This is a really important feature from theatre critic Jane Howard, writing in The Guardian about the culture of arts criticism in Australia, the loss of “critical dialogue” and a plurality of views. It applies as much to music as it does to the theatre.
A recommended read.
Proving that Classical music is a living tradition stretching across the millennia, ABC Classics have released 1000 Years of Classical Music (ABC 4812456) a new 8 CD compilation of 100 musical tracks spanning 1000 years giving a panoramic overview of classical music from the earliest chant to the present day and creating a soundtrack that is intricately…
Huge congratulations to opera singers soprano Cheryl Barker and baritone Peter Coleman-Wright for being awarded honours in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2015. Ms Barker was made an Officer (AO) in the General Division “for distinguished service to the performing arts as an operatic soprano, as a mentor and role model, and through fundraising support…
The 2014 ARIA Fine Arts Awards were announced earlier today. Congratulations to ABC Classics which won all four of the Fine Arts Awards. The award for Best Classical Album was won by Compassion, a collaboration between composer Nigel Westlake, singer Lior and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Westlake. Compassion is a ‘Symphony of Songs’,…
The Australian Music Centre has announced that three artists will feature in the 2021 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address which will take the form of a live-stream panel discussion featuring three musically diverse panellists: ethno-jazz pianist and composer Zela Margossian, boundary-breaking composer and percussionist Bree van Reyk, and singer, composer and improviser Sia Ahmad. The conversation will…
“The truth is that there is no more a link between star sign and intelligence than there is between madness and creativity. That a link has been drawn between the two is, however, under–standable. How else can we explain the outrageous creative power of a Mozart or a Beethoven without resorting to some kind of brain chemistry imbalance? If…
Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Australia’s favourite baritone, returns with his first solo album in four years, I’ll Walk Beside You This new album songs from Australia, Scotland, Germany and America, as well as two Maori songs from Rhodes’ homeland, New Zealand in gorgeous arrangements by the Southern Cross Soloists, one of Australia’s most formidable chamber music ensembles…