Director in Demand | Cameron Menzies, Tait Music Board Profile @cammenzies @helpmannawards @LimelightEd @DivaOperaUK @VictorianOpera
Category: Australian Artist update
Leanne Benjamin joins Prix de Lausanne panel 2017 | Gramilano
We are delighted to report that our Patron, Leanne Benjamin AM OBE, has been asked to join the jury of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne 2017. This is a great honour and acknowledges Leanne’s stature in the world of classical ballet.
This year the Tait Memorial Trust, Leanne Benjamin Awards proudly supports three young Australian dancers:
Lauren Songberg, ballet – English National Ballet School
Chloe Keneally, ballet – English National Ballet School
Rebecca Blenkinsop, ballet – Royal Ballet School
The article below was published by gramilano.com on the 30th November.
Jury members announced for the Prix de Lausanne 45th edition
The jury of Prix de Lausanne 2017 is composed of nine major personalities from the dance world, presided over by the Royal Ballet’s Director, Kevin O’Hare.
O’Hare said,
The Prix de Lausanne is a wonderful opportunity for me to see the talented dancers of tomorrow. I see it as more than a competition; it is a place where our young dancers are encouraged, cared for and given the feedback that provides the foundation for their future careers.
Each of the jurors has a link with one of the competition’s partner schools and companies, or is a former prize winner. Other aspects taken into consideration in forming the panel are having a wide geographical representation, a mix of experiences, and a representation of different styles of dance.
The jury of this edition is made up of the following members:
- Kevin O’Hare: Director, Royal Ballet London – President of the jury (England)
- Leanne Benjamin: Prix de Lausanne Laureate 1981 (England)
- Paola Cantalupo: Artistic and Educational Director, Ecole Supérieure de Danse Cannes-Mougins Rosella Hightower and Prix de Lausanne Laureate 1977 (France)
- Gigi Hyatt: Director of Education and Deputy Director, Hamburg Ballet (Germany)
- Sue Jin Kang: Artistic Director, Korean National Ballet (Korea)
- Goyo Montero: Ballet Director and Choreographer, Staatstheater Nürnberg and Prix de Lausanne Laureate 1994 (Germany)
- Aki Saito: Prix de Lausanne Laureate 1991 (Japan)
- Christian Spuck: Artistic Director, Zurich Ballet (Switzerland)
- Stanton Welch: Artistic Director. Houston Ballet (United-States)
Shelly Power, who is the Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer for the 2017 Prix de Lausanne, said,
I am honored to present the 2017 jury who collectively bring years of experience ranging from teaching, performing, directing and choreographing worldwide. Kevin O’Hare as President and his team of jury members will open doors and make dreams come true for the talented few who are about to embark on the next and perhaps most important step of their careers.
Booking
Tickets for all Prix de Lausanne 2017 events go on sale 15 December 2016
on prixdelausanne.org
Source: Jury members announced for the Prix de Lausanne 45th edition
Lachlan Skipworth and Brett Dean take out Paul Lowin Prizes | Limelight Magazine
Skipworth has won the Orchestral Prize while Dean has taken out the Song Cycle category in the 2016 awards.In November, Limelight reported the nominations for the 2016 Paul Lowin Prizes and the winners have now been announced. Lachlan Skipworth’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra has won the 2016 Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize while Brett Dean’s And Once I Played Ophelia for soprano and string quartet has taken out the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize.
The Paul Lowin Prizes, which are run every two or three years, are among the richest in Australia for music composition and are managed by Perpetual in collaboration with the Australian Music Centre. Since the first prizes in 1991, over $440,000 has been awarded.
Source: Lachlan Skipworth and Brett Dean take out Paul Lowin Prizes
Helen Sherman makes Strauss debut in Der Rosenkavalier, Opera North
Lovely to hear from 2007 Tait Awardee, Helen Sherman. Helen had great success in the 2011 Cardiff Singer of the World as Australia’s representative in this career making competition. She won the third prize in the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition in 2013.
