In Conversation

One of Australia’s greatest writers, David Malouf has been publishing acclaimed novels, short stories, poetry, plays and opera librettos for over 50 years. He’s the recipient of countless awards – most notably the International Dublin Literary Award for Remembering Babylon in 1996, the Australian Prime Minister’s literary award in 2008, and in 2016 the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. In the Australia Day 1997 honours he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia, for services to literature.

He's also a great lover of fine music, and in this conversation David shares some of his favourite music and what it means to him, talks about his writing and muses on the best ways to teach literature to young children.

This program was recorded at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, where David was both an audience member and also entertaining audiences as part of the Festival’s Conversation series.

Alexander Gadjiev is an exciting young pianist who is making waves across the world. He was the winner of the 2021 Sydney International Piano Competition, second place getter in the International Chopin Competition of the same year, including being awarded the side prize for best performance of a Chopin Sonata, and was the BBC New Generation Artist since 2019. 

In this conversation, Alexander gives some amazing insights into the craft of the pianist, introducing historic performances from some of the great pianists of the 20th Century and elaborates on why he favours those older recordings.

He's touring Australia until 13 November, thanks to the Sydney International Piano Competition.

Anyone witness to the Australian theatre scene over the past five decades will know and love Geraldine Turner. Her long and distinguished career, most particularly in musical theatre, includes the original Australian productions of A Little Night Music and Chicago, and she’s also appeared in productions of Company, Oliver, Anything Goes, and The Mikado, to name just a few. She’s been in evergreen shows such as Don’s Party and Present Laughter, and is now appearing in the play which holds the record for having the longest West End run in history. Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opened there in 1952, and it's still running, interrupted only by the temporary shutdown caused by the Covid pandemic. It’s playing now at the Theatre Royal Sydney for a very limited run before touring the rest of Australia.

In this conversation, Geraldine shares some highlights from her incredible career, in particular the original and highly successful Australian run of Chicago, her numerous encounters with the late Stephen Sondheim, and some frank stories from her childhood in Brisbane. Her book, Turner’s Turn, A Disarmingly Honest Memoir, was released earlier this year.

An opera singer with an impressively long and distinguished career, Cheryl Barker has sung some of the key roles in the repertoire, perhaps most famously playing Mimi in Baz Luhrmann’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème, her incredible performances of Tosca, and creating the role of Sarah Miles in Jake Heggie’s The End of the Affair, in Houston. She and her husband, baritone Peter Coleman-Wright will be joining the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs under artistic director Brett Weymark for Glorious Puccini in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House on October 29.

In this conversation, Cheryl speaks about her love of Puccini, shares some wonderful tales from her impressive career, and fills us in about Pacific Opera, the emerging artists program for young opera singers of which she is co-artist director along with Peter Coleman-Wright.

To paraphrase The New York Times – the words “superstar” and “mandolinist” have not traditionally been seen together in the same sentence. However that has changed thanks to Avi Avital. He’s the first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy Award and is a driving force behind the reinvigoration of the mandolin repertoire. Over 100 compositions have been written especially for him, including 15 concertos. He’s played in all corners of the world, and has released 5 albums plus an EP on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Avi talks about his remarkable journey with the mandolin, from his early lessons in southern Israel from a teacher who was self-taught on the instrument, to having the chutzpah to dig into his own savings to record his first album in Berlin. He introduces a number of works that he especially wanted to share for this conversation, including a performance from one of his mentors, which is not available in Australia.

He is currently touring Australia with Musica Viva.

Photo: Guy Hecht

A remarkable violinist who has had an extraordinary career across three continents, Charmian Gadd started in humble beginnings on a farm on the Central Coast in the 1940s. She exploded onto the music scene as a teenager, and went on to play with such luminaries as Yehudi Menuhin and Neville Marriner, living in the UK and the USA before coming back to Australia in the late 80s. Her contribution to music has not just been as a performer, having also held positions at the Canberra School of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium. She turned 80 in January this year, which ended up being an extra special birthday as she was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for services to music in this year’s Australia Day Honours.

Charmian tells some wonderful stories from her long and remarkable career, and provides some lovely choices of music including from performers who were key inspirations in her professional development.

Naseema Sparks is an experienced company director whose passion for the arts led her to take on key leadership roles at board level in organisations such as the Sydney Biennale and the Sydney Dance Company. Now chair of Sydney Living Museums and Music in the Regions, one of our newest arts organisations, she has said “the arts is my balance, it’s good for the soul”, which is a sentiment we can all agree with! In this conversation, Naseema speaks about the works of Sydney Living Museums and Music in the Regions, her passion for Australian composers, and how she became involved with the arts at board level. Her musical selections include a rarity from Sydney’s colonial past – just a small part of the ongoing projects conducted by SLM.

Lyndon Terracini has certainly left his mark on Australian opera – and he’s not done yet. He has been Artistic Director of Opera Australia since 2009, however his association with opera goes back decades, having first appeared with the company as a baritone in the 1970s. His operatic career took him to his ancestral home of Italy, though he made frequent visits back to Australia to perform here too.

Lovers of opera will be aware that he’s about to embark on his final year as Opera Australia's artistic director. The 2023 season has just launched, and Lyndon joins Simon Moore to give a preview of the season, plus share some remarkable tales of his transformative years at Opera Australia and his career as an opera singer. He also eloquently introduces his music selections, which include some seminal performances from some of history's best singers.

For Eric Whitacre, everything seems possible. The music of this Grammy-award winning composer and conductor has been performed in all corners of the world. He has united 100,000 singers in more than 145 countries for his ground breaking Virtual Choirs, his debut album as a conductor, Light and Gold, went straight to the top of the charts, and he’s even collaborated with NASA – his composition Deep Field having been inspired by the Hubble Telescope, leading him to work on a film seen at arts and science festivals across the globe.

In this conversation, Eric talks about The Sacred Veil, which he is coming to Australia to conduct with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House. We also hear insights about his composing and his unorthodox entry into the classical genre, the Virtual Choirs projects, his public speaking, plus he eloquently introduces a diverse selection of pieces which have inspired him over the years.

Photo: Marc Royce

One of Australia’s most celebrated violinists, Brendan Joyce is the artistic director of Camerata, Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra. His leadership has been described by critics as both dynamic and indefatigable, which is why it’s unsurprising he often appears around Australia with such organisations as the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Van Diemen's Band, and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

In this conversation, Brendan talks about helping to rebuild and reinvigorate Camerata under his leadership, with diverse and ground-breaking repertoire, including new Australian commissions. He also shares some amusing stories of his upbringing in regional Queensland and his period in the United States.