Cello Journey concert to take audience on trip around world with duo

Pianist Rachel Thomson and celloist Inbal Megiddo. Photo / Supplied

Undertake a musical OE, travelling around the globe in a programme of music exploring different musical cultures, styles and periods in an upcoming concert.

Cello Journey, presented by Rotorua Music Federation, is being held in Rotorua on June 1.

Cellist Inbal Megiddo and pianist Rachel Thomson will offer a programme demonstrating the breadth of expression and depth of emotion found in the cello-piano repertoire.

Join the duo as they enjoy the Spanish nightlife with de Falla, glimpse Japanese culture with Salina Fisher, and bask in the Russian countryside with Shostakovich before ending up in the German concert hall with Brahms.

Cellist Inbal Megiddo has performed as a soloist with many of the great orchestras and in major concert halls around the world, including recitals the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Staatsoper in Berlin, and concerto performances with the Berlin Symphony at the Philharmonie.

Inbal holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from Yale University where she studied with renowned cellist Aldo Parisot.

She is senior lecturer in cello at the New Zealand School of Music. She has held faculty positions at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Yale University, and has been guest artist and given masterclasses at festivals around the world.

An avid chamber musician, she is a founding member of the Te Kōkī Trio, and is founder and director of the Cellophonia International Festival in Wellington.

She has held the position of principal and guest principal cellist with the Bridgeport, Waterbury, and West Eastern Divan Symphony Orchestras.

Inbal regularly performs on a superb Fiorini cello, and was awarded use of a Stradivarius cello on loan by the Stradivari Society.

Pianist Rachel Thomson was born in Dunedin and grew up in Wellington, where she began her piano studies with her mother.

She went on to study with Judith Clark, graduating from Victoria University of Wellington before continuing her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music in the United States, where she gained a doctorate in piano performance.

Rachel is a member of various chamber ensembles including the Koru Trio and has worked as an orchestral pianist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

She has been a national recording artist for Concert FM and recorded for Trust Records with flutist Bridget Douglas.

She is also active as a teacher, adjudicator and accompanist.

The Details
- What: Cello Journey
- When: Tuesday, June 1, 7.30pm
- Where: Harvest Church
- Tickets: Adults $35, students (18-25 yrs) $15, school-age children free if accompanied by an adult ticket holder. Tickets available from 7pm at venue on the night