My sincere thanks to everyone who has sent letters and emails of appreciation throughout the year - it is very encouraging to us all. I have enjoyed meeting many of you at our various festivals and events.
I hope you enjoy the programs we have prepared for you for December and January. Shortly before the recording sessions, it was suggested that he sing some of the carols in Welsh. The list was long, and soon it was decided that one CD would become two. We decided, then, to create a special edition of this beautiful 2CD set for Australia, and for good measure added a further track for our Exclusive Edition — Bing Crosby telling the story of The Small One.
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They also had their singalongs of contrasting musical styles, full of festive cheer. Nothing has really changed. Now all roads at Christmas lead to home, with all its meanings and traditions, peace and goodwill. The roasting turkey, mince pies, the scent of mulled wine wafting through the air, the living room happily made messy with wrapping paper galore. Music is always a constant background accompaniment, and such an integral part of the festive period. How excited I was at the prospect of recording some of these wonderful songs, especially knowing that the Welsh repertoire would also find its way onto the list.
I do hope you can share in my enjoyment of recording these special Christmas melodies, and a heartfelt thanks to all the friends who joined me in the making of this album. I endeavoured to read it again, once again quite a confusing piece but I persevered and this time I saw the potential of the play.
Steven Tandy had been asked to play the role of Falstaff and this would be our 2nd Shakespeare together, following on from Romeo and Juliet last year Steven played Friar Lawrence and I directed the show. The prospect of us working together again was very exciting; he is such a generous and skilled performer, a joy to work with and watch.
We held two days of auditions and saw many talented people. Finally, after much discussion and juggling we came up with our cast. Many of the cast had worked with 4MBS before and it was great to see so many familiar faces. It was during our first reading of the play that the potential really started to shine through.
Each of the actors brought out the comedy in the reading that I knew was there. This was such an exciting time. Once the ball was rolling it was hard to stop. Many of the rehearsals were spent laughing at characters and their antics and silly accents. This was probably the most enjoyable rehearsal period I had been in for a long time. We set about creating a design that was simple yet effective, recycling items used from previous shows to save time and money. Working with such a large cast 17 , coordinating rehearsals was a bit of a nightmare, and when people get sick during the process things need to be reorganized, and then of course there was the weather!
The tumultuous rain that we had in the month before the performance dates played havoc with the set building, it also meant that the Park performances were at risk. Early in the week leading up to the festival weekend at Bulimba, the Council decided that based on the softness of the ground, the park was not going to be an option. Pushing our disappointment aside, we had to find a new venue. Luckily the school had just finished building their new community hall.
It was definitely no park, but as the old saying goes, the show must go on. Furiously I thought about how we could adapt the direction to suit this new venue. Thank goodness for such a professional group of actors. They were all very willing to make any changes necessary to suit the new space. We were thrilled to know that we had been given approval to perform in the park at Sandgate, and the cast were over the moon. This was after all why many of them had signed on, to do Shakespeare in the Park.
A great turn out and fun was had by cast and audience alike. The ACO has snared Ross to curate and present a programme of the music that matters to him, and to history. Ross has an uncanny knack for changing our understanding of music through words; in this concert on March 14th he changes it through performance. In his own inimitable style, Ross delivers a special pre-concert talk before the performance.
They perform a selection of dazzling Baroque concertos alongside some of the best Australian music for string orchestra. One of the most famous exports of the Finnish education system is its crackerjack musicians. Gavin was lucky to be born into a musical family. I remember that there was a certain time every day when we the children had to be very quiet, so she could compose.
Being surrounded by music was just normal, just a part of the fabric of our lives. While attending his postgraduate studies in conducting at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne the huge shift came out of the blue. Once I made the decision to invest into my voice things happened fairly quickly. That was the moment when my international career really took off. In he recorded the role for Chandos. What are the chief virtues of a great tenor? What about acting, which many critics find to be one of his strengths?
Take Placido Domingo, for example, in that respect. The expectation of the audiences is that they want a complete performance. I am always more engaged with those interesting characters.
