Celebrity Soft Spot Carolyn Chard

This year the West Australian Opera celebrates its 50th anniversary and at the helm is Carolyn Chard, general manager for nearly two decades. Carolyn worked in arts management across multiple platforms in Perth before discovering opera. She shares a glimpse of the inner workings of the company and why 'music is the strongest form of magic'.

What music gets your heart racing?

Dance music with a heavy beat, the kind you feel in your body on a dance floor.
Beautiful music, music that speaks to your soul  (too many to name plus depends what mood I am in; today maybe Parsifal overture, Mahler 5; tomorrow I would name others). Some renditions of Ave Maria just melt me; at other times I dissolve listening to Nick Cave’s Into My Arms.

What calms you down?

Massage
Walking on the beach
Beautiful music

What do you sing along to?

‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams (although you don’t want me to).

This year WA Opera celebrates its 50th year. The company has been collecting stories and memories from past cast and audience members. What have you learned about WA Opera from these?

That there is an appreciation for the company and a memory bank that is very personal and individual to many patrons; that the company has made an impact on collective memory. The stories are all on the website and worth reading at waopera.asn.au.

Carolyn with the ‘hero image’ marketing team

What is the role of an opera company in a city like Perth?

To present the artform in a beautiful theatre, to maintain the tradition of grand opera in an isolated city.

You walk something of a tightrope balancing traditional repertoire with bold contemporary repertoire like new works by Richard Mills and Iain Grandage. How do you navigate the responsibilities of expanding your audience while also retaining traditional subscribers?

It’s a risk every time and actually hard to navigate or balance through the level of risk you are willing to expose the company to. How do you measure what that success looks like? Is it financial success at the box office? Artistic success? What if you have one without the other? Is it still worth the investment event at the cost of forgoing other work?

The WA Opera team is a small family. International singers often talk about the warm welcome they receive when performing here. What is special for you about your team?

I try to engender a caring culture where we welcome and look after people, Many years ago a theatre director pointed out to me that we trade in human emotion, that’s our widget, our product. It means that we have to look after that carefully and that boils down to looking after people. I work with some wonderful, committed, energetic and enthusiastic people who love the company and the theatre, who have a passion for opera and who take great  pride in our singers, our chorus, our creative colleagues and WASO musicians.

In your other life (before opera) you were in banking and fashion design. You worked in management roles for Barking Gecko and Deckchair before heading into opera in 2001. What was the appeal of opera?

At Wesfarmers Centenary Dinner with her daughter

I studied fashion design. I worked in banking. I promoted bands, events and DJs in clubs during the dance music and rave scene in the eighties and nineties (The Prodigy, Blackbox, Kevin Saunderson, Dream Frequency, Sasha). I did the arts management degree at WAAPA and moved into theatre management at Deckchair Theatre and Barking Gecko Theatre (during this tenure we established the Awesome Festival). I worked with Black Swan Theatre, Perth Theatre Company and Kulcha. I met Richard Mills when we co-produced the Britten children’s opera Noyes Fludde/Noah’s Flood and he encouraged me to consider the management role with opera. He taught me much about the artform and engendered a passion for producing and presenting opera. I worked with my Australian opera colleagues at Opera Conference and was invited to a dual senior management position with Opera Australian based out of Sydney and Melbourne offices. I was invited to resume the general manager’s role with WAO when my successor moved to the CEO position with WASO.

What are you proudest of in your years with WA Opera?

I have worked in opera now for almost two decades, in two stints as General Manager with this company split by a few years with the national opera company based out of both Sydney and Melbourne. I am proud of presenting and producing two of Richard Mills’s works, both new operas with the Perth Festival – Batavia, which was commissioned by Opera Australia as part of the Centenary of Federation and first presented in Melbourne in 2000, and The Love of the Nightingale which was part of the Wesfarmers Arts Commissioning Series. Both operas were composed and conducted by Richard Mills and both directed by Lindy Hume. They had a special rapport which translated well on stage. On opening night of Batavia in Perth the CEO of Opera Australia turned to me and shook my hand and congratulated me on getting the work into the theatre and onto the stage (it was a production that I had been told ‘would not fit the Maj’ and, with my clever Production Manager Mandy Farmer, we found a way to store some of the scenery between Acts in containers on the street)

You are one of a very few women heading up an arts company in WA. Any ideas why there aren’t more women in management roles?

