By Jeremy Lister, Age 10
On Sunday Mum and I went to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) to see Alan Smith who’s a well-known violinist who plays for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) and the Southern Cross Soloists (SXS).
I had a lot of questions to ask him.
My first question was when did you learn to play the violin?
And his answer was he started learning violin when he was six, he said that his Mother and Father were both pianists but they wanted him to learn a stringed instrument since there are a lot more options for string players, he also said that one of his two teachers was the late John Curro.
When I asked how long he had been in the SXS for he said he officially joined the SXS in 2011 and when I asked him when the SXS was established he said in 1995.
I also asked how long he’d been in the QSO for and he said he’d been in it since 1994 and I also asked when the QSO was first established and he said the QSO had its first concert in 1947.
I also learnt that before he was in the QSO he was in the ASO (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra) and that he doesn’t play any other instrument.
His favourite pieces from the SXS Heavenly Life concert are the Mozart and Bellini Aria.
After we met Alan Smith mum and I went to the café they have which is called café by QPAC and then went up some stairs to get to the last SXS concert of 2021.
In this concert, they had two guest soloists which were singer Alexandra Flood and pianist Konstantin Shamray.
The program included a Handel Aria, Mozart Piano concerto, Mahler Symphony No. 4 Movement 4, Rachmaninov and Bellini Aria.
