australia’s finest artists and ensembles such as the Australia Ensemble, Selby and Friends, Wilma & Friends, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and the Australia Octet. Tobias is founding member of the String Trio EX PATRIA (together with his SSO colleagues, Concertmaster Andrew Haveron and Principal cellist Umberto Clerici) and last year joined the Brisbane based Ensemble Q. Internationally he has been invited to Festivals in the USA, Germany, Austria, the UK and South Africa.
Tobias’ presentation will feature Hermann Ritter’s oversized viola alta. In February 1876, Ritter met Wagner in Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth, where Ritter presented his new viola alta, playing the song Lied an den Abendstern from Tannhäuser. Wagner, pointing towards Ritter’s viola alta, said: “The right alto instrument!” Wagner had always been on the lookout for new instrumental colours, especially in the mid register. He immediately hired Ritter as solo violist for the Bayreuth’s Festival Orchestra and commissioned several of his instruments for the premiere of Götterdämmerung. Two of these historically significant violas live with Tobias – No 12 made in 1876, and No 132 (!) from 1891, they are named Fasolt & Fafner. Tobias is in the process of collecting more data and opinions about these sonorous sounding violas, Richard Strauss’ being one of them.