SARS affects Adelaide concert series

Clemens Leske
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Wednesday, 23 April 2003

An internationally acclaimed concert pianist has cancelled her Australian tour due to the severity of the SARS virus in her home country of Hong Kong.

Mary Wu, winner of the prestigious Chappell Gold Medal, was to have given a solo recital in the University of Adelaide's Elder Hall Lunch Hour Concert Series on Friday, May 9. Yesterday she cancelled her travel plans amidst concerns about Australian quarantine regulations for people entering the country from Hong Kong.

The concert will still go ahead, as Clemens Leske, one of Australia's leading young pianists, has agreed to travel from Sydney to take her place. He will perform works by Prokofiev, Liszt and Ligeti.

Born in Adelaide, Clemens Leske has performed throughout Australia and extensively in the United States and the United Kingdom. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York and has won numerous awards, scholarships and prizes including the ABC Young Performer of the Year in 1990.

In addition to his extensive solo engagements he has also appeared with all of the major Australian symphony orchestras and earlier this year gave performances of the Tchaikovsky and Grieg Piano Concertos with the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras. Clemens Leske is an Associate Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Australian Institute of Music.

His forthcoming recital in Adelaide is on Friday, May 9 in Elder Hall at 1.10pm. Admission is $5 and tickets are available at the door from 12.30pm.

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