Hi everyone. I am getting a bit personal here because times are changing and music journalism is changing too. I have an exciting announcement:
I'm about to launch a new website!
I am in the process of designing a new website to meet the changing needs of arts journalism in Western Australia. I'd appreciate your thoughts on what this might look like. This is your chance to shape the face of music journalism in Perth!
The West Australian newspaper has taken over the Sunday Times, foreshadowing the changes in media ownership laws which were passed in the Senate just last week allowing greater monopoly in the Australian media industry.
The arts pages in the West Australian have covered far less of the WA arts scene and often used non-specialist writers. Last month OperaBox's entire opera season of Manon passed without a review from any of the local press.
Other media organisations have stepped up their coverage of WA in small ways: the Australian Book Review and more notably Limelight magazine have been publishing more reviews from Perth.
The online Perth Arts Live has folded and a new arts site SeeSaw Magazine has launched.
The national Senate has launched an inquiry into the Future of Public Interest Journalism. A hearing was held in May and findings will be passed down on 7th December.
I've had the opportunity to rethink the way I contribute to the arts scene. Perth has a thriving arts scene and I am more convinced than ever that I want to be part of the debate, to be known as someone who champions the WA arts scene. I've enjoyed new opportunities as a public speaker as well as expanding my writing to The Guardian, Limelight, ABR and The Australian newspaper.
Despite this I've lost a lot of income and done more work for free than I would've liked. And I've been saddened to watch the media coverage of the arts continue to shrink. Which has led me to this exciting period of developing a new website. This is where I want to hear from you:
What do you look for in conversations about the arts?
What would you be interested in hearing about?
What format works for you: podcast, listicle, reviews, interviews?
One of the benefits of the huge media shakeup is there are now so many different ways to do journalism. What do you think are the best ways to do music journalism? The best ways to document, critique and champion classical music and its practitioners?
Please post comments below or contact me at rosalindappleby(at)gmail.com
Your suggestions will be part of the new version of Noted, coming very soon!
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic coming of age novel The Great Gatsby portrays the Jazz Age in vignettes rich with imagery. The story has since been re-imagined by film makers and in 2013 by Northern Ballet director David Nixon. The lavish parties and iconic music of 1920’s America makes it an appealing genre to set to ballet and Nixon’s production captures the decadence and superficiality to perfection. The ballet was given its Australian premiere last night by the West Australian Ballet as part of artistic director Aurélien Scannella’s plan to expand the company’s conservative story ballet repertoire.
Brooke Widdison-Jacobs, Oliver Edwardson, Matthew Lehmann and Chihiro Nomura. Photos Sergey Pevnev
There were feathers and sequins galore in Dixon’s beautiful costumes: dancers floated haughtily across the stage and men in tail coats oozed good manners. Jerome Kaplan’s fluid set used sliding screens to create rooms with white curtains and large windows evoking grandeur. Tim Mitchell’s moody lighting was particularly stunning in creating a creamy opulent glow for Daisy and Jordan to lounge in feminine elegance.
But it is a tall task to distil the imagery and irony of language into a wordless ballet. There was a lot of mime and stock gestures used to establish character and narrate the story of a man relentless in his pursuit of a beautiful dream. Nixon used flashbacks to recount Gatsby’s early relationship with the young Daisy (costumed with the virginal sweetness of Little Bo Peep) and his links to the gangster underworld.
Oliver Edwardson, Chihiro Nomura and Gakuro Matsui
Richard Rodney Bennett’s music helped wonderfully. The score was a neoclassical medley of jazz numbers, orchestral music and excerpts from his film scores (Murder on the Orient Express, Nicholas and Alexandra) linked surprisingly seamlessly by orchestrator John Longstaff. The breathless energy of downtown New York was depicted in the swirling string phrases of Billion Dollar Brain, lush quotations from Partita for Orchestra set the tone for the reunion between Daisy and Gatsby and the Percussion Concerto was a nerve-rattling accompaniment to the Act II scene at Wilson’s Garage. Conductor Myron Romanul guided the WA Symphony Orchestra (and supplementary rhythm section) adeptly through the different styles with some magical solo moments from clarinet, horn, accordion and saxophone to name just a few. Pianist Graeme Gilling was the lynchpin, turning out ragtime numbers and atonal passagework with rock steady assurance.
The corps de ballet filled out the party scenes, moving through tangos, Charlestons (danced en pointe!) and a congo line, even singing along loudly to a recording of When the Midnight Choo Choo in a stand out scene in Myrtle’s apartment.
Pre-recorded music was used again in the finale but felt more contrived; Gatsby’s dream of waltzing with Daisy into a pink sunset was accompanied by I Never Went Away sung by Bennett. The transition to recorded music was clunky but it was also the most moving pas de deux of the night, as Matsui and Nomura let down their emotional reserve.
Matthew Lehmann and Melissa Boniface.
On Thursday night Oliver Edwardson was a youthful and observant Nick Carraway, bewitched by the disdainful coolness of Jordan (Brooke Widdison-Jacobs with her impossibly long, elegant legs). Matthew Lehmann was a swaggering, possessive Tom and Melissa Boniface was larger-than-life as his lover Myrtle. Her husband Wilson, the garage owner, was danced with angular conviction by Liam Green, who gave a particularly moving grief scene accompanied by a low brass chorale. Chihiro Nomura was a delicate Daisy, flitting constantly and tossed breathtakingly between the men but unable to be pinned down by Gatsby. Gakuro Matsui was Gatsby: clinical, aloof and ruthless in the pursuit of his dream.
