Concerts › Lara Hall and Maria Mo (Previous 2021 Season)

About Dr. Lara Hall
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CANCELLATION NOTICE: Sadly, due to the fact that the musicians come from the Waikato, which is likely to still be in Covid Level 3 this Sunday, it has been decided to cancel this concert. Hopefully, we shall be able to hear them sometime in the future.

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Lara Hall is Lecturer in Violin and Viola at the Conservatorium of Music at Waikato University. Chamber music, and baroque and classical performance practice are her key areas of expertise. Lara's work with the New Zealand Chamber Soloists, with whom she performs on both violin and viola, is a major focus of her concert work.

Lara has led many orchestras including the National Youth Orchestra, Michigan Baroque Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. She has been Concertmaster of Opus Orchestra since 2006. Lara has performed extensively as a concerto soloist with AK Barok (as a baroque violinist) and with Opus Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra, Waitakere Symphony Orchestra, and Tauranga Performing Arts Trust Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

Maria Mo has performed in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and across Europe as both solo recitalist and chamber musician. She was associate artist at the 2014 Australian Cello Awards (Sydney, Australia) and guest artist at the 2010 Semaine Internationale de Piano festival (Blonay, Switzerland), as well as the Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna. She has toured as concerto soloist with Opus Chamber Orchestra, the Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra, and the Auckland Youth Orchestra.

In 2009, she was the winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Arts/Pettman International Scholarship for a New Zealand Chamber Ensemble as pianist for the Leonari trio, which led to an 8-week concert tour and study trip of the United Kingdom in 2010, playing prestigious venues and festivals such as St. Martin-in-the-fields and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The trio also toured with Chamber Music Zealand in 2012 to critical acclaim. In December 2018, Maria had the honour of being selected to perform for the South Korean President Moon Jae-In on his inaugural trip to New Zealand.

Maria studied with Katherine Austin as a Sir Edmund Hillary Music Scholar at the University of Waikato where she received the Hillary Medal and the Lili Kraus Piano Award, and graduated with a Master of Music with First Class Honours in 2009. In 2013 she graduated with Excellence under Professor Doris Adam at the Vienna Conservatory, and received further training from Professor Christopher Hinterhuber at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She returned to her alma mater at the University of Waikato to commence a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Katherine Austin in 2018.

The performance will include works by Franck and Telemann.

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