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Born On This Day – Amilcare Ponchielli (August 31, 1834)

Classical

Amilcare Ponchielli was an important nineteenth century Italian composer, primarily of operas. He is best known for his 1876 La Gioconda, though he wrote other significant operas, as well as ballets, orchestral, chamber music, and various vocal works. He was a rare example of a meek, but immensely talented, artist, whose backward nature sabotaged his career in certain respects. He had a vivid imagination, an uncanny ability to express varied situations and emotions, and superior orchestrational skills.

In Conversation: Brendan Joyce

In Conversation Interviews Simon Moore

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.

Born On this Day – Benny Moré (24 August, 1919)

Born On This Day

Benny Moré or Beny Moré as he was also known, embodies the best of Cuban music, its rhythm, its soul, its humor, and its joy. He is the greatest singer ever to emerge from Cuba, and is regarded as the benchmark for all Cuban soneros.

One of nineteen children, Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré, was born on August 24, 1919 in a poor neighborhood named Pueblo Nuevo, in the town of Santa Isabel de las Lajas in the province of Las Villas.

Coy Composers – A Word Puzzle

Classical Trivia and Crossword

Find the 30 composers hiding in plain sight! Click HERE to play

Jazz On Wednesdays – Avishai Cohen Trio

Jazz Jazz On Wednesdays Program Highlights Programs

Jazz On Wednesdays brings you the magic of world jazz, this week featuring the Avishai Cohen Trio and their album Shifting Sands. Listen to Jazz Sketches at noon with Robert Vale and Planet Jazz at 7pm with Xavier Bichon.

Jazz In Conversation: Gary Daley

Barry O'Sullivan Interviews Jazz Jazz In Conversation Programs

Each week, Barry O’Sullivan invites a studio guest onto Friday’s A Jazz Hour at noon, this week Australian keyboardist Gary Daley. Gary Daley is best...

Simon Moore interviews Madeleine Easton

Breakfast Interviews Simon Moore

The Australian World Orchestra is thrilled to be reuniting with Maestro Zubin Mehta for a concert at the Sydney Opera House on September 2at 8:00pm. This morning, Simon Moore caught up with violinist Madeleine Easton, who will be joining the Australian World Orchestra for this concert.

In Conversation: Daniel Dodds

In Conversation Interviews Simon Moore

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 shortly to appear as Concertmaster of the Australian World Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta, for performances in Melbourne on the 31st of August and Sydney on the 2nd of September.

CD Review – Fable

CD Reviews Fine Music Magazine Paul Cooke

Jacinta Dennett is an Australian harpist, and this album gathers a number of compositions for solo harp by Australian women composers. They range chronologically from Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ Sonata for harp, written in 1950-51 for the Spanish harpist Nicanor Zabaleta and still performed by him more than 30 years later, to a work commissioned by Dennett, Alicia Grant’s Three pieces for harp, a depiction of a coastal environment.

CD Review – Dora Pejacevic: Piano Concerto; Symphony

CD Reviews Fine Music Magazine James Nightingale

Research into the work of minor composers of the early part of the 20th century has unearthed a few gems in recent years, and the music of the Croatian composer, Dora Pejačević is another welcome addition to the musical picture of the period. Pejačević had a privileged upbringing but was also caught up in the turbulence of the times, including nursing in the Great War, while demanding that her music be accepted on her own terms.