None of the characters were unreservedly lovable; like Fitzgerald’s novel Nixon encouraged his audience to critique the flawed characters while still creating a work of enthralling beauty. An impressive accomplishment for Nixon and the team at WA Ballet.
Harriet O'Shannessy is calm, unflappable,and the owner of a deliciously creamy soprano voice which you will hear in WA Opera's The Merry Widow this weekend. These days she has an irrepressible sparkle in her eyes and bubbling energy; her company Freeze Frame Opera is succeeding beyond her wildest dreams.
What music gets your heart racing?
Cavalleria Rusticana – the fight scene between Santuzza and Turridu: “No, no Turridu” either watching it or singing it! It was the first opera I was in at WA Opera and it has a special place in my heart. I watched from the wings every night to see Dennis O’Neill and Nicole Youl singing this.
What music calms you down?
I listen to 101.7FM Capital Community Radio. Best station for golden oldies. I love it. I keep saying to anyone that’ll listen that it is not just a station for “the senior citizens of Perth”!
What do you sing along to?
I love singing along to Romeo and Juliet, (Dire Straits of course!)
Singing in the WA Opera chorus for Carmen
How are you preparing for your role as Sylviane in WA Opera's The Merry Widow which opens on July 15th?
We have had a wonderful rehearsal process with Graeme Murphy creating this show before our eyes. It is great to be involved in this original production. Sylviane is a little bit quirky and also quite naughty, so it is a lot of fun. I am a privileged Pontevedrian. I get to wear three amazing and glamorous costumes that have been designed by Jennifer Irwin. So much detail and thought has gone into every aspect of this show. This opera is going to look and sound amazing.
Mark Applebaum says music should above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?
I absolutely agree. Interesting, and it must affect my emotions. I like watching a show when I’m so involved emotionally that I want the inevitable sad to ending to change, or when I get goosebumps and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, or when something makes me cry. Music should move emotions.
You have a soft spot for opera. What is the appeal of the art form for you?
Opera has such power and passion. It has the ability to speak straight to the soul, through the power of the human voice. It is also just so impressive hearing a singer in full flight. It’s something primal and electric, and electrifying. I believe that the power to capture human emotion is the reason that opera can appeal to anyone. And, when you put that with a full orchestra…! Sensational.
How did Freeze Frame Opera come about?
I was inspired to start FFO to provide more opportunities for top quality Perth based singers to perform, and to increase opera audiences by making operas in a shortened format (like 20/20 is to test cricket, we are to grand opera), in a more intimate venue and in a more relaxed atmosphere. Camelot Theatre, where we performed La Boheme in May 2017, is perfect for that. The quality of the acting is as important as the singing. Audiences have responded to that. Also, they can take their wine into the show, and come in their ugg boots if they like. Always a good selling point.
Many would say you are mad starting FFO when opera companies around the world are going bankrupt. It is often an expensive and elite art form. What gives you hope?
It is true - you have to be a bit mad! It consumes my waking (and sleeping) thoughts! Where there’s a will there’s a way I guess. I get lots of nice, encouraging feedback. And I get kids stopping me on the hockey field to ask “How I kept my eyes open?” when Mimi died … so there’s hope there that the youngsters are getting interested!
O'Shannessy singing Mimi in La Boheme with Paul O'Neill as Rodolfo
Your debut opera La Boheme in May generated overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses from the Perth public. What is it that creates such a resonance with your audience, many of whom are opera virgins?
I think they liked our 90’s grunge Boheme because the cast were so immersed in their roles, and so well suited to their roles, it wasn’t too long – (90 mins including interval), and it is such a good opera! I love it that people new to opera are coming and willing to give opera a go. I think they connected to Boheme with Rachel McDonald’s modern setting and surtitles. We hope we’ll get them hooked. Where did you learn the skills to manage an opera company?
Definitely learning on the job! I’ve had great sounding boards in Bourby Webster (PSO), Rachel McDonald (director La Boheme) and my husband, Greg. I have collaborated with the some of the best in the business (Robbie Harrold, designer and Geoff Glencross, lighting). All have worked so hard. The singers are very much a part of the collaborative process at FFO. They even change the sets! Having produced Boheme, I feel more equipped to know what will or might come up next time. What is the most important quality required for running a business in the arts sector?
The passion has to be there. Nothing would happen without that.
How do you go about putting together an opera such as Pagliacci from scratch? It is scheduled for mid next year and I know you have already started working toward it.
I’ve locked down the dates at Camelot Theatre, the availability of the cast, and the director, musical director, designer and lighting designer. I will focus on obtaining funding, selling tickets and learning my role. Boheme was pretty successful, and we all want to make sure our next show is even better!