As you can see from her year in review below, Helen is now singing in the very best houses and is an international singer of repute. This recording of Vivaldi’s, Bajazet by Pinchgut Opera has just been released. We look forward to hearing more about this exciting artist.
Update from Helen
2016 has been a challenging and exciting year for me. Highlights included singing Dorabella in Opera North’s revival of Tim Albery’s production of ‘Cosi fan Tutte’ and Donna Elvira for Classical Opera’s Don Giovanni at Cadogan Hall. The jewel of the year for me however, was making my Strauss debut as Octavian in David McVicar’s iconic production of ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ with Opera North. There was something quite ‘out-of-body’ about having Sarah Connolly’s name stitched into my trousers! The music in ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ is really out of this world and this production is beautiful in every way. I really learned so much from this role. We sang a show the night the divisive US election result was announced; it reminded me how truly blessed we are as musicians to be able to transcend this world and all it’s troubles through our work. It also re-emphasised to me how relevant and important music is; it proves that together we can do incredible things.
Source: Helen Sherman
Rehearsing for the Prom | Lisa Bucknell & Alex Isted
Our Winter Prom is only two days away. Here is a snippet of a piano run for violist, Lisa Bucknell; violinist, Alex Isted & accompanist, Chad Vindin, who are rehearsing Mozart’s Concertante for Violin and Viola K 364. Lisa and Alex are both Masters graduates of the Royal College of Music and have already gained impressive solo and orchestral CV’s.
Tickets are still on sale for our concert at St John’s Smith Square celebrating our very talented awardees who have travelled to the UK to complete their advanced musical studies. The Tait Chamber Orchestra will be conducted by Jessica Cottis.
Duncan Rock | Harewood Young Artist | English National Opera
British/Australian baritone Duncan Rock was a Tait Awardee in 2008 and a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio, London. He has appeared in major roles at the Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Théâtre du Châtelet, Deutsche Oper (Berlin), Teatro Real (Madrid), the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Opera North, the Boston Lyric Opera and Welsh National Opera.
We are thrilled to see the great success this very talented Western Australian singer has accomplished in a relatively short time. Below is a post from the ENO website about the Harewood Young Artists programme which gave him so many excellent opportunities. This type of advanced training/on the job experience is crucial to develop a great artist.
The Dowager Countess of Harewood was a professional violinist in Sydney and has been a dear friend of the Trust’s from the very beginning. We are honoured to say she is our Patron. To celebrate her 90th Birthday we are dedicating the performance of Mozart’s, Violin & Viola Concertante with Orchestra K364 to her in our 2016 Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith Square. Please come if you can. Book here
ENO Harewood Artists’ Match Campaign 2016
Support opera’s rising stars and see your donation double. More here
Donate now
From Monday, 21 November, to Thursday, 1 December, 2016, donations made to the ENO Harewood Artists’ programme will matched, making them twice as valuable to ENO.
We have £70,000 ready to be matched but we need your help to reach our target and unlock these vital funds. At ENO we are committed to nurturing talent. The ENO Harewood Artists’ programme makes a crucial contribution to developing the next generation of operatic stars. The programme costs over £200,000 a year to deliver and is funded entirely through donations.
The Harewood Artists’ programme provides exceptional training and mentoring to nine of the best British or British-trained singers at the beginning of their professional careers and gives opera’s rising stars the opportunity to develop and learn whilst being cast in roles on the London Coliseum stage. Each singer undertakes a programme of vocal and language training, is coached by experts in their repertoire and receives ongoing support from members of ENO’s artistic and music staff.
Previous Harewood Artists include Sophie Bevan, Katherine Broderick, Allan Clayton, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Iain Paterson, Duncan Rock and Sarah Tynan.
