Palmerston North violinist Jun He to perform at the Globe Theatre

Palmerston North musician Jun He has been playing the violin since she was 4 and will perform on May 26 as part of the Globe Sunday Matinee series.

Violinist Jun He established a performing career in Europe and China but now lives in Palmerston North.

She will perform on May 26 as part of the Globe Sunday Matinee series, her first local concert.

Jun started playing the violin when she was 4 and studied violin performance at the Xinghai Conservatory in Guangzhou, China. From 1998, she studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria and graduated with a Master of Arts in violin performance in 2005.

She taught violin performance in China until her move to New Zealand.

In 2014, Jun graduated from the New Zealand School of Music with a Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance. She regularly played in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra until her move to Palmerston North, where she is the leader of the Manawatū Sinfonia.

Sharing the stage with Jun will be pianist Guy Donaldson. He is a teacher, adjudicator, piano soloist, accompanist, chamber music player and music coach, and was music director of the Renaissance Singers for 30 years.

The concert will feature music from France with sonatas for violin and piano by Maurice Ravel and Cesar Franck, and two piano pieces by Claude Debussy, including his best-known piece Clair de Lune or Moonlight.

Ravel’s composition treats violin and piano as equals but the instruments maintain distinct identities. The second movement of the piece is inspired by the Blues, but its character arises essentially from the piano’s unsympathetic response to the violin’s sadness. The violin responds in the third movement with a dazzling show of virtuosity that leaves the piano content with jaunty accompanying rhythms.

While Debussy was a relatively young man when he wrote the pieces featured in this concert, Franck was 64 when he wrote his violin sonata and was still a fairly obscure figure in the French musical world. It was this piece that established him as a significant French composer and it remains a firm favourite among violinists and concert audiences alike for its melodic beauty, exciting virtuosity and character.

The Details

What: Globe Sunday Matinee Concert

When: Sunday, May 26, 2.30pm

Where: Globe Theatre

Entry: Koha, recommended from $5