Sometimes it just cyclical – there have been times when the four major companies in WA have been headed by women. Right now three of the four majors have women leaders (Nat Jenkins at Black Swan and Jess Machin at the ballet while my predecessor Craig Whitehead heads WASO).

WA Opera's first mainstage production for the year is opera Tosca which opens on March 28th with Antoinette Halloran in the title role, Paul O’Neill as Cavaradossi and Teddy Tahu Rhodes returning as Scarpia. Perth audiences last saw Tosca in 2011. What does this New Zealand production by Stuart Maunder have to offer?

Stuart is a wonderful colleague with great insights into character and story as well as understanding the music and the genius of it. For this particular season Stuart and I actually negotiated a production swap – he has enabled us to present the New Zealand Opera production of Tosca which he directs and I have enabled him to take the WAO Lindy Hume production of Carmen so effectively we swapped productions.

Teddy has sung Scarpia here for me before and I am so pleased that we have Antoinette in her debut with this company – and in role suited so well to her – and also delighted to welcome Paul O’Neill back after many years in Germany (he left as a young man and has returned, with his beautiful family including four children, to make his home base in Western Australia again)

Mark Applebaum says music should be above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?

I think music should make you feel. Or just ‘does’ make you feel.

I love a quote from Marilyn Manson that ‘music is the strongest form of magic’.

I mentioned the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams and there’s a quote from Rusty Rueff contemplating why that song become such a global hit; he said ‘I think its because at the time the world was looking for something…we were recovering from a recession, war and many other things…and we needed a movement of hopefulness that allowed us to stop the madness for a moment and pick us up. Will it be timeless? Maybe for the generation who were in the heart of the trouble. Maybe they will reflect back on this time and remember this song and make it timeless’.

Where did you learn the skills to manage an opera company?

I did the three-year arts management degree at WAAPA which, some twenty five years ago, included foundations of law, economics, human resource management, marketing, business management in the main ECU stream as well as full involvement in arts campus life doing front of house, publicity, ticketing and so on. Before that and after that it was about learning on the job. Plus I think you need a natural aptitude for the skills required. You need to have a passion and love for the work each day. The hours are long and there is no corporate paypack so it’s usually an intrinsic reward we chase.

You were involved in the #artsmatters push to get arts into the pre-election political debate. What’s it going to take to get arts on the radar of our major political parties? 

The central premise of that campaign is very simple; that the arts matter. The arts matter to all of us. We all need to lead on this. Everyone is impacted by the arts. It’s up to each of us to engage, promote and participate in the arts, all arts: performing arts, visual arts, literary arts, music, film, design, libraries, dance, comedy, circus, puppetry, mime, books, magazines, apps, games, fashion, writing, singing, dancing, acting.

With a new state government we have a fresh start to engage. I want everyone to get the message that so many others articulate better than me:

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life

 (Pablo Picasso)

Art is the only serious thing in the world

 (Oscar Wilde)

If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams 

(Yann Martel, Life of Pi)

Running through Melbourne streets to an Opera Australia meeting.

What do you have a soft spot for?

I love words and music. Two of my favourite quotes are from The Little Prince: ‘The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart’. And another, which to me applies not only to music but to values I hold true like kindness and truth and love, is: ‘And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye’.


Thank you to Carolyn Chard for participating in the Celebrity Soft Spot series. Tosca opens on March 28th. For more information go to WA Opera. 

Alexandre Da Costa and the Indian Ocean Ensemble

It is two and a half years into Alexandre Da Costa’s appointment as associate professor at the WA Academy of Performing Arts. On Friday night 26th August the Canadian violinist led the elite students from the Indian Ocean Ensemble in a concert which, while not flawless, revealed that his enthusiasm and immense musicality are rubbing off.

The concert, titled Vienna to Berlin by Night, opened with a darkly flavoured performance of Richard Strauss’ Capriccio. The ensemble (supplemented by teaching staff) captured Strauss’ weighty Germanic soundworld and over this Da Costa’s gleaming ‘Di Barbaro’ Stradivarius violin sang with haunting beauty.

