Sunday Arts Magazine

For more than 35 years, the Australian String Quartet (ASQ) has created unforgettable string quartet performances for national and international audiences. Dedicated to musical excellence with a distinctly Australian character, the Quartet’s purpose is to create chemistry and amplify intimacy through experiences that connect people with string quartet music.

From its home base at the University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, the ASQ reaches out across Australia and the world to engage people with an outstanding program of performances, workshops, commissioning and education projects.

The Quartet’s distinct sound is enhanced by a matched set of 18th century Guadagnini instruments, handcrafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini between c.1743 and 1784 in Turin and Piacenza, Italy. These precious instruments are on loan for the ASQ’s exclusive use through the generosity of UKARIA.

Dale Barltrop plays a 1784 Guadagnini Violin, Turin

Francesca Hiew plays a 1748-49 Guadagning Violin, Piacenza

Stephen King plays a 1783 Guadagnini Viola, Turin

Michael Dahlenburg plays a 1743 Guadagnini Violincello, Piacenza ‘Ngeringa’

Michael Dahlenburg joined the Australian String Quartet as its Cellist in November 2020.

Michael studied cello with Howard Penny at the Australian National Academy of Music and Molly Kadarauch at the University of Melbourne. He was principal cellist of Melbourne Chamber Orchestra until 2020, and has been guest principal with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (NZ) and Orchestra Victoria. He has worked as a guest with the Australian String Quartet, Flinders Quartet, Australian Chamber Orchestra, ACO2 and Adelaide’s ARTARIA ensemble.

Michael was a founding member of Hamer Quartet, First Prize, Grand Prize and Audience Prize winners at the 2009 Asia Pacific Chamber Competition. He has performed at numerous festivals and concert halls around the world and has studied chamber music with many leading chamber musicians.

Michael also studied conducting with John Hopkins and Christopher Seamen and has been a regular guest conductor of Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He has also conducted the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and numerous orchestras for arts organisations.

Rohan is back to talk to the Sunday Arts Magazine Team.

Live! On MxRS is a story, a series, a performance, a literary painting

and live art.

During the experience of 2020 we embraced digital storytelling and now

have expanded to smaller, intimate group participatory performances

that include music, magic.

● Who: Alex Read Theatre Performances with support of the City of

Port Phillip “Love My Place 2021”

● What: Live performance art & music

● When: Fortnightly starting 9 May 5:30-7:30pm

● Where: Various parks, reserves & laneways in Port Phillip

● Why: Bring life back through community engaged performances

● How: Book tickets here.

Guests are invited to participate in the performance or be a

spectator. Each event will reveal more clues and recipes for success.

The more you partake, the more information you will gain. Dive deeper

or remain at surface level.

It is highly recommended to listen to the previous parts of the story

to gain a better understanding – or show up and ask questions to the

characters themselves!

GEELONG PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS WITH ITS BIGGEST PROGRAM YET

After a successful online event in 2020, Geelong Pride Film Festival is returning to cinemas to showcase its

largest program of LGBTIQA+ programming to date.

From April 14 to May 16, the festival will present a series of cinema screenings, as well as online streaming

options. The expansive program boasts over 50 short films and 9 feature films from around the globe,

including a number of Australian premiere screenings.

“After the challenges of 2020, we are so happy to be back in cinemas,” festival president, Stephen Ryan

said.

“The Geelong community has really embraced the event since its 2017 beginnings. With their and our

sponsors support, we’re now presenting what may be one of the biggest festivals of LGBTIQ+ films ever

staged outside of a capital city in Australia!”

The program is jam-packed and presents a diverse range of stories, genres and LGBTIQ+ experiences.

Highlights include: the opening night film, Supernova, a moving, romantic drama starring Colin Firth and

Stanley Tucci; the passionate Georgian coming-of-age tale And Then We Danced; and the powerful

documentary Ahead of the Curve, which traces the founding of best-selling lesbian magazine, Curve.

The 6 carefully curated short film sessions are also sure to offer something for everyone. These 6 packages

are exclusive to GPFF and include a dedicated package for documentary lovers, as well as a Youth Shorts

package, two themed packages (“From Now On” and “Knowing Me, Knowing Her”) and feel-good crowd

favourites “Happy Endings” and “Rainbow Shorts”.

The festival continues to support Australian Filmmakers by awarding prizes and commissions to standout

films. The 2021 Uplift Award winner, “The Test”, is screening as part of the “Knowing Me, Knowing Her”

shorts package. This fantastic Australian film from Jessica Smith stars Michala Banas and Christie Whelan

Browne.

Other award winning shorts recognised for their quality, include: Zino Bakker’s visually stunning

“Hartenprins”; Roberto Nascimento’s commanding documentary “Leeway”; and promising student

filmmaker Tayla Burton’s “Nikau”.

