The Drawing Room

Stanley Jordan is a guitar virtuoso who has been pushing the boundaries with his playing for over four decades.

The worlds of classical music and urban culture very rarely rub shoulders.

However, KLASSIK underground, aims to bring these worlds together by combining classical music with other art forms such as dance, street art, poetry and video installations - to create innovative music events.

In the Drawing Room, Australian violist and creative producer, Tahlia Petrosian, talks about how she's bringing together laser artistry with Shostakovich.

Our Blood Runs in the Street is a visceral and raw examination of the violence and persecution experienced by the LGBTQI community in Australia.

Blending physical theatre with verbatim text, the production looks at a spate of brutal bashings and murders in Sydney that brought terror to the LGBTQI community for decades.

In the Drawing Room, award-winning director, Shane Anthony, talks about how he went about bringing these challenging and important stories to the stage.

Il Trovatore is perhaps Verdi's most complicated opera, with betrayals, abductions, revenge and hidden identities.

The character of Leonora is led by her heart and lacks reason. For singer, Leah Crocetto, who is taking on the role in Opera Australia's latest production, it's not a character she easily identifies with.

In the Drawing Room, Leah talk about how she's learnt to channel her inner teenager for the role and shares how a rejection from the Met Chorus changed the trajectory of her career.

What magic happens when a musical genius is exposed to Beethoven, Vivaldi, and AC/DC at a young age, and loves them all?

William Barton is a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and one of Australia's leading didgeridoo players.

His latest song is a cover of the classic rock song Johnny B. Goode, as part of Chess Records' seventieth anniversary album, Everybody Knows I'm Here.

Robert Dessaix is an essential part of the Australian literary world. As a writer, a performer, and an interviewer, he's explored the meaning of life and the stories behind the stories.

For that work, he's the recipient of the 2022 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

In the Drawing Room, Robert shares how he likes to connect ideas and talks about his latest release, Abracadabra.

The songs of Jimmy Barnes have become anthems for generations of Australians; his is a voice and a sound that's part of the fabric of this country.

But the sound that Jimmy grew up with was something else entirely. He grew up listening to the classics of soul, and that's a sound that's stayed with him throughout his career.

In the Drawing Room, Jimmy Barnes talks about the 30th anniversary of his Soul Deep record, crashing a Tina Turner concert, and music as communion.

What would Australia look like if we were to put children at the centre of public policy? Would we see more children thrive in school and stay out of prisons? And would they then go on to be more productive and prosperous adults?  

In the Drawing Room, Jeni Whalan, Chief Strategy Officer at the Paul Ramsay Foundation and host of the Life's Lottery podcast talks about what it would mean to put kids at the centre of public policy.

Verdi's La Traviata invites you to indulge in the opulence and glamour of the Parisian salon. Violetta is a free-spirited courtesan who throws lavish parties with the finest champagne but amidst the glitz and glamour a tragic love story unfolds as our effervescent host relinquishes her only chance at love.

In the Drawing Room, Constantine Costi, the opera's revival director, talks about how he's making sparks fly in his new interpretation of this well-known opera classic.

Return to Seoul follows a young French-Korean woman as she travels to her country of birth on a holiday.

She swears she isn’t there to connect to her biological family, but, once in the country, she can’t help but reach out.

This isn’t the tale of a joyous reunion though, it’s complicated, messy, and prickly, just like real life.

In the Drawing Room, the film’s creator, Davy Chou, talks about the real experience that inspired the script, and the complicated questions of belonging that lie at its heart.