Creative Partnerships Australia, through MATCH LAB 2017, will match up to $10,000 in donations that we receive between now and the end of September 2017. Donations to FFO are tax deductible and details about how to donate can be found on our website: www.freezeframeopera.com. All donations are used towards furthering our aims of spreading the
love of opera, and giving opportunities to talented singers
Rachel (director) and Robbie (designer) are already busy working on their vision for the show. FFO is very much a collaborative effort. And, being, FFO, there will be some unexpected things happening in this show…. All will soon be revealed!
Children’s opera isn’t something we see a lot of in Perth but I know you have plans to change that. Is opera an art form for kids?
Yes! Thinking about this question made me think about my first experience of opera. I was in Year 7 and our wonderful, unforgettable music teacher, Miss Stevens, adapted Mozart’s The Magic Flute for us. I played Papagena. I would like to introduce more kids to the magic of opera. This December, we are planning to launch an opera designed to tour to primary schools. The opera we are working on is a shortened version of Dvorak's Rusalka (based on the Hans Christian Andersen) fairy tale. The launch will be at Camelot Theatre in Mosman Park and we'd love people to bring along their kids and grandkids, in the Christmas pantomime tradition. From 2018, we would love to offer the show as an incursion for primary school children in metropolitan and regional schools in WA.
At the opening night of La Boheme I met your greatest fan; your husband Greg is a very proud groupie! Is running Freeze Frame a whole family affair? How do you manage work/life balance with young children?
Husband groupie. That’s cool. I like it when he’s in the audience cos he cheers as though he’s at the rugby! It is certainly a family affair. Not just my husband, but the kids get involved, dropping off flyers etc. They also come to the shows. They are the motivation, and part of the team. Robbie (our designer’s) kids were helping making props for Boheme. Maybe we can even use them on stage in the near future. Mine would like that… if it meant pocket money!
What is your favourite place in Perth?
The beach. Good for the soul.
Do you have a soft spot for anything else or is life all about the music?
At the moment, outside of opera, it is all about the kids and their interests, and then there’s wine and coffee of course! I'm also a bit of a Dockers tragic.
Thank you Harriet O'Shannessy for sharing with us. You can get tickets to hear Harriet sing in The Merry Widow here, and go here to support Freeze Frame Opera and find out about future operas.
The Eisteddfod was the work that really kicked off the career of Melbourne-based playwright Lally Katz over a decade ago and its Perth debut by the Black Swan State Theatre Company directed by Jeffrey Jay Fowler is well overdue. Katz’s opera The Rabbits premiered in Perth a few years ago so it was good to see Katz in her home territory.
The Eisteddfod is a multi-layered work that depicts the claustrophobic lives of two orphaned children trapped in their memories and fears of the outside world. Or as Katz puts it in an authorial voice over that accompanies the work, it shows ‘their happy lives alone and afraid of the world together.”
Natalie Holmwood, Brendan Ewing. Photos by Daniel James Grant.
Katz’s script is loaded with this kind of sardonic melancholy, a humour that having no time for pathos cuts straight to the quick. She is OK with scenes twisting uncomfortably in and out of humour and pain as the siblings Abalone and Gerture play out their memories and longings through various fantasies.
Tyler Hill’s set was a large grimy room with a bunk bed, some wardrobes and a filthy toilet. Boxes litter the room packed with items of nostalgia and bringing a sense of temporary stasis, arrested development. Lucy Birkinshaw’s flouro lighting was overwhelming artificial, with no sense of daylight or fresh air. Brett Smith’s unobtrusive sound design included retro pop songs and a sweetly naive piano melody.
The plot revolved around Abalone’s desire to compete in an Eisteddfod together playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Shakespearean soliloquies were rehearsed in thick Scottish accents, including a hilarious scene where Lady Macbeth invites Macbeth to dance and a small disco ball appears from under a box, accompanied by an eighties love song.
Brendan Ewing was a lanky, fragile Abalone. His large twitching hands and flexibly expressive face reminded me simultaneously of Johnny Depp, and also Garry McDonald in his moments of pathetic Mother and Son self interest. The ‘History of the Eisteddfod’ scene was delightful, Ewing revealing more through his body language about the characters than the competition.
Natalie Holmwood as Gerture was diminutive in every sense of the word, pining for her masochistic lover Ian, desperately seeking refuge in mediocrity and weary with frustration. Her warped understanding of life and love (“How can you not love someone after all the times you’ve touched arms in the ad breaks?”) begins to make sense as the fantasies are played out. “Be Ian”, she begs her brother, a little while later taking on the role of “Mum” for her brother in a world where hovering memories continue to break in, pinning and trapping them.
The performance in the Eisteddfod wasn’t the moment of dramatic triumph Abalone was hoping for, neither does it return his sister to him as he had planned. A quote from Macbeth “All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death’” foreshadows the sad end.
It sounds grim, but it wasn’t. Katz has a Winton-esque ability to create characters whose messy lives are deeply loveable. Ewing and Holmwood give gripping, multi-hued portrayals for 70 minutes of deeply enthralling theatre.
The Eisteddfod by Lally Katz will run at Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA until 9th July.
This review first published Limelight Magazine, June 2017.
The Midland Railway Workshops stretch for a kilometre in the heart of Midland’s old industrial area. The enormous warehouses now house among other things the WA Police Operations Centre and medical centre as part of the Midland redevelopment. On Wednesday night one end of a vast still-vacant warehouse was cordoned off to become a venue for Perth Symphony Orchestra’s Steampunk Mozart.
