What Do Conductors Really Do?
Of all the figures on stage during a concert, the conductor is perhaps the most enigmatic – commanding a great deal of attention from performers and audience and controlling the sound, whilst not actually making any music – and all the while with his or her back to the audience! This feature by Clemency Burton-Hill…
Lindy Hume On Opera In 2014
As Australian opera faces a national review, Opera Queensland’s artistic director Lindy Hume eyeballs the challenges facing the art form and how it has adapted, both in Australia and overseas. “…it’s not just the companies in flux, but audience appetites and art itself. This is a rare opportunity for a rethink. The best outcome would be a blueprint…
Ottoman Baroque: Image Gallery from The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Opening Night
The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra opened its exotic and mystical season Ottoman Baroque at the City Recital Hall last night. Here’s what the concert looked like – scroll down to see all six stunning images. Images taken and provided by Steven Godbee Publicity and Photography. …
Thomas Strong Wins Opera Foundation New York Scholarship
Thomas Strong, a 31-year-old tenor from New South Wales, has won the coveted Opera Foundation Australia Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship for 2014. The finals concert was held at the Eugene Goossens Hall of Sydney’s ABC studios where Strong sang Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot and Mamma, quel vino è generoso from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana for his…
Haydn’s Operas
‘Papa’ Haydn earned his nickname for fostering instrumental works – symphonic and chamber. Yet, it’s often forgotten that he wrote as many as 15 operas. Read more from Tom Service.
Beethoven’s Long Shadow
Did you know that the first compact discs were designed to record seventy-five minutes of music so that Beethoven’s the Ninth Symphony could be played through without interruption?! ” A phenomenon of dazzling and disconcerting force. (Beethoven) not only left his mark on all subsequent composers but also molded entire institutions. “ In this feature from The…
Thinking Differently About Music Education
“We need to think differently to give our children a better music education….If given a chance, every child has a capacity to play an instrument and to appreciate music” so says music educator Robert Adediran in this feature on music education in The Guardian.
The Australian Curriculum Review And Arts Education
The release of the Australian Curriculum Review this month makes 30 key recommendations after receiving 1600 submissions. The government appointed Professor Ken Wiltshire AO and Dr Kevin Donnelly to conduct an independent review of the Australian Curriculum. Their report suggests that music and visual arts be mandatory to Year 10, but that drama, dance and…
Opera Australia Awarded Grant to Tour ‘Shane Warne The Musical’ To India
In its 2014-15 round of grants, the Australia-India Council Grants Program, under the auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has awarded Opera Australia $50,000 to take ‘Shane Warne the Musical’ on a tour of India. The grants are aimed at “innovative projects that foster deeper people-to-people and institutional links between Australia and…