NOTE: 100% of this concerts' profits will go to charity

Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

Bokonon Orchestra with Leon Lan

A new student-led orchestra makes its debut with a program of orchestral colour, dramatic force and sweeping Romantic intensity, led by conductor Tim Lin and featuring pianist Leon Lan in Rachmaninoff’s beloved Second Piano Concerto.

Formed by students and bringing together secondary and tertiary musicians from across Sydney, the Bokonon Orchestra represents a new generation of young artists taking orchestral music into their own hands. For its first concert, the ensemble presents three works of striking contrast: Lalo’s overture to Le roi d’Ys, Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.

Lalo’s overture to Le roi d’Ys opens the program with music drawn from the world of French opera and Breton legend. Evoking the mythical city of Ys, a doomed kingdom swallowed by the sea, the overture moves between mystery, lyricism and dramatic turbulence. It is an arresting beginning: vivid, theatrical and richly coloured.

Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March follows with music of urgent public drama, moving from sombre intensity to blazing orchestral power. Written in 1876 for a charity concert, it remains one of Tchaikovsky’s most vivid orchestral showpieces, full of martial energy, folk-inflected melody and surging momentum.

At the heart of the concert is Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the great works of the Romantic concerto repertoire. From its tolling opening piano chords to its expansive melodies and dazzling final movement, the concerto places soloist and orchestra in a richly expressive dialogue.

The soloist is Leon Lan, a young Sydney pianist whose achievements include LMusA with Distinction in pianoforte, a performance at the AMEB NSW Presentation Ceremony, and joint first prize in the 2025 Ryde-Eastwood Music Club Open Piano Solo. His repertoire spans Bach, Beethoven and Clementi through to Chopin, Ravel and Rachmaninoff, reflecting a musician already at ease across a wide range of style, colour and pianistic expression.

This debut concert also proudly supports the Australian Children’s Music Foundation, with all profits donated to ACMF. Through long-term music programs and free instruments, ACMF helps children and young people access music education where it might otherwise be out of reach.

Program

LALO Overture to 'Le roi d'Ys'

TCHAIKOVSKY Slavonic March, Op. 31

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Artists

Tim Lin conductor
Leon Lan piano
Bokonon Orchestra

Date

Location

Get directions

Pitt Street Uniting Church
264 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000

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