Perth Symphony Orchestra in the Midland Railway Workshops. Photo Richard Jefferson
The smell of Viennese schnitzel, a life size steampunk dalek and remnants of machinery set the scene. Beneath the hum of voices could be heard thuds, blips and the rush of steam; a sound installation evoking the industrial sounds of days gone by.
The mission of PSO Director Bourby Webster and her creative team is to bring classical music into unexpected settings and to people in all walks of life. In this instance the pairing of Mozart with the sci-fi fashion genre of steampunk was marketing genius. The sold out audience of loyal fans, Midland locals and art lovers (many decked out in neo-Victorian hoop skirts, boots and top hats) wandered the space in delight, taking in the industrial history, the coloured spot lighting, the Mozart-inspired Viennese food and, of course, the music.
And the music is where PSO unfailingly gets it right; with clever programming and world class playing this concert moved well beyond gimmicky ideas. The program opened with a classical flourish with a movement of Mendelssohn’s Octet led with boisterous energy by Paul Wright on violin, followed by the immense calm of the Adagio from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Hugely popular yet never sounding tired, the Adagio was played (despite the odd memory slip) with poised serenity by clarinettist Catherine Cahill. A Mozart duet for violin and viola was less memorable – a lack of clear pulse made the dialogue between the two instruments difficult to follow.
Jessica Gethin leading a chamber version of the Perth Symphony Orchestra
The program moved into eerie territory with Schnittke’s Moz-Art á la Haydn, conducted by Jessica Gethin with Wright and Lucas O’Brien as soloists. Schnittke’s montage of Haydn and Mozart quotes mashed with discordant harmonies was the perfect soundscape for the building. The swaying gothic skirts of the orchestral players, the dim lighting and the chords echoing beyond the spotlights into the long warehouse added to the slightly macabre edge.
Two movements from Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 8 (arrranged for string orchestra) followed on beautifully. Gethin drew out an intensely melancholic Largo and the Allegro molto movement had a visceral energy. The program took another twist to include Albinoni/Giazotto’s Adagio for Strings. Again a well-known work sounded fresh with a relentless pizzicato bass line and lyrical melody generating heart-tugging climaxes.
Jessica Gethin and the PSO. Photo Richard Jefferson
The final surprise on the program was three percussionists who literally played the building, starting in the scaffolding and working their way to the front of the stage for a train inspired adaption of Argenziano’s Stinkin’ Garbage. Industrial noise mingled with whistles and shouts to reconstruct the sounds of the venue in its workshop days. The evening closed with Mozart’s Divertimento in D, directed with finesse by Wright. The sparse phrases of the slow movement in particular can be so unforgiving but they were immaculately contoured - the epitome of elegance and the sign of a tight ensemble.
It was an impressive night, full of creativity and multiple opportunities to connect. Another indication that if you dig below the surface in Perth’s classical music scene to the small-medium arts sector you will discover the future of classical music is in very good hands.
This review first published in Limelight Magazine 2017.
Robert Braham has been conducting Perth choirs for decades with the kind of magic that can extract joyful, enthusiastic singing even from teenage school boys. His new ensemble Voyces is attracting attention for its clean, fresh sound. They have performed at the opening of the 2016 Perth International Arts Festival, collaborated with artists the calibre of Emma Matthews and Sara Macliver and built a reputation for commissioningAustralian composers. Voyces' debut album will be launched this week at a concert called Hush.
Robert Braham. Photos Nic Babic Photography
What music gets your heart racing? Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto springs to mind but virtuosic jazz playing is just as good. Wycliffe Gordon on trombone is a current favourite but I always come back to Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra where everyone is a virtuoso player. What calms you down? There are some wonderful current composers of choral music and vocal solos. Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (No. 3, Op. 36) for soprano and orchestra is just the ticket but on the a cappella choral side the works of Ola Gjeilo, Paul Mealor and others are both rich and calming at the same time. These and other modern choral composers know how to write so expressively for choir. Voyces will do some Ola Gjeila in their September concert. What do you sing along to? Symphonies mainly. I think this comes from my time as a horn player, especially the Romantic repertoire. Of course I cannot help but sing along with the symphonic choir repertoire; Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the works of Vaughan Williams. The list would be long. It is what I conducted for 14 years with the Perth Oratorio Choir.
What was your original vision behind the creation of Voyces choir?
The original vision behind Voyces was a youth aged choir who would sing a lot of contemporary classical music and especially Australian composers. After the WA Youth Music Association choir finished up a group of ex Trinity College boys who were members of the WAYMA Chorale wanted to start a new choir. It was based in St Joseph’s Church in Subiaco for a while and so was called the St Joseph’s Chamber Choir. Now we are based at Trinity College but still have our annual Christmas concert at St Joseph’s. The age of the choir has also expanded.
The choir membership has always been based on selecting highly trained musicians who get what it is to sing quality choral contemporary music. They don’t all have to be highly trained singers but they do need to have good musical skills and be quick learners. We love presenting quality modern choral works that our audience will enjoy. Sometimes that involves breaking down the traditional choir model of stand and sing. At our Spin concert, last year, we had several pieces where the choir moved around the stage while singing with images projected onto a screen and one piece where we started in the auditorium with a dramatized political narrative and ended on stage with some very intense singing. You can pretty well guarantee that the audience will hear works they have never heard before at a Voyces concert. Always interesting but also accessible. With our June 10 concert the program will be all Australian works including works for choir, percussion and strings. Every piece is novel and musically wonderful.