This year Geelong Pride Film Festival is partnering with Melbourne Queer Film Festival on five of our

feature films to extend the festival increase the number of screenings.

Organised by volunteers, the Geelong Pride Film Festival aims to contribute to the development of a

thriving and vibrant community in Geelong for those who identify as LGBTQIA+. The event is made possible

by a number of generous sponsors and supporters, including: the Victorian Government, Deakin University,

City of Greater Geelong, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Pivotonian Cinema, Provincial Media, Thorne

Harbour Health and Piano Bar Geelong.

The online festival will run from 14 –

Macbeth

Following the sell-out success of Wagner’s epic Das Rheingold at The Regent in February, Melbourne Opera will stage an inspired new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s thrilling Macbeth at Her Majesty’s Theatre from 18 May.

In an Australian theatre first, the final performance of Macbeth on 26 May will be broadcast via LIVE VR to anyone with Virtual Reality headsets, giving them the closest possible experience to seeing the production in person.

Directed by legendary film and opera director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Ladies in Black), Macbeth stars gifted baritone Simon Meadows as Macbeth, who gave the performance of the production as the slimy Alberich inDas Rheingold, and international opera sensation Helena Dix as Lady Macbeth, who previously shone in Norma, Roberto Devereux and Lohengrin for Melbourne Opera.

Helpmann Award winner and fortyfivedownstairs repeat offender Michael Griffiths has dusted off his LPs and perused his one-man shows to curate a solid gold line-up of his favourite tunes for your listening pleasure.

From Madonna to Cole Porter, Kylie Minogue to A-ha, Eurythmics to the Violent Femmes, every song’s a feel-good winner – featuring a live three-piece band.

The first of Opera Australia’s critically acclaimed digital productions, Aida, by celebrated Italian director and choreographer Davide Livermore, will finally have its Melbourne premiere next month, in a spectacular return to the State Theatre stage after an 18 month hiatus due to COVID 19.

Using OA’s integrated digital technologies, Livermore’s interpretation of Verdi’s world of Egypt conveys the scale, depth and magnificence demanded by this monumental opera, transporting the audience experience to a whole new level. Ten towering LED screens create an immersive theatrical experience, as ever-changing floor-to-ceiling set pieces present video design that ranges from rich symbolism to vivid landscapes. Coupled with Gianluca Falaschi’s magnificent costume designs, this production proves to be a feast for the senses.

Completing the picture, OA has assembled a cast featuring some of the world’s best singers. Known for her moving portrayals of opera’s greatest heroines, American soprano Leah Crocetto will astonish Melbourne audiences as she makes her OA debut in the titular role of Aida. Joining her will be tenor Stefano La Colla as Radamès to lead an outstanding cast of more than one hundred musicians, singers, dancers and actors in this extravagant production. Reprising her 2018 characterisation of Amneris is the stunning French-Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Gabouri and basses Alexander Vinogradov and David Parkin will share the role of Ramfis. Baritone Michael Honeyman returns as Amonasro.

Arts Centre Melbourne and the University of Melbourne are partnering in support of Child of Now – a hugely ambitious, technology driven public art commission conceived by ArtistRobert Walton and co-written by First Nations Author and Activist Claire G. Coleman. The work calls on 14,400 Melburnians to create, shape and nurture a vision of the future for an imagined child born in 2021.   

The large-scale, interactive augmented reality child will be represented as a 100-metre-high virtual being residing atop of Hamer Hall, visible on digital screens and mobile devices. This mammoth undertaking, which is currently in the first stage of its development, is an interdisciplinary collision of arts and computer science.

The Child of Now will age from 0 to 100 years over an epic 10-day performance. Across each of these days, the Child of Now will live a ‘normal’ day – walking, playing, communicating, interacting and dreaming across each 24-hour cycle. On the tenth day, the Child of Now will be 100 and will go to sleep for a final time at a candle-lit vigil attended by thousands of visitors and watched online by thousands more around the world.

14,400 people from Melbourne’s wonderfully diverse population will collectively set the vision for a more equitable, sustainable, peaceful and inclusive future for the Child of Now. 14,400 represents the number of minutes in 10 days.

Walton, Coleman and a team of technology specialists from the University of Melbourne will collaborate with the public to give life to the moving image via volumetric body scanning and interactive extended reality technologies in this compelling public artwork.  Child of Now will result in the largest and most diverse portrait of Melbourne’s population ever created, generated from the thousands of participants’ faces, gestures and dreams.

Arts Centre Melbourne’s CEO Claire Spencer AM says, “We are thrilled to partner with the University of Melbourne to bring this project to life. Projects of this scale and ambition appear once in a decade and require the support and expertise of our city’s cultural and educational institutions to be realised.”

