Technical brilliance meets unbridled passion in a night of musical perfection
Presented by Hiromi and PUBLIQuartet
Reviewed 28 October 2025
Pianist Hiromi defies genres. Although firmly embedded in the jazz arena, she moves effortlessly in and out of a more classical syntax, whilst developing a musical language completely her own. In 2021 she put together a piano quintet and released the album Silver Linings Suite. It is mostly the work from this album that she has brought out to Australia. A few nights ago she opened the Sydney Women’s Jazz Festival, and we are so lucky here in Adelaide to have her as a headline artist for this year’s OzAsia Festival.
For this tour she is working with New York based Grammy-nominated string quartet, PUBLIQuartet consisting of: Fung Chern Hwei and Jannina Norpoth on violin; Nicholas Revel on viola; and Hamilton Berry on cello.
The set opened with the high-energy Jumpstart. It then moved into the showpiece for the night, the eponymous Silver Lining Suite. Written during the pandemic, the suite is delivered in four movements: Isolation; The Unknown; Drifters; and Fortitude. But as Hiromi herself said, the piece is not fully complete until it is played, with the presence of the audience as the final piece of the puzzle. We felt it! This extraordinary piece of music manages to combine the structure and expectations of a standard piano quintet, with the feel and tension of a jazz gig complete with improvisation. So although a composed piece, the musicians are working off each other in the moment. To witness this level of musicianship and passion, was to know for a brief moment some kind of eternity.
There were a couple of shorter pieces after the main event, including Hiromi’s divine rendition of Blackbird, and after a resounding standing ovation, the encore consisted of Ribera Del Duero, also from the Silver Lining album. A wild, energetic, piece which allowed for solos from all the strings, this piece descended into a kind of bluegrass-cum-klezmer madness which is utterly irresistible.
Please Hiromi San, come back to Australia soon!
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Photo credit: Mari Amita
Venue: Adelaide Town Hall
Season: Finished
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