The Canberra Sinfonia will present Prokofiev's classic “Peter and the Wolf” on Sunday, February 17 at the Trinity Catholic College Hall from 2pm to 2.30pm.

The piece, which is being presented in association with the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium, will be conducted by the Canberra based Leonard Weiss.

Mr Weiss’s love for conducting started off with his experiences during school and university. 

“I wrote a few pieces when I was at school,” Mr Weiss said. 

“By the time I went to university, I had a few conducting opportunities with community officers in Canberra asking me to do fill in when the conductor was away.

“I just got to really love the idea of working with other musicians.

“It’s not like you’re sitting alone in a room practising.

“It’s a wonderful experience to have everyone collaborating and to be able to stand up in front of a group of musicians.”

He first conducted the piece in 2017 and is about to be performing for the piece he loves for the fourth time. 

“It’s a beautiful musical tale that finds ways to introduce different animal characters using different instruments in the orchestra,” he said.

“We have the flutes as the bird, the oboe as the duck, a clarinet as the cat, stringed instruments as Peter and a bassoon as the cranky old grandfather.”

The synopsis of the story is that Peter goes out into his garden unsupervised, meets the wolf, catches it and gets his animal friends to help him take it to the zoo. 

Mr Weiss thinks it is just beautifully approachable and for the musicians, it is just a joy to play.

“As soon as you start, so many of them are familiar with the story and the music.  

“The way they get involved is a magical moment.”

Catch Leonard Weiss on Sunday, February 17 at the Trinity Catholic College Hall as he conducts “Peter and the Wolf”.