The masterworks by Beethoven and Schoenberg as promised in the publicity didn’t eventuate. Instead the remainder of the concert featured Viennese waltzes by Johann Strauss which revealed there are still some obvious growth areas.

The waltzes were arranged for harmonium, piano and string quartet by Berg and Schoenberg. The smaller ensemble size meant there was nowhere to hide and issues with pitch and timing began to emerge. Lagunen-Walzer lost its poise as the rhythm tumbled forward filling all the spaces between notes. Wein, Weib und Gesang suffered from clashes in tuning. I admit I expected better.

What the students lacked in fundamentals they made up for with spirit. Decisive leadership from the first violin in Rosen aus dem Suden gave the dance a playful energy that was a reminder of the waltz’s origins as a rustic folk dance. Kaiser-Walzer (written in tribute to the Kings of Germany and Austria, a historical note which would have illuminated the theme of the concert had it been explained to the audience) had moments of delicacy and muscle, the addition of flute and clarinet adding to the fairy-floss sweetness.

The large ensemble regrouped with Da Costa at the helm again for an elegantly impassioned Blue Danube and the famous Radetzy March which was supplemented by percussionists and enthusiastic audience participation. It was a fitting finale to a concert that for all its technical flaws showed spirited musicianship.

This review copyright The West Australian 2016.

Celebrity Soft Spot Alexandre da Costa

Alexandre da Costa's debut at age nine on violin and piano brought him recognition as a musical prodigy. By eighteen he had a Masters degree in violin from Quebec Conservatory and he went on to study in Madrid with legendary violin teacher Zakhar Bron. His career as an international soloist includes recording 20 albums and in 2014 he was appointed associate professor of classical performance at the WA Academy of Performing Arts. This month Alexandre will perform with several ensembles from the academy and he took a break from rehearsals to update us on the string revival occurring at WAAPA.

What music gets your heart racing?

Good concerts! I love performing, it’s what excites me the most.

What calms you down?

Being with my son. He is a very important part of my life and gives me strength to fight the important battles.

What do you sing along to?

Mostly eighties pop music!

This weekend (September 2/3rd)you are directing Vienna to Berlin by Night with repertoire including the tone poems of Richard Strauss, Viennese waltzes by Johann Strauss and works by Arnold Schoenberg and Ludwig van Beethoven. How are you preparing students from the Indian Ocean Ensemble to explore these works?

It’s a very healthy preparation process, involving a pretty good amount of rehearsal time, and lots of fun! Indeed, when the IOE meets, it’s always done in a very professional way, but also in a relaxed environment that allows the elite students to relate to the music and their colleagues.

When you arrived in Perth your goal together with your WAAPA colleagues was to “build one of the strongest string programs in the Asia-Pacific region”. What was your strategy and how is your progress going?

It’s going great. We are definitely right on path for our goals and desires. The level of the students is rapidly increasing, and the philosophy of practice and training is changing fast. We are also working on very important international partnerships, such as the one that allowed us to send six of the best WAAPA students on tour with a young professional orchestra program in Canada.

Listen to Alexandre perform the first movement of St Saens' Violin Concerto no 3 with the Oviedo Symphon Orchestra here.  

A WAAPA degree is one small part of the shaping of a performer, alongside post-grad studies, mentoring, competitions etc. What is the most important aspect you want your WAAPA students to take from their degree?

I would like for them to feel confident enough to apply and be successful at getting a good job in the music field. Some will go work for professional orchestras, and the levels required are very high for those jobs, so I want to prepare them as best I can so that they win a position where they want.

Mark Applebaum says music should be above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?

Let’s put it this way: without music, the human race would never be the same or be able to achieve such growth. Music calms the spirits, soothes them, creates passion, and gives us a different perspective on life in general.

You play a 1727 Di Barbaro Stradivarius violin. Does it have a distinct musical character?

It is an incredible opportunity to play on this instrument which is on loan from the Canimex company. It is an wonderful instrument, one of the most beautiful on the planet.

Watch Alexandre perform on his Stradivarius with the Vienna Symphony here.