This season, our Harewood Artists performances include: Mary Bevan Don Giovanni; Andri Björn Róbertsson Tosca & Rigoletto; Nicky Spence Lulu; Matthew Durkan Rigoletto & Partenope; Katie Coventry, Soraya Mafi & David Webb The Pirates of Penzance; and Samantha Price The Winter’s Tale.
Matched support is generously donated by The Shears Foundation, The Queen Anne’s Gate Foundation and Talal & Lina Kanafani. For more information or to donate over the phone please contact patrons@eno.org or call 020 7845 9331.
On rejections | Seraglio
A non-musical pressed blog but so relevant to us too. A very well written piece about rejection and all that entails. Jenny’s debut novel THE SECRET SON received rave reviews in Australia…a little birdie tells me she quite like Wagner after seeing the Opera Australia, Ring. Might she be tempted to write an opera libretto (See we got back to music…)
Jenny Ackland is a writer and teacher who lives in Melbourne. Her first novel THE SECRET SON was published by Allen & Unwin in September 2015, and her second novel LITTLE GODS is forthcoming in 2017. LITTLE GODS has a gothic Mallee 1980s setting and is about resilience and revenge.
I’m writing this mainly I guess for any writers who might be reading. Rejections (note the plural) are part of the game. And it is a game, not a fun game or one of manipulation, but of patience, perseverance, and professionalism. Another thing: it’s a long game.
I wrote about rejection here, for author Lee Kofman, and how me submitting a terribly-written travel article back in 1990 (and getting rightly rejected – and in retrospect it was a LOVELY ‘No’ letter, I have the feeling it came from Jonathan Green) meant that I didn’t submit anything for years. I didn’t stop writing, I’m not that precious or thin-skinned, but If I’d known then what I know now, a slow-dawning awareness that started building once I started writing seriously with a view to publication from 2008 onwards, I would have seen that not only was that piece a draft, wholly unworked and not worthy of appearance outside of my diary pages, rejection does not mean you are shit.
Now, as I am sitting with a completed second novel manuscript, the first draft of a third ready for next-stage development, and fourth in its early stages, I am so glad that not only was that pathetic travel piece denied its place in the canon lol, but also that the first few submissions I made to literary journals were nixed as well. I know now that my novels need a long, long time in the oven, with the preparation of them like one of those crazy recipes that have so many ingredients you almost decide not to cook the bloody thing, but then you think, well, give it a whirl, it’s the weekend, I’ve got the whole day, and you make the hugest mess of the kitchen, use every pot and pan, and you kind of enjoy it but kind of think ‘why am I even doing this?’ And it took me a while to realise that if I can manage my impatience by thinking ‘the thing will improve, take your time, this is nowhere near finished’ and resist rushing it to readers, an agent, the publisher, then the pressure comes off a bit.
Advice on how to attract a publisher
Source: On rejections | Seraglio
Jessica Cottis: “There’s still a block for women conductors” – Limelight Magazine
The conductor of this year’s Tait Memorial Trust concert on gender, education and musical styles.
It’s that time of year again in London when the beautiful concert hall at St. John’s Smith Square is taken over by the Australian, Tait Memorial Trust.
The venue will be filled with talented Australian musicians and singers, many having benefitted from a Tait music scholarship. November 30th will be an opportunity for audiences to hear a wonderful programme of music and spot the Australian stars of the future.
If you are living in London or have friends over there, you should rush to get tickets. Conducting and curating this concert will be the internationally acclaimed Australian-born conductor, Jessica Cottis. On a wet and stormy London morning we manage to Skype and I ask first about her involvement with the Tait Memorial Trust.
“I sit on their advisory board and together we make the artistic decisions for programming concerts,”
she says.
“I benefitted from a Tait scholarship myself so feel really excited to be working with students and professionals who have come up through the same route.”
—–READ MORE—–
Source: Jessica Cottis: “There’s still a block for women conductors”
Tait Awards 2016
The Tait Memorial Trust is pleased to be assisting these fine young Australian artists in 2016.
