Treasured violin has a new custodian
Australian violinist and fast-rising star of the classical music world Emily Sun is the new custodian of “The Adelaide” violin – crafted in Milan in 1753–57 by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini and said to be valued at more than $US1 million ($A $1.4 million) today.
The instrument is held in trust by UKARIA and the previous custodian was former Adelaide Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto, who played it from 2018-23.
“This Guadagnini has a golden sound,” says Sun, who is currently Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London and is also the ASO’s artist-in-association.
“I feel very privileged to play on this beautiful instrument, during this fleeting period of its already long life and history. The tone is very warm, dark and rich; very even and homogenous across the registers.”
UKARIA CEO Alison Beare formally handed over the instrument to Sun last month. Beare says the violinist is an audience favourite in concert halls across the country and, although she is now based mainly in London, her close connection to Australia will ensure The Adelaide continues to be heard here.
South Australian audiences will have the opportunity to hear Sun perform on the violin at concerts with the ASO in March (Horizons) and June (Rachmaninov: The Symphonies), and in an intimate solo recital at UKARIA with London-based Australian pianist Joseph Havlat on July 28.
Film the big winner in 2023 Ruby awards
South Australia’s leading arts awards have recognised a big year for the state’s film industry, with winners including a horror blockbuster, a groundbreaking children’s television series, and an acclaimed docu-fiction film.
The Ruby Awards, announced last Friday at a sit-down event held on the stage of the Festival Theatre, recognise outstanding work by South Australia’s arts and culture sector in 11 categories.
Filmmaker Derik Lynch at the 2023 Ruby Awards. Photo: supplied
The state’s screen talents won a series of awards, with Adelaide’s Philippou brothers taking out the highly competitive category Outstanding Work or Event Within A festival for their feature directorial debut, Talk to Me.
The horror film from Danny and Michael Philippou, best known to millions of YouTube subscribers as RackaRacka, had its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival.
Outstanding Regional Event or Project went to Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black), by Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorne with Switch Productions. The internationally-recognised 25-minute “docu-fiction” film follows Derik, an initiated Aṉangu and queer-identifying man, “on a road trip to Country for spiritual healing”.
Screen work was also recognised in the category Outstanding Work or Events Outside a Festival, with Windmill Theatre Company’s offshoot Windmill Pictures winning for its live-action puppet series, Beep and Mort. The television series, produced in Adelaide for ABC Kids, is taking local storytelling to the world via international deals.
The Outstanding Collaboration award went to the Adelaide Film Festival EXPAND Lab, a partnership between the Adelaide Film Festival, Samstag Museum of Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Illuminate Adelaide and The Balnaves Foundation. Launched in 2022, the initiative connects practitioners to create new moving image artworks.
Actor and filmmaker Natasha Wanganeen won the Stevie Gadlabarti Goldsmith Memorial Award, recognising outstanding artistic or cultural achievement or contribution by a South Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person or group.
Other winners were: Outstanding Community Event or Project: Wild Dog, Jacob Boehme; Outstanding Work, Event or Project for Young People: The Boy & the Ball, Stephen Noonan; Outstanding Contribution by an Organisation or Group: The Mill Adelaide; Geoff Crowhurst Memorial Award: Tony Hannan; Frank Ford Memorial Young Achiever Award: Alexander Flood.
The Premier’s Award for Lifetime Achievement went to two recipients: distinguished accompanist, pianist and music educator Diana Harris, and internationally acclaimed lighting designer Nigel Levings.
In this acceptance speech, Levings talked about the importance of learning his craft as a full-time employee of State Theatre in the 1970s, contrasting that with the insecure tenure of contemporary, casually employed theatre technicians and designers – who he described as the “precariat”.
For full details of all the winners, go here.
Writers SA to farewell Jessica Alice
Writers SA departing CEO Jessica Alice. Photo: supplied
Writers SA CEO Jessica Alice will leave the organisation in February after five and a half years in the role during which she has spearheaded initiatives including its expansion into regional South Australia and the establishment of the Context Writers Festival and the SA Literary Fellowships program.
Alice, who is also chair of the Arts Industry Council of SA, says she believes South Australian literature is “the strongest it has ever been”.