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The difference in the two characters is remarkable. I love singing Don Carlos because I think it is a real challenge. As you get older certain roles just drop off the radar and others come in. But my core lyric repertoire will be there for the foreseeable future. However, his engagements have taken him to London, Berlin, Madrid and Vienna, to Washington and Montreal, to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and to many opera houses in between.
As time goes by I resent that because you miss out on things. I am constantly reflecting on what I am doing. In the latter he will team up again with Australian-born soprano, Cheryl Barker. We are old friends and we love what we do. Tosca is one of my all time favourite roles and hopefully the audience will enjoy it.
He says he has a great admiration for conductors, but in the last twenty years he has put everything into singing. It has taken all his energy and discipline, and it still demands everything he has to offer. Is there any time to relax and do things out of the realm of an international opera singer in high demand, I ask?
These words speak volumes about a tenor who in spite of all his remarkable achievements walks on the earth, not in the clouds. Discover masterpieces by the distinctive voices of the movers and shakers from the 20th and 21st centuries. This three concert series features leading Australian and international composers who have taken music in new directions. We are especially proud to present our Composer-in-Residence, Elena Kats-Chernin, with premieres of some of her most recent compositions performed by many leading and emerging Australian musicians.
Music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. More info at qso. That is, a museum of old radios. Lining the walls are shelves and shelves of these beautiful old boxes that played beautiful old music, looking so much more stylish than the radios of today. Every now and then, a 4MBS listener will wander in and nostalgically point out one that looks just like the radio their parents had. Recently, we were all reminded of this as Sony announced it ceased production in Japan of the iconic Sony Walkman.
It was that portable cassette player you could clip on to your belt and hear music on-the-go through black spongy headphones way before Apple introduced the oh-so-sleek white headphones of today. Truth be told, being the age that I am, I dived into commuter music consumption more heavily during the Sony Discman days, the CD-playing successor to the Walkman. But I do recognise it was the Walkman that set the ball rolling for the development of these other portable music gadgets. Before its production in , listening to music on the run, especially classical music, was costly and frustrating.
You had to pay an entire orchestra to follow you around. And the When Technology Stops Walking complaints that came from those cellists trying to keep up with your jogging were ghastly. So, the portability of the Walkman brought a huge sense of freedom. It was a way to tune out the world and retreat into your own musical sanctuary.
Travellers rejoiced, as they could now hear familiar music in the strangest of countries. Or, they could create themed playlists for each destination. Thank you Sony Walkman, for paving the way for us music nerds to be more nerdy! You had to guess how much fast forwarding and rewinding was needed, and since rewinding on one side meant you were fast forwarding on the other, well, it was like becoming lost in a labryinth.
Then occasionally there were those shuddering moments when the tape part of the cassette would get caught, and pulling the thing out would result in a pile of brown shiny noodles that could never be played again. And it was so satisfying to hear the rattle of sliding a cassette in, and the clunk of closing the door. I love my iPod bright pink, of course , which is half the size of a Freddo Frog, and is so light, a real frog could lift it with its pinky finger.
Now, would someone tell those puffing cellists they can stop running? This is an exciting development because of the huge audience it is attracting. It has already been of such great benefit and comfort to so many elderly people who are quite alone and isolated. How does the arrival of MBS Light, the digital service which will broadcast light classics and jazz, change the equation?
Our charter 30 years ago was to play classical, jazz and world music. World music is long gone and jazz is currently played for only a few hours a week. With this new service jazz will have more airtime and the popular classics can be heard more regularly. Now, allow me to ask you about your career and your love for music. At what stage of your life did you know that music would not only be your trade but great passion as well?
It was fairly early. Music was always played at home and I have sung since I was a toddler. My grandmother first showed me how to play some of her piano music and, when I started writing the note names on the keys in pencil, my mum decided I should have lessons. By the time I was a teenager, music was the main focus of my life. I love to study and the list just seemed to keep growing. I studied for a Bachelor of Music at The University of Queensland and, although I loved performing, thought I would teach high school music and Japanese.
