On 15 June 1215, King John signed Magna Carta at Runnymede and it continues to be regarded as a cornerstone of democracy. But is it really? What is it, who wrote it, why and what does it really say? Sylvia recorded this interview with historian and lawyer, Geoff Holland, back in 2015, to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the document. Certainly worth another listen!

From April through to June 2019. each week Arts Wednesday featured one track from Leonie Cohen's latest album, Pages Suite alongside conversation between Leonie and Sylvia about the music. It is jazz pianist Leonie's first foray into classical composition and the suite was inspired by the stage performance for The Diary of Anne Frank, for which Leonie was commissioned to write some music.

The tracks are as follows:

Lights Finale

Capture

Spring Kiss

Dance Away

Dance Away 2

Looking Out, Looking In

Baruch

Pages

Lights Finale (Piano solo)

Todd Gibson Cornish, principal bassoon with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, was Sylvia's guest on Arts Wednesday 26 June 2019, talking us through this magnificent instrument: its history, construction, sounds and techniques of playing, interspersed with music by Bach, Mozart and Teleman.

On Arts Wednesday 11 September 2019, Sylvia's guest was Rabbi Benjamin Elton, Chief Minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney talking about the liturgical music of the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement. Through 4 prayers selected by Rabbi Ben, we look at the history of the service and its specific musical traditions.

Prominent Sydney architect, Ed Lippmann, has written a book called Sydney XXXL. For the next 6 weeks, Arts Wednesday will feature Sylvia in conversation about one of the 6 chapters in the book. Each week, that chapter will be uploaded onto the net where you can download at:

Ed introduces his thesis in Chapter 1, entitled Global Urbanism and Cities. He records the growing world-wide trend of increased urbanisation, the challenges this poses and how Sydney fits in. You can upload this chapter and, subsequent chapters at https://medium.com/sydneyxxxl

 

In this chapter, Ed talks of the challenges of an ever-expanding Sydney and nominates the following 5 areas as critical: population, water, geography and topography, transportation and infrastructure, the harbour and waterfront.

Remember to download this chapter (and the others) at https://medium.com/sydneyxxxl

 

In this episode, Ed talks about heritage buildings - our changing views of what heritage buildings are and how they should be preserved, or not.

Over the course of June and July 2019, Shakespeare scholar, Dr Anna Kamaralli, made a welcome return to Arts Wednesday with a 6-part series entitled Shakespeare and Company. In this series, Anna explores Shakespeare's company - The Chamberlain's Men - which he joined as a young actor.

The six episodes are as follows:

Two Houses, both alike in dignity: In this episodes, Anna looks at the establishment of professional theatre in England and the first 2 companies.

Cut him out in little stars: In this episode, Anna looks at the star system and who were the stars of the company

It is a pretty youth: Here Anna teases out what we know about the boy actors who played female roles

Let her speak too: Although not in professional theatre, women played their own theatrical roles!

Hooted at like an old tale: In this episode, Anna ,looks at the sources of Shakespeare's plots

Tricks he hath in him, like gentlemen have: In the final episode, Anna asks "What next?"