Sunday 18 September 2011 at 2:30pm - Admission FREE

Duets for Grand Organ

Robert Ampt  & Amy Johansen  (Sydney)

Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall, The Edge

This husband-and-wife duo, respectively Sydney City Organist and Sydney University Organist, present an entertaining and unusual programme of organ duets, including:
Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre
Waltzing Matilda for Four Feet
and the famous Finale from Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony

This is a FREE concert, with sponsorship support from THE EDGE® On The House. Printed programmes will be on sale for $2. There will be a retiring donation / koha to support the ongoing Town Hall Organ programme.

Robert Ampt is the Sydney City Organist, playing regularly on the world-renowned organ in Sydney Town Hall. He is the organist and choirmaster of Sydney’s German Lutheran Church, past President of the Organ Music Society of Sydney, Patron of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia and teacher of organ at the University of Sydney and St Andrew’s Cathedral School as well as privately.

As well as his many Town Hall appearances, he has performed widely throughout Australia including several appearances at the Melbourne International Festival of Organ and Harpsichord. He has also performed in Europe, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. Robert has published organ and choral music as well as a much-acclaimed history of the Sydney Town Hall organ, and makes frequent appearances as a guest speaker. He has produced audio recordings on the ABC, Move, Woodward and Priory labels, and a video recording on the Marcom label performing Guilmant’s Symphony No.1 with the SBS Youth Orchestra.

Amy Johansen is the Sydney University Organist and Carillonist, whose duties include performing at over sixty graduations and ceremonies annually in the University’s Great Hall.

Born and educated in the United States, Ms Johansen earned the Bachelor of Music degree and Performer’s Certificate in Organ at the University of Florida. She then completed her Masters Degree at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. Postgraduate study took her to London where she studied with Thomas Trotter, and Paris where she studied with Naji Hakim. Although her repertoire encompasses all periods of music, it was her first CD, The Embrace of Fire, devoted to the organ music of Naji Hakim, which initially brought her international acclaim. Amy has performed widely in Australia, England, France, Norway, the USA and New Zealand, with her performances broadcast on American Public Radio’s Pipedreams, the ABC and the BBC. She has just returned from performing in Grace Cathedral at the 2011 American Guild of Organists’ Regional Convention in San Francisco.

Amy and Robert are married and live with their ten-year-old daughter Emily in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.