Then followed a Diploma of Education in music and Japanese. At the end of that year I was awarded a Mitsui Educational Foundation Scholarship to travel to Japan for further exploration of Japanese culture. Along the way I did my A. I then commenced my Ph. I was awarded a German Government Scholarship to travel to Bayreuth to work there in the archives for several months.
After I graduated with my Doctor of Philosophy, I took a year off from study, then completed my qualifications with an F. It was the first time the ceremony had been held there in the chapel, and the reception in the painted hall of King William and Queen Mary. I assume that operetta is your favourite format. If so, can you tell me why?
The melodies are so memorable and generally it is very happy music. It is so much fun to sing. I love singing all of the roles, both male and female, and seem to be able to recite large extracts of dialogue, not just from my own roles. In addition to performing and examining you teach piano, singing and percussion. This is quite a rare combination? Singing and piano frequently go together. As for percussion, I was a very bad viola player before that, despite much practice. An unwise choice, as I have particularly small hands, but my middle name is Viola the flower, not the instrument.
Mum liked the xylophone, so I tried percussion and found that I was quite good at it. I have played with the Queensland Pops Orchestra, and now play with Queensland Wind and Brass, and have been the principal percussionist with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra for the past 10 years. It is so much fun. Being a teacher, examiner and performer imposes a very hectic schedule.
Which of your roles do you find most rewarding? All of them in different ways. I am passionate about teaching and love to help people achieve their goals. Examining is so rewarding when candidates have a positive experience in a stressful situation as occurs in any exam , and I hear many different interpretations of a wide range of repertoire.
Naturally, I love performing I do about 40 concerts each year. I am never happier than when I am on stage -- especially when I am singing. Your students are children and young people as well as people of a certain age. Does this mean that it is never too late for music and singing?
So many people wish they had learnt music when they were younger but never had the opportunity. You are never too old to learn. May I ask about your hobbies and interests that are not connected to your profession? I am a keen golfer from a golfing family -- my father had a handicap of 0, was club champion and had 8 holes in one, while my mother was state champion. That is someone who collects teddy bears -- my collection currently numbers about My current ambition is to visit the pandas at the Adelaide Zoo.
Amongst the many shining stars in this triumphant finale, Serbian mezzo-soprano Milijana Nikolic was perhaps the brightest. And here she is on the plateau at the Big Wheel in South Bank, arriving early for the interview, which is unusual for an artist coming from the austere world of opera. With her striking Mediterranean features and tall, slim figure she could find her way in modeling, even sports. But she chose opera with no obvious reason except for the fact that her native town in Serbia is known for excellent choral singing and traditional string instrument bands.
I wanted to play the flute in music school, but I was very skinny and my teachers thought that I would not have enough lung capacity to play this instrument.
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She was shy, and her voice was so weak that her language and literature teacher decided not to choose her for the show. At home her mother put her on a kitchen chair and asked her to recite the poem in a loud voice. The drill worked eventually, and Milijana discovered the power of her voice. Years of singing in the school choir, hard study, and awards in numerous singing competitions followed. I needed to open new horizons. In she won again - this time a two-year scholarship to attend the Academy as soloist at Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
A double stroke of fortune one might say. In Milan, one of the world capitals of opera, Milijana was given the privilege of the finest tuition, and she met her future husband Rosario la Spina, a young tenor from Brisbane. Leyla Gencer, a great soprano of her time, was one of our main teachers. We could learn so much about interpretation from her. I never missed a single rehearsal at la Scala, especially those of Maestro Muti.
He is just one of the genius conductors of our day. When I ask about her recent engagement with Opera Queensland in the production of Aida, she readily says that Amneris is such a great role to play. In the beginning she is a harsh and wicked personality. They are a constant throughout her career. What about new roles that she would like to tackle?
I am lucky that my voice is flexible enough to do many things. There is one role she would die for, she admits, the role of Dalila in Samson et Dalila, which she did at La Scala when she was only Carmen in Sydney in will be a new opportunity for the mezzo-soprano to work with her husband Rosario.