“I am enormously proud of my time at Writers SA. It has been a great privilege to work with the state’s many talented writers on so many impactful programs, to create new funding and creative opportunities to support their work, and to advocate on behalf of the literary community.”
Writers SA says it has begun recruitment for a new CEO to be appointed in the new year.
Responding to ‘The Disquiet’
Five South Australian artists have been selected to research and develop new work in response to the Australian Political Poster & Print Collection at Flinders University Museum of Art early in the new year.
The Guildhouse Collections Project is a collaborative project between Guildhouse and public cultural institutions, with this iteration being the first time it has expanded beyond two artists or artist teams.
The selected artists – Bin Bai, Stephanie Doddridge, Sue Kneebone, Olga Sankey and Truc Truong – represent a range of different creative practices including sculpture, ceramics, printmaking and performance.
Led by FUMA collections curator Nic Brown, they will each develop new work as a response to the theme of “The Disquiet”, reflecting on the alternative cultural movements and political activism of the 1970s documented by the Australian Political Poster & Print Collection.
“The Collections Project provides an important opportunity for South Australian artists to engage with the rich content of our state’s public collections… The breadth and quality of applications for this Collections Project opportunity this year demonstrates just how valuable this platform is for the professional development of the artists involved,” says Guildhouse CEO Sarah Feijen.
Catapulting careers
Shirley Jianzhen Wu, Infusion, 2022, flameworked borosilicate glass, Eucalyptus cneorifolia essential oil, sola wood, teak, cotton thread, reed and silicone. Photo: Michael Haines
Guildhouse also announced this week that seven Catapult mentorships valued at $5000 each have been awarded to South Australian artists, craftspeople and designers with practices spanning glass art, sculpture, installation, painting and performance.
The program, supported by Guildhouse’s Creative Champions donor group, the Ian Potter Foundation and Country Arts SA, teams mentees with mentors from around the country to help them further their skills and develop their artistic practice.
The 2023 recipients and their mentors are: Dave Court and Soda Jerk, Edwina Cooper and Penelope Cain, Fiona Castle-Schmidt and Julia Robinson, Jingwei Bu and Lindy Lee, Kat Korossy and Kate Kurucz, Lyn Anstey and Sophie Hann, and Shirley Jianzhen Wu and Mark Eliott. Read more about the artists and the Catapult program here.
Home is where the music is
The 2023 Coriole Music Festival. Photo: Jamois
A line-up of top artists including Anna Goldsworthy, Konstantin Shamray and Lyrebird Trio will perform a program of music exploring the connection to home at next year’s Coriole Music Festival.
“Whether it’s finding a way home, a lost home or the search for a place to belong, for all of the featured composers the term home carries many different meanings,” says festival artistic director Simon Cobcroft, who unveiled the line-up this week.
The festival – which combines chamber music with talks, food and wine – will take place at Coriole Vineyards on May 18 and 19. The program of three concerts includes music by Peter Sculthorpe, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Osvaldo Golijov, as well as the world premiere of a piece by Australian composer Annie Hsieh for baritone, violin and cello.
In addition to returning artists such as pianists Goldsworthy and Shamray, the festival will feature the Lyrebird Quartet (including Cobcroft on cello), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra principal viola Justin Julian, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra principal double bass Jonathan Coco, the Orava String Quartet, baritone Samuel Dundas and violinist Doretta Balkizas. Full details are available online.
ACE Studio Program artists
South Australian artists Carly Tarkari Dodd, Marian Sandberg and Emmaline Zanelli have been announced as the first recipients of Adelaide Contemporary Experimental’s annual Studio Program for 2024.
The Studio Program is designed to support artists at a crucial point in their careers, with the recipients receiving 24-hour access to a studio, professional development opportunities and mentorships with ACE staff. At the end of the year, their work will be showcased in the Studios: 2024 exhibition.
Get InReview in your inbox – free each Saturday. Local arts and culture – covered.
Thanks for signing up to the InReview newsletter.
ACE has five Studio Program artists each year, with the two remaining studios for 2024 to be awarded to graduates from the Helpmann Academy and Adelaide Central School of Art.
Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture.
Get in touch by emailing us at editorial@solsticemedia.com.au
Support local arts journalism
Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.
Donate Here