You have a soft spot for violin concertos by Portugese composers, having recorded the premieres of violin concertos by Luis de Freitas Branco and Armando José Fernandes. What is the appeal of this repertoire?

My name, Da Costa, is of Portuguese decent. I wanted to make sure that I would explore all my roots through music.

You also have a love affair with the piano which you have played from early age alongside the violin, culminating in a bachelor degree in piano interpretation at University of Montreal. What made you ultimately choose violin as your focus?

I think it is very difficult to pursue a solo career in two different instruments. I loved the piano but in order to achieve my goal of being an international soloist, I had to make a difficult choice and go for the violin. But I still play a bit of piano for myself!

What is your favourite Australian composer?

At the moment I am working on a commission with Paul Sarcich, so he would be my favorite at the moment!

Martine Cardinal, violinst and
director of Laurentians Festival

You are director of the Laurentians Festival in Canada where you work alongside your wife and festival CEO Martine Cardinal. Am I correct in thinking you have welcomed a new addition to your family?

Yes. Martine and I are the proud parents of Mattenzo, my dear son. It has given us a new insight in life in general, and made us realize how precious life is.

What is your favourite place in Perth?

The restaurant Bread in Common in Fremantle and the beach at Cottesloe!

Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music and the family?

There is always time for other things, but I must say that with all the travels, the concerts, the family responsibilities and the projects, there are very few hours left in the day to think about something else! But we try to enjoy our surroundings and explore new cultures.

Thank you Alexandre for making the time for Celebrity Soft Spot. Alexandre will be leading the Indian Ocean Ensemble on the 2nd/3rd September in Vienna to Berlin, a program of late romantic Viennese music. On September 8th he will lead the leading string students in Scintillating Strings. For more information on Alexandre visit his website http://www.alexandredacosta.com/

Celebrity Soft Spot Jessica Gethin

Last year Jessica Gethin scooped the Brain Stacey emerging conductor award and was named by the Australian Financial Review as one of Australia's "Top 100 Women of Influence". This year the chief conductor of the Perth Symphony Orchestra is one of the inaugural fellows at the Dallas Opera's Institute of Women Conductors. It seems that it's not just the locals who think Jessica's straight-talking musical enthusiasm and her wide warm smile are a winning combination.

What music gets your heart racing?

There are many moments symphonically, particularly in large scale romantic symphonic works that physically get my pulse up on the podium; full bodied brass, resounding percussion and the build of wind and driving strings can be completely thrilling in the actual moment. However, I’d have to say how I connect with certain key pieces probably has just as much effect; conducting a work like Mahler Adagietto (from Symphony No 5) where the tension is all in the silence, the ebb and flow and the slight delay in each cadence has just as powerful an effect.

What calms you down?

Listening to the Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites; much complexity yet beauty in its simplicity. I remember my mum used to play Bach most nights as she cooked dinner when I was younger, and I used to play it to my kids at bedtime when they were babies. I also grew up listening to the jazz greats, so that has always been a good escape at the end of a long day. Otherwise going for a run along the beach or reading on my deck always seems to give me some clarity.

What do you sing along to?

Whatever score is currently open on my desk! I tend to do a lot of score study late in the evenings so often go to bed and wake with a jumble of lines in my head from my current scores. Not always ideal, as was the case late last year when learning excerpts from Jake Heggie’s opera ‘Dead Man Walking’… the March to the Execution Chambers isn’t the most ideal libretto to sing around the house! I’m not actually that aware of it but apparently I have a reputation of singing to the orchestra a lot, I suppose I find it the most efficient way to communicate a particular sound or phrase direction.

You are about to head back to America to continue your studies as one of the inaugural fellows at the Dallas Opera’s Institute of Women Conductors. I understand the course is about intense immersion which must also require intense preparation! What are you working on this semester? 

This semester we are focusing some modern English and American repertoire, I’m currently learning The Crucible (Ward) and The Turn of the Screw (Britten) however we will also be conducting excerpts from Mozart and Handel. In December we covered 18 operas, everything from Puccini, Handel, Adamo, Verdi, Ravel, Menotti and Donizetti so it’s very diverse in genre selection.

