Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss conducted the Preston Symphony Orchestra in rehearsal during 2024 – and we are delighted that he is returning in 2025 for his first full concert. It opens with a signature work by Lili Boulanger, a crucial figure in the 20th century Parisian music scene. Titled D’un matin de printemps (‘Of a spring morning’), it is a lush and melodious evocation of reawakening after winter. Boulanger’s compatriot, composer Marie Jaëll, is receiving renewed attention in recent years – partly for her lyrical Cello Concerto, written in 1882, and thought to be the first cello concerto composed by a woman. This performance by Melbourne cellist Zoe Knighton will be the Australian premiere. The concert ends with one of the great works of Romanticism, Tchaikovsky’s passionate Fourth Symphony.
The Music
Lili Boulanger
D’un matin de printemps
Marie Jaëll
Concerto for Cello
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.4
Zoe Knighton
Zoe is a founding member and Artistic Director of Flinders Quartet, one of Australia’s finest chamber ensembles. The group has commissioned many works, been nominated for an ARIA for best classical album and continues to be a champion of Australian Chamber music. “Flinders Quartet…whose players give such care and unanimity of musical thought to Australian Chamber Music” Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald
Zoe started the cello at the age of 9 with Jill Kahans before learning from Christian Wojtowicz, Michel Strauss (Paris) Nelson Cooke, and Angela Sargeant, she is now in demand as chamber coach and teacher at various institutions.
She has released 11 CDs on the MOVE label, 7 with duo partner Amir Farid and been praised for her “thrilling tenor sound” and “many technical demands carried off with ease”. (Limelight magazine) “She radiates confidence in her work and participates with personality and no little finesse.”… “Well worth hearing for the pleasure given through this player’s familiar warmth and honesty of musical character.” Clive O’Connell. Together with Farid, they have performed and broadcast widely and gave their Carnegie Hall debut in April, 2023.
Zoe is artistic patron of Resonance String Ensemble in Woodend and plays on a 2020 cello made by Australian instrument maker Rainer Beilharz and a 1780 cello by Benjamin Banks. In order to maintain conversations with her children, she finds herself a proud supporter of Hawthorn Football Club, Westage Imperial and Footscray Hawks basketball teams.