Violinist Breaches By-Laws

A man is apprehended playing violin in front of the Sydney Opera House.
"I'm playing the violin," he explains to the security guard.
"You're breaching the bylaws, you're not allowed to play music in front of the opera house," says the guard.

The violinist is not Andre Rieu or Richard Tognetti, its Jon Rose who has been awarded Australia's most valuable individual music prize. The larrikin of Australian music was presented with the $60 000 in Perth this week.

Jon Rose gave up  formal violin lessons at 15 and since then his journey has encompassed jazz, commercial music, country and western and sound installations. His has built his entire practice around the violin, an obsession which has involved building his own 'deconstructed' instruments, holding a festival in the Hungarian town of Violin, and running his bow over all manner of sound making devices including fences, windows, body parts...

Ideas erupt from Jon Rose freely and almost ceaselessly. His role as a polemic and capacity for playfulness has made him an iconic Australian figure in the experimental improvised music scene. In particular I love his Australian Fences project which involves making the eerie and beautiful sounds on the wires that criss-cross our huge continent.

His more playful sound installations involve giant interactive balls.

After the award presentation we went to dinner to celebrate 25 years of Tura New Music and Jon regaled us with outlandish stories about a festival in the Hungarian town of Violin where the visiting performers ended up winning a football game with the locals and getting chased out of town. Jon did a concert in the train station waiting room for Violin and Flies, and by the end of the piece most of the flies had died. In retrospect the stories sound crazy and I had consumed red wine, but Jon swore they were true and I think I am recounting accurately...

As part of the Don Banks award Jon was presented with a massive bunch of banksia flowers which he couldn't take back to Sydney on the plane.  Instead he gave them to me. A fantastic memory of this generous, spontaneous and wide-minded man.

New Music Up Late

An hour before the Sydney launch of Women of Note I was in the studio at ABC Classic Fm recording an interview with Julian Day. It was a good interview but I was nearly late for my own launch! The AMC was only down the road but I didn't factor in Sydney peak hour...


Here is a link to the interview for New Music Up Late.

Women of Note has gone national!

It was the perfect way to celebrate International Women's Day. The full moon was rising over the Sydney Opera House and shimmering on the harbour. Inside the Australian Music Centre we were listening to music by Australia's women composers. It was the Sydney launch of Women of Note.

The launch was smaller than Perth but still worthwhile. Professor Anne Boyd officially launched the book with a speech of great enthusiasm and warmth.

Elena Kats-Chernin and Tamara Anna Cislowska performed Elena's latest piano work Vocalise. Elena says her pieces are her diary; the thoughts flow from her mind through her fingers. I have never felt that more than at this performance as she battled sciatica nerve pain to perform her lyrical but stormy work (commissioned originally by the Melbourne Mental Health Research Institute).

 Michael Duke (Head of Woodwind at Sydney Con) and David Howie performed Undercurrent by Katy Abbott. In the book Katy is in the Emerging Voices section but in the past few years she has shot well past this to become a well-established composer.

It was wonderful to catch up with some of the women I interviewed for the book, and have a celebratory dinner party afterwards. Below L-R Anne Boyd, me, Becky Llewellyn, Gail Priest, Elena Kats-Chernin.

Women of Note has gone national! Thanks to all those who have helped it make it to the shelves. It is so exciting to know that people are reading about these amazing women and their music. I have peace now that the missing jigsaw pieces of Australia's music history are in place.

"Any tips on how to be a prodigy?" I ask British film director Phil Grabsky.

The man has spent the past few years inside the heads of three of the most famous composers in the Western canon: Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. He must have noticed some similarities.

"It takes a lot of hard work." Phil's answer gets a laugh from the Cinema Paradiso audience. "Seriously, any notion that Mozart just tossed out the music without any effort simply isn't true. He didn't go to school, he spent his entire childhood studying music with his father. He worked very hard his whole life."

Well Phil ought to know. He is up to his third documentary of famous composers. In Search of Haydn reconstructs Haydn's life using performances and interviews from today's most admired classical musicians. The documentaries are much loved around the world and paricularly in Australia where In Search of Beethoven and In Search of Mozart made it into the top 10 all-time most popular documentaries.




 I suspect I wasn't the only one at the preview screening of In Search of Haydn who learned many new things about the 18th century celebrity composer. In his day he was more famous than Mozart. In England he dined with royalty even though at home in Austria/Hungary he was ranked a livery-wearing servant of the Esterhazy house.

I hadn't realised Haydn's childhood was spent dominated by the ritual of the Catholic Church. He left home at the age of six and became a choir boy at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. I suppose that explains his ability to write so fluently for voice. He spent twenty years writing operas for the Esterhazy family, who had no less than two opera theatres custom built in their gardens. In 1778 Haydn composed a staggering 50 operas in one year, which grew to 120 performances a year. This must have been before TV!