[Check out this fabulous footage of Jessica conducting the Dallas Opera Orchestra .]

Statistics in the US reveal that in the top 15 opera houses only 5% of performances during the 2015/16 season were conducted by women. How is the Dallas Opera course upskilling you to overcome the challenges inherent in your industry?

The IWC is unique in that aside from the intense conducting masterclasses, we also take part in a number of seminars addressing key issues and challenges in surviving the industry. From media training to working with directors and sponsors, how to pick the right management and also negotiating interviews for us with top agents across the US, they provide us with five years continued support to create better visibility on the podium and increase our opportunities for career longevity.

Where to after the course has finished? 

My previous work has all been symphonic, so the IWC Fellowship in Dallas was really my first introduction to the opera world, something I am keen to explore further with their support over the coming years. I really enjoy my work here in Perth, aside from my current role as Chief Conductor of the Perth Symphony I also work with Perth Chamber Orchestra, Opera Box, WA Opera, lecture at WAAPA, adjudicate festivals and such. However it’s definitely time for me to broaden my opportunities outside of Perth so I’m currently working closely with my agent in Singapore on developing contacts in the US and Asia this year. It’s a pretty exciting time, hopefully the next five years will see some more opportunities overseas in both the symphonic and operatic fields.

Mark Applebaum says music should be above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?

I believe music has an extraordinary power to connect. It transcends race, age, demographic, time, language and culture. The elderly draw on it for nostalgia, the youth throw themselves into it for refuge and escape! I’m an ambassador for a brilliant international movement ‘Playing for Change’ who use music as a tool for peace, they do some great work in this area on a global scale. I think it goes even further than that though; it’s such a raw, authentic, innate form of expression of the human nature. I find it all very fascinating!

You started your career as a violinist, graduating from the WA Academy of Performing Arts with a music degree in 2002. In August you return to WAAPA as guest conductor for their 25th Anniversary Gala Concert at the Perth Concert Hall. It sounds like it will be a musical extravaganza…!

Yes, I’m really looking forward to working with the Faith Court Orchestra for this very special concert. We will be collaborating with the choir and also some special guest artists, it’s a great program and the audience are in for a real celebration of all things WAAPA!

Jessica and the Perth Symphony Orchestra

You have a soft spot for Margaret River Wines... can you recommend a good bottle for a chilly Perth winter evening?

I’ve been lucky enough to conduct several Leeuwin Estate Winery Concerts so feel pretty qualified to say their Art Series Chardonnay or Cab Sav are exquisite! I also love the Cape Mentelle Cab or Voyager Estate Tom Price SSB. As I’ve got older I’ve enjoyed learning more about wine and started following the journey of Perth Chamber Orchestra’s wine sponsor, Barton Jones. Getting to know the owner, Jackie and the whole story of nurturing each wine in the developing stages has been fascinating. I always stop by her cellar door in Donnybrook to say hello and stock up. Try their Red Rhapsody chilled in summer!

You have a distinctive dynamic energy on the podium. What sort of preparation is involved to present at a rehearsal with such interpretive confidence and abounding enthusiasm? 

It all comes down to study and really knowing the score, and more to the point what you want to do with the music. There is no faking confidence in front of an orchestra, they smell it a mile away. They need to trust and have confidence in your ability for you to get the best sound out of the orchestra. As a conductor I spend far more time in a score than on the actual podium to achieve that, it’s actually quite a lonely process in that respect and one that I have had to work hard on over the past decade. I guess the enthusiasm comes partly from my nature, and partly from my sincere commitment to communicate and define each sound and idea. I have a lot of energy in whatever I do and always try to be authentic on the podium so hopefully this carries across. Over the last few years I’ve realised the importance of being vulnerable at times too, sometimes this is when the best work is created. I always tell my conducting students they need to have the confidence to lead and the courage to yield, knowing when to do which is the tricky bit!

I’ve heard you tell a story about an orchestral player who said “You're the best female conductor I've ever played under”. Your reply was something along the lines of “It would be lovely to hear that phrase again one day, just without the female part.”
What is it going to take for women conductors to be considered ‘normal’ on the podium by performers and audiences?

