Cello & period instruments Recital: Zoltán Szabo (cello) and Nicholas Kennedy (piano)

Zoltán Szabo (cello) and Nicholas Kennedy (piano) present a recital featuring rare instruments from the ANU Historical Keyboard Collection:

The program includes Beethoven's G minor cello sonata, using a period cello with gut strings and the University's replica fortepiano by Paul McNulty of a 1819 Graf, is paired with Rachmaninoff's cello sonata, using a modern cello and the 1911 Blüthner piano, an instrument very similar to the Blüthner owned by Rachmaninoff himself. 

These two outstanding performers are on the faculty of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and will also provide commentary on their choice of instruments and the corresponding performance practice.
 

Zoltán Szabó is a cellist and musicologist, educated in Budapest (Hungary) and Cincinnati (USA). As a member of the Budapest Trio, he came to Australia in 1985 to give a series of concerts at the Sydney Festival. After the tour, he was offered a position with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and he has been living in Sydney ever since. Zoltán has also performed extensively at festivals and recitals in Europe, America and throughout Australia, with the Budapest Trio and later with the Bergonzi String Quartet.

Zoltán was Principal Cello with Opera Australia between 1992 and 2013. In 2000, a Churchill Fellowship enabled him to study baroque cello and performance practice in Europe. In 2017, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) at the University of Sydney; his thesis is on the source and edition history of the Solo Cello Suites by J. S. Bach. He has also published several articles on this subject. He has taught cello, chamber music and more recently, as an Associate Lecturer, music history and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Since 2014, Zoltán has been a regular contributor to Bachtrack (London) and OperaWire (New York), as a concert and opera critic. His reviews and other writings have also been published in The Conversation, The Quadrant and The Australian Book Review. He has also given pre-concert talks for Musica Viva and for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. 

Pianist & scholar Dr Nicholas Kennedy is one of Australia’s most exciting musicians and musical thinkers. He completed his undergraduate studies on full scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM), graduating with First Class Honours and the University Medal, before earning a Master of Music (Distinction) as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, and a PhD from SCM. His mentors have included Joan Havill, Clemens Leske, Gerard Willems, Rita Reichman, and Charles Owen.

Praised for his “stirring, magnetic, and powerful” interpretations (ArtsHub), Nicholas has performed throughout Australia and internationally as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and collaborative artist. Among other competition accolades, he won the Open Instrumental section of the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition in 2023. His debut album, The Last Piano Sonatas, was released in 2021.  

Nicholas is also an active researcher specialising in nineteenth-century piano music and the relationship between analysis and performance, with a range of artistic research outputs and journal publications in The Chopin Review and forthcoming in The Beethoven Journal.

He is a sought-after adjudicator for competitions including Sydney Eisteddfod, the Palladian Intercollegiate Competition, and the Musicological Society of Australia Student Symposium. In 2026, he will travel to Surabaya, Indonesia, to adjudicate and give masterclasses.  

Nicholas is currently an Associate Lecturer in Collaborative Piano and Musicology at SCM.

Audience members can choose how much they pay for each ticket. All proceeds will go to the ANU School of Music Community Outreach Fund.