Voyces sing Night by Matthew Orlovich, 2016.
How are you preparing for the Hush concert on June 10th at the Government House Ballroom? The preparation for the concert is tied in with the preparation for the recordings. The choir is doing such detailed work for the recording that it is ideal for concert preparation. The difference is we mainly sing concerts from memory but record with the scores so we have yet to test how the memorization is going. I am sure with all the recording time the memory work will almost take care of itself. Fingers crossed. Voyces will also release an album as part of this concert – why did you decide to make an album? Our public has been asking about a CD recording for quite a while now. It is time I think to put some of the repertoire down that we think defines who we are as a choir. We were also very keen to record ‘Hooves of Fate’, a work we commissioned from Australian composer Dan Walker as well as other pieces that we either premiered, or, were versions of compositions that have not been recorded. Voyces has commissioned and performed a significant amount of new choral music in the five years since its inception. Why is it important to be singing music by contemporary Australian composers? There are wonderful young and established Australian composers writing choral music. There are also a multitude of good choirs in Australia these days. They should be championing Australian music. I love building the relationship between a choir and a composer. It is a very personal thing having music written for your choir. It also comes with great challenges and ultimately (even with an open conversation between the composer and yourself) the end result can still be full of wonderful musical surprises. I have never been disappointed with a commissioned work. You have to trust but also be prepared to take a risk. At Trinity College we commissioned Paul Jarman to write a work for the Senior Chorale for our USA tour. Paul warned me that it was not what our original intentions had been but thought I and more importantly the boys would love it. He even left a section open to workshop with the boys over a weekend. By the end of the weekend the boys owned and knew the piece. It was a great hit. If anyone has a youth male choir try it. It is called ‘Let Go of My Hand’. Mark Applebaum says music should above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music? That is the million-dollar question. Music is tied up with life, with the evolution of humans since before language. It is a part of every culture. It represents the extremes of emotion, it lifts us and it calms us. It is a great discipline to be involved with for there are so many skills in the art of music making. It lights up more of the brain than most other human activities so it has to be mentally healthy as well. It is something we all should have in our lives at some level. I think it was the great conductor Zubin Mehta commenting on an orchestral concert in the middle east who said something like: while the audience is absorbed in the music they at least have peace in their lives. It is a nice thought.
Voyces with Sara Macliver at St Joseph's Church Subiaco
You have a soft spot for choral music – why the voice? Choirs were not my first choice of music making. I sang at school but mainly played orchestral music through university. Eight years in the orchestral pit with the Western Australian Arts Orchestra playing for opera in particular was a great education watching conductors and singers interact. My first real conducting work was in music theatre. From there I took on the Perth Oratorio Choir and discovered a whole world of large-scale choral music. So getting into choral work happened slowly at first and was paralleled by conducting opportunities. Your day job is director of music at Trinity College. The only time most Aussies practice communal singing (!) is at the footy – how do you go about teaching school boys to sing? There is a great culture of singing at Trinity established over many years. Boys need to be given the chance to sing with other boys and the more the merrier. If you can get them through the vocal transition successfully they progress from loving their treble voices to loving their mature voices. They love bold sounds, they love rich harmonies and they love rhythmic interest. And if they love it they bring their mates. If you can build a culture where the whole senior school sings then developing expressive choral singing in teenage boys is just a refinement. It is always hard work but once they are hooked with quality repertoire there is no turning back. We also make sure the younger boys get the opportunity to hear the older boys. Aspiration means a lot in a boys’ school and a bit of competition never hurts.
Voyces perform Tanguendo by Oscar Escalada with
dancers Geoff Hendrikse and Jelena Martinovic, 2016.
The choir will be heading to Choralfest later this month. What will your role be there? Voyces is a guest choir at Choralfest. It is our second venture to the Australian National Choral Association festival. We will sing two separate programs of Australian music from our CD along with other fine Australian choirs. It is a great chance to network for the choristers and conductors and there will be wonderful international people there to work with and learn from. It is not often that choirs of this level actually get together and sing to a choral community so it is a real buzz. Always a bit of pressure but that will sharpen the performance. Where did you learn the skills to direct a choir? On the job would have to be the best answer to this question. Attending master classes and symposiums, observing and discussing conducting with other conductors and then implementing changes to what you do over many years. It is an ongoing process. Recently I attended the Vancouver Chamber Choir conductors’ symposium working with Jon Washburn. It was an intense week working with a professional choir but it was highly motivating. Can you describe the unique sound of Voyces? It is the sound of young, switched on musicians who love what they do. It is fresh, clean and always exciting.