Usually there are lots of roles for sopranos and tenors, and I am a mezzo. Luckily we do a similar kind of repertoire. The good thing also is that Rosario can understand very well why I am not with him, and why I am somewhere else performing. We both have such a passion for music and our job, and we know that we must make sacrifices. Rosario is just back in Australia after finishing his engagements in the production of Aida in Canada, and, after her success with the same work with Opera Queensland, Milijana is heading to America to explore possible engagements there.
I ask Milijana about Brisbane, where she came following her heart.
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She is still discovering Brisbane, and she enjoys this part of the journey enormously. Nick Gurovic This absolute waterfront 2 bedroom fully self-contained cottage overlooks the sparkling waters of Moreton Bay. The upper level of this unique cottage contains two bedrooms with a king-size bed in one and two singles in the other. Both rooms have superb water views. Downstairs is a spacious, open plan area with a combustion stove and modern kitchen. The dining area has a semicircle of windows offering a spectacular view of islands and waterways. Enjoy this charming cottage for a weekend of fishing, walking, bird watching or doing absolutely nothing at all.
Lamb Island is a short distance from Redland Bay - 15 minutes via fast water bus or 45 minutes via vehicular barge bookings essential. We won't share or sell your email address — it will only be used for sending you our newsletter once a month, and you can unsubscribe at any time. We asked him about his writing, and how he found success.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, Brian. Tell us a little about the book you recently placed with a publisher. It is the first in the series of "Courtenay" novels and is a "Hornblower" type book about a Royal Navy sloop-of-war hunting for pirates and privateers in the Caribbean, and in particular for a mysterious and particularly violent pirate called LeCorsair.
There was also Dudley Pope but I suppose most of my inspiration comes from the Alexander Kent novels. As to ideas, I have the wonderful works of James on the Royal Navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to fall back on, but I just use my imagination for the rest! I just had the idea to write a book of that genre, and I have to say I did not really plan it in any detail. I thought up the storyline as I went along. There have been a number of re-writes since then.
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One was published, unfortunately by a vanity publisher when I knew nothing about that side of things. I persuaded Waterstones in our town to take it and they sold 14 copies, 4 going in one morning, which they were quite pleased about! This told the story of some of the important sea-battles which led up to Trafalgar. How important do you think that track record was to you in securing your current publisher? I honestly doubt it helps to be previously published.
I think a publisher will only take on a book if they like it and think it is a good commercial proposition, not because the author may have had something published before. There is an exception of course. It seems to me that there are plenty of publishers out there who will publish whatever you write if you are famous or infamous! What were the first steps you took to try and get your book into print?
I tried the usual routes.
Writing to publishers and agents, and for the most part with the latter, getting no replies at all to even an enquiry. Most of them replied, but most of them said it was not for them To be frank, I find most literary agents incredibly rude, and I really think sometimes they do not understand what they are actually looking for to try and sell. I did use to have an agent, but he let me down very badly.
Then I found another one, and he did just the same. They both said they were sending lots of submissions when in fact they had done no such thing. What did you find was the best way to look for potential publishers? It is a very good system, and extremely helpful as a whole. Generally I make sure that publishers do publish the type of book I have written, then I send an enquiry first to see if they might be interested and it goes from there. I no longer send the first three chapters and synopsis. How long did you spend trying to place your work before you succeeded?
Some time, believe me! He was a film man primarily and I think he spent more time trying to get it made into a film than trying to sell the book. The one good thing he did do for me was to teach me how to write a screenplay. There are five completed books in the series at the moment, and three screenplays to go with them. Hopefully one day… I have lost count of the publishers I have approached. Like most aspiring authors, I received many, many rejections. You just chalk it up to experience.
I think in the end you expect them, and if there is even the shadow of an acceptance it is a pleasant surprise. Most rejections were polite and some were very nice. One big publisher only turned me down because they were about to embark on a similar period piece. Another liked the book, but felt the characters were not deep enough, although another said the characters were fine! Best Global Publishing, which is part of Chipmunkapublishing. It may be that Chipmunkapublishing will publish one of my novels as well, but I have to do some re-writes first. Best Global are publishing the first two of the series of British naval historical fiction books I have written.
Chipmunkapublishing describe themselves as a social enterprise set up to work with charities and the government to help people with mental illness, but they do also provide a printing service.