Currently the team, led by Walton, is working to create a series of giant virtual holograms and the artificial intelligence technology required to animate them. In late 2021, a prototype of Child of Now will inhabit Arts Centre Melbourne over a long weekend – inviting the first public contributions to the project as the part of the work’s next stage of development. For the first time, audience members will have the opportunity to become the Child of Now via a volumetric 3D body scan and Virtual Reality experience.

“This way of working with an Artist in Residence has led to a distinctive collaboration which extends the University’s capacity to effect change at the forefront of creative practice in technology, art and entertainment,” saidProfessor Frank Vetere, Deputy Dean of Engagement, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne.

It is envisioned that the completed work will take up residence on the Hamer Hall rooftop for 10 days in 2024.

“The aim of this project is to create a rare and extraordinary moment in the life of Victoria for people to consciously empathise with future generations who will inherit our culture, customs and built environment and face the challenges of climate chaos caused by generations living now. By following the life of an imagined child born in 2021, made up of the contributed faces, dreams and gestures of the current population, it becomes possible to rehearse our future in an invested, emotional, hopeful and human way,” said Walton.

Developed entirely by young industry professionals during the second COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne,  “SUDDENLY: A Short New Musical” will stream for FREE, available on YouTube, from April 30th 2021. The brand new 30 minute musical film brings theatrical innovation to the next level in a production performed on stage that is entirely designed for camera. “SUDDENLY” boasts an original pop/rock contemporary theatre score by local singer/songwriter Jordie Race-Coldrey, and a world-class cast of Melbourne’s most exciting professional and forthcoming talent.

What started as a passion project helmed by Creative Producer, Dean Gild, quickly grew into a fully developed musical experience. The unique production embraces the digital renaissance of live theatre through filmed media, unifying the scale and electricity of live performance, with the nuance and intimacy of film.

“SUDDENLY” reveals the story of a stretched relationship between a mother and daughter, and how they are forced to confront the issues causing their rift, by reflecting on their past, their innate insecurities, and personal struggles. The musical foregrounds the importance of strong familial relationships, the power of confronting your past traumas, and acts as a reminder to appreciate what, and who, you have.

It wasn’t too long ago that Jordie Race-Coldrey (Director, Composer, Co-Writer) and Dean Gild (Producer, Co-writer) were chatting over Zoom from their parents’ houses in Melbourne, hypothesising what this project would be and how it might grow beyond the enthusiasm and passion they were sharing with each other. Not only were the effects of COVID-19 forcing everyone in every industry to pivot into new ways of operating, but the two of them had never even created something like this before the world turned upside down. Jordie and Dean were able to draw from a completely blank slate of traditions and standards and create something completely original. It’s incredible what can be achieved with a room (or zoom) full of passionate young creatives.

The Overwintering Project is a long-term environmental art project that unites artists around Australia to raise awareness for our most endangered group of birds, migratory shorebirds, and their habitat, focusing on Westernport as an internationally significant migratory shorebird habitat.

 

The exhibition features 16 artists who have produced new work in a variety of media inspired by the local Westernport environment. Exhibition curator Kate Gorringe-Smith’s work is print-based; Eastern Curlew, Westernport Icon is a homage to the complex Westernport environment and to the Eastern Curlew, our most endangered migratory shorebird, that makes its home here. Featured artists include: Alexis Beckett, Andrej Kocis, Byron Scullin Heather Hesterman, Cathryn Vasseleu, Kate Gorringe-Smith, and many more, including the artists of the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio. (Full list of artists in attached media release)

The intention of the exhibition is to engage people with a local environment they may already know and love, sparking recognition and wonder for this unique place that we share with such amazing creatures. The Overwintering Project: Westernport also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, is part of the 2021 Art+Climate=Change Festival, and is dedicated to the memory of Dr Clive Minton OAM, father of Australian shorebird research. The Overwintering Project: Westernport is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, by the VWSG, BirdLife Australia and the UNESCO Western Port Biosphere Reserve.

Also showing at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery is Among The Trees, a collection of new watercolour paintings inspired by Lauren Guymer’s encounters in the Australian landscape. Formed by her deep appreciation and connection to nature, these works are a visual representation of her experiences and the places she visits. Located just beyond her backyard on the Mornington Peninsula, the majority of these paintings depict the surrounding bushland, from trails winding through the native scrub to woodland along the coast.

Lauren Guymer is an Australian visual artist who primarily creates landscape drawings and paintings on paper. From the native bushland to places further afield, she is inspired by the natural world that surrounds her. The native bushland and coastal scenery near her home has been a large influence in her work and is revisited often.