Robert Braham
What is your favourite place in Perth? I love our back garden. It is such a calming place to sit and enjoy. I have always loved the view of the city from Kings Park. It must be one of the best city views in Australia. I also love the combination of the old and new in some of Perth’s architecture – like St Mary’s Cathedral and of course the Mt Lawley strip for Saturday morning shopping. Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music? I love art especially pastels and used to do quite a bit of drawing. Maybe it is something I will get back to when life is not so hectic. The gym has become quite addictive in recent years. I am also a sucker for good Nordic Noir and BBC dramas. Of course there is always the cricket. Thank you to Robert Braham for participating in the Celebrity Soft Spot series. Voyces will launch their debut CD at the Hush concert on June 10th. For more information about upcoming concerts go to the Voyces website or check them out on Facebook.
June is a rich month of music for all the ages; dive in and enjoy!
It is particularly action-packed for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra who will present four mainstage orchestral concerts plus the explosive energy of Education Week with its multiple concerts for children and their families.
On June 2/3rd
WASO have a colourful program planned with Stravinsky's Firebird Suite and Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun plus winner of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition Ayako Uehara making her WASO debut performing Bartók’s Piano Concerto No.3. On the 9/10th the guest artist is Stefan Dohr, principal horn from the Berlin Philharmonic, performing Strauss' Horn Concerto - WOW! Then the world of jazz takes over with concerts on the 16/17th with leading Australian stage and screen stars in a modern and
audacious take on all-time swing classics from Sinatra to Bublé. On the 30/1st Chopin expert Louis Lortie Plays Chopin’s Concerto no 1 in a program which also includes Dvorak's Seventh
Symphony
This year for Education Week (19-25th) WASO has invited award winning British composer and music educationist Paul
Rissmann us for a week-long musical adventure exploring gorgeous
children's books across a variety of interactive programs. The concerts include school shows Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants, The Beat of Your Feet and The Lion Who Loved plus a Conductor Masterclass with Ben Northey. The Rusty Orchestra is also back with a concert on the 24th June featuring community musicians playing alongside WASO players in a concert with the biggest amount of heart you're likely to hear.
If you have children come with us on Sunday
25th - we will be checking out the family concert The Beat of Your Feet, about a music-loving dog and cat and their musical
adventure to find the Greatest Orchestra in the World. The concert is a mix of music, illustrated projections and audience participation, based
on the book Stan and Mabel by Jason Chapman with vocals by Libby Hammer.
Meanwhile the rest of the music community has some lovely offerings this month, including two particularly stunning vocal concerts: the Giovanni Consort singing French Chansons on the 4th, and Voyces on the 10th celebrating their fifth anniversary with a concert of all-Australian music and the launch of their debut album Hush.
On the 11th there is a a triple whammy with the Darlington Trio offering Brahms, Musica Viva launching their national tour of the Pacifica Trio (including a world premiere by Nigel Westlake) and the experimental trio The Necks presented by Tura New Music.
Perth Chamber Orchestra (the little sister of Perth Symphony) is performing an intriguing concert in Midland on the 14th called Steampunk Mozart, which promises industrial-inspired music, food, wine, a sound installation and the magic of Mozart conducted by Jessica Gethin. Then in larger form the Perth Symphony Orchestra will also perform on the 27th with the WA Academy of Performing Arts Gospel Choir in a concert dedicated to the music of George Michael.
Also on at WAAPA this month is the second and third year students performance of 42nd Street opening on the 17th.
If you were to pick your favourite gig for the year what would it be?
It's been a privilege to attend so many concerts this year - often as a critic - where I've been delighted (and sometimes surprised!) by the quality of the shows. What a fabulous job I have! It's often a huge effort to extract small children from my legs and get out the door, but I have not yet been disappointed. Perhaps it is because I choose the best concerts! Or perhaps it is because Perth is producing increasingly high quality gigs.
Ileana Rinaldi, Emma Pettermerides, Emma Pearson, Harriet O'Shannessy, Simon Morrison-Baldwin and Jun Zhang. Photo Eva Fernandez
The launch of Freeze Frame Opera in November was one of the surprises. I knew the cast would be excellent but I didn't expect the effort that had gone into the production; the lighting, choreography, props (a combi van!), the narration all communicated powerfully with the audience. It was an edgy and exciting combination of venue, performers and music. Due to popular demand a sequel is being planned for February 2017!
Another surprise was a venture into theatre reviewing for Limelight Magazine which introduced me to the satirical genius of Moliere's Tartuffe. I will long remember the glossy white set and fabulously comic performances from this Black Swan Theatre show.
Simon Tedeschi demonstrated the ultimate piano recital at the WA Academy of Performing Arts with his candid audience interactions and soulful performances of Gershwin.
There was a very enthusiastic audience response to a program of Australian contemporary composers at a concert by Katie Noonan and the Brodsky Quartet. The many layers of artistic richness - Judith Wright's poems reinterpreted through composition and then shaped by the artistry of the musicians - resulted in an intensely beautiful concert.
The gong this year goes collectively to Perth's blossoming opera companies. Brad Cohen's magic potion at work at WA Opera resulted in a hilarious Elixir of Love and a gripping production of Tim Winton's The Riders. Perth's operatic renaissance is also thanks to the grassroots company Opera Box who blew me away with an ambitious and very funny Ariadne auf Naxos, and my favourite this year: Lost & Found's Don Procopio with a bombshell cast and more layers of meaning than you would find in an onion.
That's my overview for 2016, but I didn't make it to everything so let me know what I might have missed and what your favourites were.