In Search of Haydn completes the trilogy of films Grabsky has written on the great composers. (Although during our interview Phil mentioned he is entertaining the notion of another doco on Chopin.) I'd reccommend these if you like your classical music and enjoy watching live performances. Filmed with beautiful cinematography and laced with humour, this has to be the easiest way to 'read up' on famous composers.

I believe in miracles

Women of Note was launched on Saturday night to a full house with people queuing outside the venue. It was the dream ending for this project which has consumed me for three years. But really it is the beginning. My book has been born, grown and has now moved out of home. Go well Book, be free! May you be enjoyed by countless readers.

I have included some photos of the amazing evening so you get a sense of the fascinating concert,

the composers who performed,

and the warmth and joy that surrounded the event (even when it threatened rain!).

Below is an edited version of my speech from the night.

Speech Notes: Launch of Women of Note

I believe in miracles.

When I started this project I thought it could potentially be a huge expensive waste of time. Then the Department of Culture and the Arts came on board with a project grant which funded my research and writing.

When I first contacted the composers I worried they would reject me outright. But they overwhelmed me with their encouragement and generosity.

When I first started looking for publishers I was terrified that all my hard work would never reach the shelves – then Fremantle Press said they were interested – very interested.

When it came time to promote the book I thought there wasn’t going to be a launch, but then the Perth Writer’sFestival and Tura New Music came on board.

The biggest miracle is that the jigsaw of Australia’s composing history has been completed. We now have something that more closely resembles the complete picture of how our composing scene has developed over the past century. I have peace about that now.

Thankyou Fremantle Press: Jane Fraser, Wendy Jenkins, Allyson Crimp, Claire Miller, Jenny Gillam. It has been a wonderful experience working with such a hardworking team. Especially as a freelancer, I have relished the chance to work alongside people and share the journey. I will never forget the past 12 months of working with you all. The end product is far better than I could have ever imagined. You have made a dream become reality –for me and for Australia’s women composers.

Gordon Kerry came onboard half way through as a consultant editor and his detailed comments as a composer and critic and industry expert have been so crucial to the historical accuracy and integrity of the book.

Stephen Bevis – my very sympathetic editor at the West Australian who has been very understanding with my workload and spoken such kind words tonight. It is an honour having you launch my book.

Thank you to my incredibly supportive husband Andrew, who has never let finance get in the way of fulfilment. Behind every successful woman is a strong partner and that is why this book is dedicated to you and our beautiful baby Matthew. We are a team and our little family is my greatest achievement and joy and foundation.

 I would like to acknowledge music – which has had its grip on me since I was very young. Music fuels me and inspires me and heals me and turns me again and again to my Maker who I acknowledge as the Source of all creativity.

Finally the composers – I thank them for their vulnerability, passion, tenacity. For their vibrant, eclectic and beautiful music. For modelling for me what it means to persevere, to love both your family and your work, to pursue excellence, to turn obstacles into opportunities. Thank you for changing the landscape of Australian composition. Thank you for making up 25% of our composers, more than almost any other country in the world.

Can you believe it: Australia!

Their lives are more tragic and their output more brilliant than the many celebrities and sports stars who steal the headlines. Long may their music be heard and celebrated. It is time to celebrate one of Australia’s best kept secrets.

Is it time for champagne??

Germaine Greer says we must clean our houses less. I am so relieved. Carmel Bird said the same thing in Dear Writer but only because domestic bliss is a distraction from writing. Germaine was speaking on Eco Feminism at the Perth Writer's Festival last night, rallying the troops to care for our environment, use less chemicals and let the bugs survive which are so necessary for developping the immune systems in our over-protected children.

Either way I was glad to hear I didn't need to clean my house before my dinner party. I didn't have time anyway! What a treat to host composers Betty Beath and Ann Carr-Boyd in my own home tonight. Such fashionable, warm and distinguished guests.



The photo doesn't do them justice (with writer David Cox and Matthew).

I wish I could have introduced them to William McInnes. At the same festival event as the Germaine Greer address William confessed he hadn't heard of any women composers.





RA: (feeling ballsy) Hi William. I was interviewed on RTR just after you today.
WM: What is your book about?
RA: Australia's women composers
WM: Who?
RA: Australia's women compsoers
WM: I know but who are they?
RA: Anne Boyd, Cat Hope, Margaret Sutherland, Elena Kats-Chernin...
WM: I haven't heard of any of them!
RA: Exactly.

Next time I'll be brave enough to invite him to my dinner party!

Women of Composure

This was in the West Australian newspaper today. For the online version click here. Unfortunately there is an error - Cat Hope was born in 1966 and is not yet in her fifties. But the photo is better this time and they left her bass guitar in the frame. It is not quite clear but Cathie is holding an accordion.