In Conversation

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,...

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...

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...

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 to...

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 Dee...

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 t...

A violinist who has performed on every continent, Adelaide-born Daniel Dodds is the Artistic Director of Festival Strings Lucerne. He’ll be back in Australia  to appear as Concertmaster of the Australian World Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta, for performances in Melbourne and Sydney. It is said he elicits “joie de vivre” from fellow musicians and audiences alike, which is apparent in the...

Australian soprano Amy Manford has already played Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera on the West End and in Athens, and is about to appear in the upcoming production at the Sydney Opera House and the Arts Centre in Melbourne. She also co-runs MM Creative Productions, which produced Disney in Concert A Dream is a Wish , in Perth last year in which she also appeared. A...

The musical theatre scene in Australia and around the world owes a great deal to Guy Simpson. He has been supervising productions of The Phantom of the Opera for over 30 years around the world, from South Africa to New Zealand, Brazil to the Philippines. He has a similarly long association with productions of Miss Saigon , and has been instrumental in countless others – from the larger scale, like...

This week, In Conversation is on tour, coming to you from the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, in Townsville. The Festival’s new Artistic Director is British/German Violinist Jack Liebeck. His music ranges from the intricacy of Mozart through to the passion of contemporary Australian works by Brett Dean. He’s on a whopping 17 albums, including playing on the film scores of Jane Eyre and Anna...

An actor whose career on the stage, film and television is approaching half a century and still going strong, Simon Burke burst onto the scene in the highly acclaimed Devil’s Playground at the age of 13. He won the AFI Award for Best Actor for that performance – still to this day the youngest person to receive that honour. His career since has included appearances on television which are embedded...

Hayden Tee is not just a triple threat, he’s more of a quadruple one – an actor, singer, make-up artist, and also now a director. He knows a thing or two about musical theatre, having played Javert in Les Misérables in multiple countries, including on the West End, Broadway and on these shores. He’s appeared in Matilda , South Pacific , My Fair Lady , and Into the Woods , to name just a few, his c...

One of Australia’s most beloved and renowned pianists, Simon Tedeschi has played with all the major Australian orchestras, and is a seasoned chamber musician and collaborator too. He’s recorded a vast swath of albums covering music from JS Bach and Domenico Scarlatti to Mark Isaacs and Mike Nock, with a decent chunk of George Gershwin too. He’s also a writer, with his first book,  Fugitive , publi...

Australia’s foremost Indigenous classical composer and performer, William Barton has performed internationally with the London and Berlin Philharmonia Orchestras, and in this country with all the premier orchestras. From Kalkadunga heritage, he has vastly expanded the horizons of the didgeridoo with his prodigious musicality. Simon Moore speaks to William as part of NAIDOC Week 2022. William share...

American soprano Leah Crocetto continues to astonish audiences with her moving portrayals of opera’s greatest heroines. She has performed across America, in such seminal operas as Turandot, Otello and Norma, in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Centre to the Metropolitan Opera. She’s also sung the title role of Aida with Opera Australia, and is about to appear as Leonora in Il Trovatore. L...

Making his film debut in Wolf Creek 2, Philippe Klaus has been in such Australian dramas as Rake and Home & Away . He’s appeared on stage with the Old Fitz Theatre, and toured his one man show with the Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festivals. His next gig, though, is a bit of a contrast – appearing in the title role in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt , the next show from Endangered Production, from June 30...

A much-loved cellist who Australia has adopted from his native Finland, Timo-Veikko Valve (known as Tipi) came to this country to become principal cellist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra 16 years ago, a position he has held ever since. He spreads his wings far beyond the ACO, making frequent guest appearances with chamber groups across the country, and of course has played across Europe, North...

Internationally renowned clarinettist David Rowden has performed throughout Europe, Asia, North America, as well as Australia. Not content with being just a soloist, he founded the Omega Ensemble, championing Australian musical talent, and has picked up plenty of APRA/AMCOS classical music nominations along the way. His playing has been described by critics as possessing “superb technique and arti...

Through the Sydney Art Quartet, founder James Beck connects audiences with layered, multi-sensory experiences based on live music woven with contrasting art forms and the wider world of history, arts & sciences. In the pursuit of that goal, he’s performed over 150 original Art Quartet shows with a cross section of some of Australia’s most vibrant creative voices. Previously the Artistic Manage...

Julia Fredersdorff is a violinist who has planted her flag very firmly with the Baroque violin – so much so, that she was the first student at the Victorian College of the Arts to study the instrument, separate from the modern violin. After a period in Europe playing with some of their finest ensembles, she returned to Australia to found the perfectly titled Van Diemen’s Band, as well as playing f...

A multi-award winning actress, Anne Wood has been strutting the stage both here and overseas in musical theatre for over 30 years. Whether it’s Cats or Mamma Mia , Crazy for You or The Sound of Music , she’s covered the full spectrum of what the genre has to offer. Melbourne based, she’s currently in Sydney playing Madame Baurel in An American in Paris , now playing at the Theatre Royal. Anne shar...

A soprano and actress who has established an international career spanning opera, theatre, concert and film, Anna O’Byrne has performed with the likes of Anthony Warlow and Emma Thompson, sung for Charles and Camilla, and appeared in everything from West Side Story to Barnum , and Guys and Dolls to A Little Night Music . But her most well known role on these shores was as Eliza Doolittle in the 60...

An internationally acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, director, novelist and actor, not to mention cultural icon and activist, Leah Purcell stands at the forefront of the Indigenous cultural renaissance and protest movement. A proud Goa-Gungarri-Wakka Wakka Murri woman, she is well known to audiences in Australia and around the world for her many roles, including in Wentworth, Redfern Now, Jindab...

Brisbane born Francesca Hiew was quite the child prodigy. Her career took her to the United States at the age of just 9 and in her later studies she won every chamber music competition she entered – often twice! She’s appeared as soloist with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, was part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and is now one quarter of the Australian String Quartet...

A sought-after specialist in baroque and classical period violin in Australia, Skye McIntosh is the founder, artistic director and principle violin of the Australian Haydn Ensemble. For the last decade, they’ve made their mark on historically informed performance practice in this country. Skye speaks with Simon Moore about one of Haydn’s greatest works, The Creation, and talks about her own journe...