It’s interesting that my conducting lectures usually have an equal 50% division of gender, as do many of the school orchestras I adjudicate at festivals. It’s only at the very top that these numbers dramatically diminish. I think it will continue to improve over time, especially with programs such as the IWC with Dallas Opera encouraging more females to pursue the field. In many ways I try to look past it these days as I would much rather be recognised for my musical input than a gender statistic, although I also realise the importance of bringing awareness to the issue for future developing conductors.

Jessica, Pat and their two children

You and husband Pat are parents to two children aged three and seven. I think one of the toughest parts of parenting is the guilt that comes whether you choose to work or stay at home. How do you reconcile your career and your motherhood so that you can delight in both?

Well, some days are certainly more successful than others! I’m lucky to have a very supportive family and two amazing kids but the balance isn’t always right. It is something I am very mindful of, yet try not to be too hard on myself as I don’t think it helps anyone to be driven by guilt. I simply choose the work that fits with the family, and turn down opportunities if it just doesn’t feel right at the time. On reflection I think having kids has taught me a lot about myself; my strengths and weaknesses, my priorities, the value of time and a reminder to laugh often! They have both grown up learning to crawl across a stage so I guess it’s quite normal for them. I’m very aware of being present with the kids when we are together, and I talk to them about what I do so they understand what it’s like to have a career path that you really love.

What is your favourite place in Perth? 

Easy…. our beautiful coastline. We live only a few minutes from Watermans Beach in Perth. It is the place I recharge, meditate, jog, swim and play with the kids or watch the sunset with the family.

Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music and the family?

I think it’s really important to be as rounded a person as you can be… certainly for me, life balance has been key to keeping me motivated to experience new things, which I hope, in turn, makes me a better conductor. My secret escape would have to be my art; splashing paint on a canvas with Ella Fitzgerald blaring is pretty cathartic. I love to read, cook with the kids, I’m mad about photography and love travelling. Keeping fit is also pretty important as I’m always on the go and need a fair amount of stamina and focus to get through the week, so running and yoga helps.

Watch excerpts of Jessica conducting in an interview here:

A big thanks to Jessica Gethin for chatting to us at the Celebrity Soft Spot. You can catch Jessica conducting the Perth Symphony Orchestra at their  'Bach by Candelight' concert on August 31st and at the WAAPA 25th Anniversary Gala Concert on August 12th. For more information go to www.jessicagethin.com.

Bring It On the Musical

Blonde, peach-cheeked Campbell sends up a prayer: please may she be elected captain of the Truman cheer squad and win the national championship. Bring It On the Musical establishes from the outset all the American coming of age stereotypes. Fortunately bucket loads of satire, sensational dancing and heart warming tenderness from the WA Academy of Performing Arts cast and crew make this an exhilarating night at the Regal Theatre even if you’re not a cart-wheeling, pom-pom waving squad girl.

#BRINGITONWAAPA c Jon Green

Bring It on the Musical (based very loosely on the movie) first appeared on Broadway in 2012 and is a musical for the iGeneration. The dialogue between Campbell and her friends takes place predominantly via video calls and Campbell’s boyfriend hears gossip from texts, Twitter, Facebook and “someone even tried to tell me in person.”  Director Jay James-Moody emphasises this with audience selfies projected (via Instagram) on the stage wall during interval.

The plot involves Campbell being ‘redistricted’ to Jackson High School which doesn’t have a cheer squad. “No cheer squad?” wails her best friend Skylar. “What’s the point of having a high school?” Campbell manages to befriend the hip hop dancers at Jackson in a Save the Last Dance formula and tries to wreak revenge on the scheming Eva who ousted her from the Truman team.

Along the way the LOL moments including two Goth’s commentating on the superficiality of cheerleading, Campbell’s hip-hop audition dressed in a leprechaun suit and one-liners like “Put Little Bitch Barbie back in the box”.

Campbell is sung by petite, bouncy Hannah Burridge whose relationships with loner Randall (a sweet-voiced Jason Arrow) and hip hop dancer Danielle brings warmth to an otherwise two-dimensional role. Vocally Burridge isn’t convincing in the Act One solos and in Act Two she is outshone by the feisty Danielle sung by Melissa Russo with bright voice and brazen body language.

