Loretta Barnard is an author, arts writer, reviewer, editor and project manager, who is a regular contributor on the arts to a number of online sites. Her most recent book is Imagining Australia: a history of our nation through music, film, literature & art
Above pic : The Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House regularly features musicians of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing in recital. Pic Jay Patel
‘Cocktail Hour with Handpicked Wines’ is a relatively new program from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. …
This is the third album from Sydney-based Elysian Fields, an ensemble that gives the term ‘fusion band’ a whole new, and somewhat indefinable, dimension. In their music, you can hear a world of baroque, jazz, modern classical, and folk influences, …
He’s not called a superstar for nothing. There are concert pianists, and there are capital-letter Concert Pianists. Lang Lang is unquestionably among the latter. A consummate musician, a pianist who immerses himself so totally in the music that it’s almost …
In her debut novel, Jacqx Mililli has tackled the world of vaudeville in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century. Based on reminiscences the author heard from a real-life vaudeville performer, whose father led a travelling troupe of …
Above : Author pic
This fantasy/romance novel centres around Wren, princess of Thezmarr, an alchemist and poisoner, and Torj, a warrior whose bravery is renowned across the Midrealms. These two have history, having fought together in the magical Shadow War …
Four stars
This is an absorbing story of Maddy, a young woman in her first year of university, with all its accompanying stresses. Sometimes she’s erratic and moody, and feels weighed down by the pressure her mother puts on her …
Ruth Mary is a tooth fairy, whose usual job is to collect teeth from under children’s pillows, but one night, she’s given a special assignment from the Fairy Queen: to collect the teeth of three jungle animals. She dons her …
It’s 1839, and 20-year-old Bonnie is fleeing an arranged marriage. She arrives in London in 1839, where she meets Crawford, a charming conman, who makes money tricking people in a range of schemes, among which is selling dodgy burial sites.
The opening night and world première of a new work by a respected artist always evokes a heightened sense of anticipation and excitement in audiences, and everyone in the packed Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney on Tuesday evening knew that …
Well, the place was buzzing, the large crowd at Foundry 616 on Saturday 23 March eager to hear the very first performance of newly-formed Sydney-based big band, the Melaleuca Jazz Orchestra. And who doesn’t love a big band? It’s a …