Pugin Bi-Centenary
Thursday 1 March 2012 marks the bi-centenary of Pugin's birth. The Pugin Foundation is acknowledging this highly significant milestone with a Pugin Bi-centenary Festival. The Festival will extend from Thursday 1 March to Friday 9 March and will be centred on Tasmania where the largest, most coherent and most complete heritage of his buildings and objects in Australia is to be found.
The following is the list of celebrations and activities:
- A small display of Pugin metalwork, textiles, books and stone carving from 3 to 9 March, between 2pm and 4pm each day, in the magnificent domed top floor of the newly-completed St Mary's Cathedral Centre, Hobart.
- An organ recital by composer, musicologist and organist Dom Alban Nunn OSB in St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart, on Friday evening 2 March at 7.30pm. The recital will feature works from the late medieval period which Pugin so admired as well as works from his own century. Program details at right.
- A concert by the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, conducted by noted Australian violinist Peter Tanfield, in St John the Evangelist's Church, Richmond, on Saturday afternoon 3 March, at 2.00pm. This concert will feature works played during Pugin's lifetime. Program details at right.
- A concert by the Choir of Newman College within the University of Melbourne, directed by Gary Ekkel, in St Mary's Cathedral, Hobart, on Saturday evening 3 March,at 7.30pm. Program details at right.
- A Missa Cantata in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) in St Patrick's Church, Colebrook, on Sunday 4 March at 10.00AM, with the Choir of Newman College within the University of Melbourne. The setting will be William Byrd's Mass for 5 voices, with the Propers for the Second Sunday in Lent in Sarum and Gregorian chant (for details click here). Note that because seating is very limited in St Patrick's the Mass will be ticketed. Tickets will be offered in the first instance to our Friends of Pugin and their families and then to Richmond parishioners (St Patrick's lies within Richmond Parish). The Mass will be followed by:
- A light luncheon in the Colebrook Village Hall for attendees.
- A Bach solo violin recital by noted Australian violinist Peter Tanfield in the beautiful space and glorious acoustic of Pugin's St Patrick's Church, Colebrook, on Sunday afternoon 4 March at 2pm. Program details at right.
- A free illustrated public lecture by award-winning Pugin scholar Brian Andrews entitled 'Pugin's Australian Heritage' in the St Mary's Cathedral Centre, Hobart, on Thursday evening 1 March at 7.30pm.
TICKETS
Tickets for the concerts and recitals can be purchased online from Centertainment, Hobart. Click here. They can also be purchased from Centertainment by phone on (03) 6234 5998 or at their booking offfice, 53 Elizabeth Mall, Hobart, Tasmania.
We are also planning a special Bi-centennial edition of our Friends of Pugin Newsletter, issue number 66 for March 2012, featuring two essays by eminent scholars of the Gothic Revival. It will only be available to our Friends of Pugin.
We hope you will help us to mark Pugin's Bi-centenary in a manner befitting the extraordinary influence of this giant of nineteenth-century design.
Think of everything you can for Bishop Willson. It is a good work in which he is engaged. (Pugin to John Hardman, 15 November 1847).