Christina Odam’s Eva is laden with sneer while Truman girls Skylar and Kylar (Rebecca Cullinan and Marissa Economo) flounce and mimic delightfully. Over at Jackson the attitude is just as exaggerated with transgender La Cienega (Hayden Baum) high-kicking stylishly alongside peppy Nautica (Stephanie Wall).

The contrast between the regimentation of cheerleading and the flamboyance of hip hop is a choreographer’s dream and Michael Ralph creates a virtuosic, fast-paced spectacle, moving a cast of 40 around the stage with ease. Rozina Suliman’s sassy streetwear (Jackson) and neon-lit lycra (Truman) heightens the characterisation. Movable school lockers and cafeteria tables provide sturdy dance props and allow for fast scene changes in Steve Nolan’s set which otherwise relies heavily on Mark Howett’s lighting and projections to add atmosphere. The score is packed with memorable pop tunes like It’s All Happening and Do Your Own Thing, performed with driving energy by a 10 piece band under David King.

IMHO #BRINGITONWAAPA can’t be matched 4 xpertise and NRG

Getting into the iGeneration vibe @ #BRINGITONWAAPA

Decibel Goes French

CONCERT

WA Academy of Performing Arts

Decibel ensemble

Review: Rosalind Appleby

3 stars

March 2016

Decibel ensemble laid down the challenge to French (predominantly) electronic composers to create music for acoustic instruments. The result was a concert of essentially acoustic music informed by electronic ideas.

OCCAM OCEAN HEXA II co-written by Eliane Radigue and Carol Robinson was premiered by Decibel last year. I can see why the group chose to give the work another outing. It is a subtle, gentle and intense work which opens inaudibly – the occasional scratching from a cello bow scratching across a string tailpiece. As the volume gradually increased the performers (cello, percussion, viola, flute and clarinet) used alternative fingerings to mis-pitch notes making clouds of overtones that hummed, hovered and moved incrementally, without any electronic effects. It was both soothing and unsettling; an incredibly simple concept and a completely otherworldly experience.

Two works by Lionel Marchetti explored the interactions between a performer and a loudspeaker.  In Une serie de reflets a clarinet note was heard through a speaker and echoed by the live clarinettist, the sounds blending into a drone. The same idea was applied to harmonica, bass flute and various other instruments. The performers swapped instruments based on directions from Iphones but otherwise they improvised their interactions without a score. The electronic sounds grew increasingly dark and a low string drone became the foundation for a piece of immense musical architecture that included a percussive tapping from the piano while flute and clarinet wove micro sounds above. The resulting hymn-like scaffolding seemed simultaneously fluid and stationary. A stunning world premiere of a work that deserves to become a signature Decibel piece.

Marchetti’s Premiere etude (les ombres), first performed by Decibel in 2012, felt a little gimmicky following on from this. The work was built around intentionally imperfect imitation creating a discordant duet between the instrumentalist and the loudspeaker. The sounds were birdlike, mechanical and often unsubtle. For some reason the simplicity of the idea didn’t translate to a significant aural experience, despite the efforts of the ever-professional Decibel ensemble.

This review copyright The West Australian 2016.

Simon Tedeschi at WAAPA

I'm not sure if I want to meet Simon Tedeschi. He has had some harsh words to say about critics (although he's happy enough to quote positive press on his website!).

 Here he is writing in Limelight magazine:

"Some (critics) are rancorous oddballs, sleeping soundly through a concert but still able to write with remarkable acuity as if they had actually been there. Others are stuck in a strange academic funk-hole, writing as if afflicted with nasty sniffles at birth that they can never quite shake off. Yet others come from an impoverished musicological background, and usually have a pre-set yardstick everything is compared to.
Less commonly, there is a critic whose head and heart are in unison, armed with a critical facility that is instructive and direct, yet never postured or mirror-gazing."