Cheers to all involved in creating, producing and enjoying live music in Perth. THANK YOU for a fabulous year and toi toi toi for 2017
The launch of Freeze Frame Opera on Thursday night was everything they promised it would be: affordable, accessible, appealing and #noboringbits!!! Opera at the Movies was my first review for Australian Book Review. You can read an excerpt below and for the full review go to the ABR Arts Update.
Harriet O'Shannessy, founder of Freeze Frame Opera. Photo Eva Fernandez
Opera
is dead, the scare-mongers have been warning us for years. Yet Perth is witnessing an operatic renaissance with the launch this week of the third new
company in six years. The emergence of the organic, grassroots organisations is
all the more miraculous given the devastation inflicted on the small to medium
arts sector by government funding cuts in May. The new opera companies are distinctive
for their flexibility, open-mindedness and their ability - despite Perth’s
post-boom economic downturn – to attract a diverse and enthusiastic audience. How
has it happened? Is it the quality of the singers, the compact well-networked
art scene, a nose for where to find money or the WA entrepreneurial spirit?
At the Movies set. Photo Rosalind Appleby
The
launch of Freeze Frame Opera involved all of the above. ‘Opera at the Movies’ opened
on November 17th and was sold out across four nights. Audience
members collected their free popcorn on arrival at Pakenham Street Art Space (a
converted Fremantle warehouse). Children on beanbags formed the front row
around a stage built from a kombi-van, a staircase and an upright piano. The
van was obviously chosen for the first number on the program, the infamous
scene from Priscilla Queen of the Desert featuring Verdi’s “Sempre libera... Follie!”
belted from the top of a bus. The drag queen was enacted by performance artist
Lady Diamond (Simon Morrison-Baldwin) in silver spandex, the aria was sung by
soprano Emma Pearson and excerpts from the film were projected on a screen.
Lady Diamond then took on the role of narrator and the evening continued with various
movies providing a launch pad for different operatic numbers...
To continue reading go to https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/arts-update/opera-and-music/101-arts-update/3698-freeze-frame-opera-launch
The WA Symphony Orchestra heads off on an international tour next week and I am feeling a pang of pride!
It is the orchestra's first tour in ten years. Asher Fisch is conducting three concerts this weekend to showcase the tour repertoire: Mahler 5, Sulthorpe's Kakadu, assorted Wagner repertoire and Saint-Saens.
Fisch conducts tour repertoire at the morning concert today.
The tour begins October 6th in the United Arab Emirates where WASO has been invited to open the Abu Dhabi Classics Season, the first Australian major arts organisation to perform in the UAE. The tour continues to Beijing and Shanghai and is reminiscent of the 2006 trip to China when I accompanied the orchestra as a critic. Jean Yves Thibaudet is obviously still popular with Chinese audiences and will be soloist again in Saint Saens' Piano Concert No 5. The Chinese publicity folk have again been prescriptive with their repertoire advice; Shostakovich 10 has been swapped for the more traditional Mahler 5 which the orchestra performed last tour. And again a film crew is travelling with the orchestra, but this time the focus of the documentary seems to be the cultural rather than the business exchange.
The China leg also includes two school concerts and a masterclass. The tour is expected to build on the growing partnership between WASO, the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Australia China Business Council. I am relieved to see the emphasis this time round on the cultural aspects of the tour, over and above the business and trade relationships which were the overriding focus in 2006.
Colin Barnett and Asher Fisch, with three Chinese musicians in WASO
The 2016 tour seems like a good fit for an orchestra who boasts less these days about their enviable sponsorship and business foundation and more about the quality of the music making. It's been a subtle shift over the past few years with the gradual change of administrative staff and under the leadership of Paul Daniel and now especially Asher Fisch. For people like me who love their orchestra it has been welcomed with a sigh of relief.
In 2006 the cracks in the orchestra showed as administration fired conductor Matthias Bamert at the commencement of the tour, overlooked basic musician requirements like access to safe drinking water, and where the musicians played to empty concert halls.
I believe the orchestra is the strongest and most balanced it has ever been musically, administratively and financially. I don't envisage any of the dramas of the last trip. I wish them well and look forward to hearing of their international success.
Forgive the weighty title but a series of events recently have left me contemplating the future of the industry I work in.
Last month The West Australian lost forty staff or the equivalent of one quarter of its work force. The job losses were mostly redundancies taken by staff including a senior editor who expressed disillusionment with journalism's clickbait-generated focus on kittens, puppies and Kim Kardashian's behind.
It's sad to see the paper losing such quality staff. But perhaps those taking redundancies are the lucky ones. The resultant reshuffle at the paper has resulted in overworked staff covering multiple roles often in areas they have no interest or knowledge.
It has also spelled the end for freelance contributors. After fifteen years of writing for the paper I was told my contributions were no longer required. In-house staff would now be covering the arts reviews. Almost the entire freelance section for the arts pages has been cut in a huge loss of industry knowledge for the paper.
Seven West Media's proposed acquisition of the Sunday Times is another issue creating uncertainty in the local journalism world. There are concerns about the impact of a media monopoly caused by the amalgamation of the state's two newspapers and Chanel Seven television. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will hand down its findings on Thursday 15th September. The West has given no indication what it plans to do with the Sunday Times and journalists everywhere are holding their breath.