The Tait Adopt a Performer scheme
The adopt a performer scheme allows a donor to directly support a young Australian performing artist annually for a three-year commitment. Please click here to learn how to actively involve yourself in the career development of a young performer.
The greatest return, however, would be to see your awardee fulfill their true potential and, as they graduate to a professional career, the pleasure of knowing that you played an important part in making this possible.
Royal College of Music
Tait Scholar – The Julian Baring family
The Royal College of Music
Sally Law, Violin
To learn more about Sally please click here
Royal Northern College of Music
Higgins Scholar – The Higgins family
Waynne Kwon, Cello
To learn more about Waynne please click here
The Leanne Benjamin Awards
selected by Leanne Benjamin AM OBE.
Financial assistance and support for young Australian dancers studying at major UK ballet schools
John Frost – Leanne Benjamin Award
The Royal Ballet School
Rebecca Blenkinsop
Leanne Benjamin Award
The English National Ballet School
Chloe Keneally
Leanne Benjamin Award
The English National Ballet School
Lauren Songberg
Partner Award Funding
Royal Over-Seas League Tait Prize
Award funded by Chevalier Richard Gunter
Australian musician showing the most promise
Ann Beilby, Viola
John Frost, Frank and Viola Tait Award
Australian International Opera Awards
Nathan Lay, Baritone
Bel Canto Awards
Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation
A Concert platform for a young Australian/New Zealand singer
Emma Moore, Soprano
Tait & Sir Charles Mackerras Chair
A Chair in the Southbank Sinfonia for the duration of the annual programme. This award is made possible due to a generous gift from the Estate of Lady Mackerras to fund a portion of the Chair for at least the next 10 years. This year the Tait contribution to this award has been made by Stephanie McGregor & Albert Kwok.
John Amis Award
Dartington International Summer School
For a 1 week course of intensive study for an Australian musician
Matthew Thomson, Tenor
Extraordinary Awards
Margaret Rodgers Award
Selected by Margaret Rodgers personally
Cameron Campbell, Viola
Margaret Rodgers Award
Selected by Margaret Rodgers personally
Nick Mooney, French Horn
Whalley and Tait Gift
Special funding to assist with the purchase of a 1930 Natale Carletti (Bologna), Viola
from the Whalley family and the TMT
Lisa Bucknell, Viola
Tait General Awards
Award funded by The Thornton Foundation
To assist with continued private study
Andrey Lebedev, Guitar
Award funded by the VEC Acorn Trust
To assist with continued private study
Jo Dee-Yeoh, Cello
Award funded by The Thornton Foundation
To assist with continued private study
Vivien Conacher, Mezzo-Soprano
Award funded by The Hunter family
To assist with continued private study
Krystal Tunnicliffe, Piano Accompanist
Award funded by Louise Worthington
To assist with continued private study
Ashlyn Tymms, Mezzo Soprano
Behind The Ring: Part Three – Siegfried — Re:hearsal Magazine
Moving into the theatre with Opera Australia
The stage rehearsals are here. After 6 weeks in the rehearsal studio, 12 months of planning, preparation and meetings, and 3 years since the first performance of this Cycle, we’re in the State Theatre in Melbourne, ready to throw everything we’ve done in the rehearsal rooms onto the stage.The stage rehearsals bring their own special kind of magic that isn’t possible in the confines of the rehearsal room. Suddenly, after weeks of being figuratively (if not literally) staring up the noses of the singers, the directing team is perched at the production desk about half-way back in the stalls and we’re able to see the full height, width, and depth of the set and its surrounds.
The stage sessions are (almost) always my favourite part of the production; there are many worse places to be in the world than nestled in the red velvet comfort of the State Theatre. For me, there’s nothing quite as exciting as sitting bleary-eyed late at night in an otherwise empty theatre, and staring at the set as the all-important, yet subtle, nuances of lighting are achieved.
—–READ MORE—–
Source: Behind The Ring: Part Three – Siegfried — Re:hearsal Magazine