Some are rancorous oddballs, sleeping soundly through a concert but still able to write with remarkable acuity as if they had actually been there. Others are stuck in a strange academic funk-hole, writing as if afflicted with nasty sniffles at birth that they can never quite shake off. Yet others come from an impoverished musicological background, and usually have a pre-set yardstick everything is compared to.
Less commonly, there is a critic whose head and heart are in unison, armed with a critical facility that is instructive and direct, yet never postured or mirror-gazing.
- See more at: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/300757,simon-tedeschi-pans-the-critics.aspx#sthash.pM937YIm.dpuf

Some are rancorous oddballs, sleeping soundly through a concert but still able to write with remarkable acuity as if they had actually been there. Others are stuck in a strange academic funk-hole, writing as if afflicted with nasty sniffles at birth that they can never quite shake off. Yet others come from an impoverished musicological background, and usually have a pre-set yardstick everything is compared to.
Less commonly, there is a critic whose head and heart are in unison, armed with a critical facility that is instructive and direct, yet never postured or mirror-gazing.
- See more at: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/300757,simon-tedeschi-pans-the-critics.aspx#sthash.pM937YIm.dpuf

Some are rancorous oddballs, sleeping soundly through a concert but still able to write with remarkable acuity as if they had actually been there. Others are stuck in a strange academic funk-hole, writing as if afflicted with nasty sniffles at birth that they can never quite shake off. Yet others come from an impoverished musicological background, and usually have a pre-set yardstick everything is compared to.
Less commonly, there is a critic whose head and heart are in unison, armed with a critical facility that is instructive and direct, yet never postured or mirror-gazing.
- See more at: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/300757,simon-tedeschi-pans-the-critics.aspx#sthash.pM937YIm.dpuf

Some are rancorous oddballs, sleeping soundly through a concert but still able to write with remarkable acuity as if they had actually been there. Others are stuck in a strange academic funk-hole, writing as if afflicted with nasty sniffles at birth that they can never quite shake off. Yet others come from an impoverished musicological background, and usually have a pre-set yardstick everything is compared to.
Less commonly, there is a critic whose head and heart are in unison, armed with a critical facility that is instructive and direct, yet never postured or mirror-gazing.
- See more at: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/300757,simon-tedeschi-pans-the-critics.aspx#sthash.pM937YIm.dpuf"

Tedeschi is one of Australia's most acclaimed and opinionated pianists. So it was with a little trepidation and some excitement that I attended his concert on Tuesday night. Read my review below to find out what happened!

Simon Tedeschi has been quoted in the press saying that in this cultural dark age an artist must do more than art. In his first of two sold-out recitals at the WA Academy of Performing Arts on Tuesday night he demonstrated what this might look like.

Firstly he engaged with the audience –a no brainer perhaps, but the ability to make genuine eye contact and engage in sincere, witty conversation is a definite skill. Secondly the extra-musical theme to his Gershwin and Me program (drawn from Tedeschi’s chart-topping Gershwin albums) meant he took the audience on a journey. The concert opened with the first rag Gershwin wrote and included his greatest hits alongside works by his contemporaries.

The classical fraternity have struggled with what to do with Gershwin – is he a classical or jazz composer, profound or populist? Tedeschi skipped over that debate and played the heart and soul out of the music. He navigated Gershwin’s rapid gear changes in a way that felt dramatic rather than frantic and - without appearing affected - made every note appear genuinely personal.

Arrangements by Percy Grainger of Gershwin’s Love Walked In was played with spacious tenderness while the madcap extremes of Grainger’s own In Dahomey were delivered with flamboyance. Gershwin’s Three Preludes bristled with technical confidence and the bluesy second Prelude contained a hushed intimate improvisation. These were heard alongside three piano roll transcriptions Lady Be Good, ‘S Wonderful and Strike Up the Band where Tedeschi’s light touch and noisy stride bass line created a fabulous honky tonk sound.

In jazz numbers by Dave Brubeck and Oscar Peterson Tedeschi demonstrated his ability to spin blues–drenched improvisations alongside the best jazz pianist.

A performance of the iconic Rhapsody in Blue with lingering silences, achingly sweet melodies and brash climaxes concluded a program that was a fascinating insight into both Gershwin and Tedeschi. Sadly there were no European counterparts; works by Rachmaninov and Debussy advertised on the program didn’t make it to the stage. Other than that when it comes to piano recitals I couldn’t ask for anything more!

This review copyright The West Australian 2016.