The situation in WA is a mirror of what has been happening on the east coast and all over the world in the past 5-10 years. The rise of digital news has meant not only less readers for traditional print media but also less advertising revenue. There is now more news content available than there is advertising dollars to support it.
Arts Journalism in Crisis
The losses seem most acute in areas of journalism that require in-depth investigation and specialist knowledge. The arts in particular are taking a hit - very few papers or websites are publishing classical music reviews. It is an international crisis for the arts industry. Whether The West intends to allocate reviews to non-specialists or to cut the arts reviews entirely, it spells an unhealthy future for WA's thriving arts industry.
I believe criticism is an essential part of a healthy arts scene. Reviews don't just provide artists with grabs for their self promotion; a good review will also evaluate and creatively express the experience for the audience, interrogate the concepts being presented and hold accountable organisations who are often receiving substantial government and philanthropic funding to pursue their artform. The contribution of critics should provoke debate, inspire excellence, and above all celebrate the art form. My (rather lofty!) endeavour is that my words will have the same richness, integrity and excellence as the music being performed on the stage.
The Arts pages were one of the few areas in The West's pages that were focusing on local news. Like local sport these events are created by locals, attended by locals and should be covered by the local paper. The WA Symphony Orchestra's artistic manager Evan Kennea predicted the biggest impact on WASO would be felt not by conductor Asher Fisch whose career is already internationally established, but by people like composer-in-residence Lachlan Skipworth whose composition for the 2017 program may not get reviewed. If the local paper doesn't cover it, who will?
Well of course there are the bloggers, some of whom do classical music reviews. There are issues with online writing though. Firstly it requires discernment by the reader because not every blogger is the expert they appear. Secondly, it doesn't pay! Digital revenue has bypassed news sites and gone to Facebook, Google, Seek etc. I don't know any online blogger making an income as a music journalist. It is mostly volunteer work, which makes it difficult to buy food! (Read an interesting post about disillusionment with blogging by UK critic Jessica Duchen here.)
Photo by Tom van Hoogstraten
What will the future be?
At a Future of Journalism panel discussion in Fremantle earlier this month there was a lot of shrugging going on. No one really knows what the future will look like. The trends are changing so often and the leading newspapers in the UK and US are madly leaping between online/print/paywalls/free content to try and stay ahead.
What was most clear from the panel is the conversation has changed. News is no longer the property of the traditional media figureheads. Facebook and Google hold the reigns of news distribution and the increase in public interaction around news gathering and sharing means journalists must now participate in a dialogue. Many journalists are morphing into 'content gatherers', 'infotainers', 'aggregators'.
Apparently none of this is new. The arrival of CNN Cable News revolutionised the news 36 years ago. More newspapers died in the 60's when TV arrived than are folding today. The news industry has survived cataclysmic changes before.
There is hope.
Martin Turner, sub editor from Community News pointed out that social media has started to address the (im)balance of power inherent in newsrooms which until now has been dominated by white middle class men.
Joseph Fernandez, associate professor in journalism at Curtin University says there is hope; 'the fourth estate' is not in danger. There is still power in telling a story and giving information. So how do we maintain a (paid) presence for investigative specialist journalism?
I've recently heard two success success stories worth sharing.
Peter Law, head of news at the Sunday Times, painted a surprisingly healthy picture of WA's Sunday paper. The paper is bucking the trend and has in fact increased its readership by 3.5% or in real terms an additional 17 000 readers. Their online website Perth Now is Perth's most popular news site with a viewing increase of 16% this year. Together the Sunday Times and Perth Now have 1.5 million readers. Their staff team is small, young, innovative and attracting a younger readership. They are also breaking significant stories that are generating the WA news cycle.
Peter argued that print carries gravitas and can be a force for change. His paper's focus is on content that is important but also readable. Sunday Times journalists are being creative about delivery and working alongside program designers to make their content attractive.
When Andrew Batt-Rawden discovered in 2013 that Limelight magazine - Australia's national dedicated arts magazine - was on the verge of insolvency he declared 'not on my watch'. He purchased the magazine and under his management and the editorial leadership of Clive Paget the glossy monthly has grown from a debt-ridden shrinking magazine to breaking even. Batt-Rawden has doubled advertising revenue and expanded the magazine's previously eastern-biased coverage of events to a a more national focus. It is now the only national print media to be providing coverage of arts events in Perth.
While the magazine's subscriptions continue to fall, the online website is hugely popular. The magazine is about to launch an Australian Cultural Fund campaign to overhaul its website and broaden its coverage. Batt-Rawden is also investigating nanotransactions as an alternative to a paywall and a philanthropically-inspired 'Friends' patronage system. He is one the few in the arts industry I've spoken to who is thinking innovatively about how to continue and enrich arts journalism in the digital age.
What do you think?
I'm interested in hearing stories about how the changes in WA's media landscape are effecting those in the arts industry and those consuming the news.
Is anyone else missing reviews from their favourite arts critic? Are there people worried about where to send their press release? Who is wondering what gigs to go to or how last night's concert was received?
Perhaps someone has a favourite source of arts news they can share. Or a story of hope?
And I'll do my best to keep you posted about how I go finding a way to do arts journalism in this uncertain world!
