The City’s Quiet Achiever Heads South
Elaine Chia considers herself a lucky woman. She has the singular good fortune of successfully converting her lifelong passion for music, into her career, prompting her late grandfather to comment “I can’t believe they pay you to do this!” The vivacious erstwhile CEO of Sydney’s City Recital Hall, recently left this post to move to…
Benjamin Grosvenor Releases Chopin Piano Concertos On Decca
British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor presents a new recording of two concerto favourites: Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos.1 and 2, released on Decca Classics today. Recorded with Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the record marks Benjamin’s fifth album on Decca Classics, following the hugely successful Homages in 2016, and is his first orchestral…
Opera Australia Access Programme Offers $20 Tickets To First-Timers
Opera Australia (OA) today announced that the accessibility programme that offers first time opera-goers tickets for just $20 each has been extended into the 2020 Sydney and Melbourne seasons. This Susan and Isaac Wakil Foundation Access Program has given more than 8,700 people the opportunity to experience an opera production for the affordable price of…
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Launches ’50 Fanfares’ A Major Commissioning Project
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has announed a major commissioning project supporting the future of Australian music. Called 50 Fanfares, this is a multi-season initiative which will see the Sydney Symphony commission and present the world premieres of new music by 50 Australian composers. The project has been designed to represent a broad range of Australian…
Artists as leaders – celebrating the role of heroic antiheroes
Written by Philip Pogson “Art proves it value by still mattering to people who have been deprived of every other freedom.” – Clive James Leadership’s unlikely candidates In 1995 painter Arthur Boyd was named Australian of the Year for his “extraordinary contribution to Australian art and his great generosity to the Australian nation.” Particularly admired…
Mozart’s Requiem At The Adelaide Festival – Q & A With Siobhan Stagg
Soprano Siobhan Stagg, Australian-born and based in Europe, has the world at her feet. Her career, like her exquisite voice, has soared, taking her to the opera houses and concert stages of Europe and the UK, with engagements across the Atlantic and numerous returns to sing around Australia. She performs in Romeo Castellucci’s controversial but…
Faust – The Gallery
Costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, set designer Charles Edwards and lighting designer Paule Constable realised by Catherine Alexander bring to life Gounod’s grand opera Faust for Opera Australia. Soprano Irina Lungu, tenor Ivan Magri and bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes create a formidable trio of soloists with a luxury cast of supporting soloists, the Australian Opera Chorus,…
Sydney Symphony Orchestra Welcomes Ten Newcomers To The 2020 Fellowship Program
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra welcomes 10 leading young musicians to its internationally-recognised Fellowship program. This year-long program offering emerging artists the opportunity to work with the Sydney Symphony, receive technical and practical mentoring by permanent orchestra members, and the crucial training to secure positions in professional orchestras around the world. Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship Artistic…
A New Collaboration Between Ólafur Arnalds And RY X
Innovative Icelandic composer, musician and producer Ólafur Arnalds has teamed up with Australia-born, LA-based singer, songwriter, and electronic producer RY X to create the ethereal, beat-driven vocal track ‘Oceans’, out on Mercury KX on January 31. Using a sample from Ólafur’s original composition ypsilon as the basis of the new track, RY X has written…