England, Australia and Poland have all contributed to the extraordinary, multilayered creative life of one of 2MBS’s newest presenters, Simon Target. His surname, he explains, is pronounced Tarzhay because his grandfather was French.1
His mother, Brisbane-born water colourist Patricia Prentice, was living in England at the time of his birth and it was there that he grew up and, encouraged by his mother, developed his love of music, learning to sing and to play the violin and the piano at school.
His schooldays were spent at London’s prestigious Westminster School, from which he went on to read English and Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later studied at and graduated with an MA in Film Production from Britain’s National Film and Television School.
His passion for opera, nurtured by his studies in its composition and philosophy during his university years, encouraged him to direct several productions, including one in a barn (Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw) and several on more orthodox stages in England and the United States, working with artists like Simon Keenlyside, Simon Russell Beale and conductor Andrew Parrott.
He settled in Australia when he was in his 20s, since which, film has become his medium of choice, his subjects ranging far and wide. An early feature film, Backsliding, boasted an original score by Nigel Westlake and the TV series Operatunity Oz, documented a nationwide talent search to find an ‘undiscovered’ opera singer.
More recent films, among them Warrawong – the windy place on the hill, made in remote NSW during Australia’s Covid pandemic and Masha & Valentyna, a 50-minute documentary about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have been screened at film festivals and won awards. Soon to make its debut in what he describes as ‘a great little cinema’ in the NSW Parliament at an event sponsored by his local MP (Kobi Shetty, MP for Balmain) and the Polish Consul Piotr Rakowski is Kozok Walks Alone, which follows a Polish man’s solitary pilgrimage across Australia.
And just as a by the way, he and his wife, Polish doctor Beata Zatorska, with whom he owns a holiday home in Poland, have produced two books … of recipes – Rose Petal Jam: Recipes and Stories from a Summer in Poland, which won the international 2012 Gourmand Award and Sugared Orange: Recipes and Stories from a Winter in Poland.
Where he finds the time to volunteer at 2MBS is anybody’s guess, but there he is, a ‘presenter in training’, having, in one of those quirks of fate, sat next to David Garratt at the ballet and been persuaded to give it a shot.
He is awed by the knowledge and skills of those he has come to know in his time at the station. ‘I thought I knew a lot, but I don’t,’ he confesses. Six months of training with Michael Field taught him the basics before he was allowed to fly solo and he still receives memos from Field commenting on his programmes and offering tips.
His programmes include the Friday morning breakfast show, which requires him to leave home at 4.30am, drive through a dark and largely deserted Sydney and work from an empty building, his only companion the portrait of Wagner on the studio door. He also presents ‘At the Opera’ on Wednesday nights.
Simon has nothing but praise for the station and the dedicated team of music lovers who keep it going 24 hours a day. He loves, he says, working in a community of volunteers ‘with a great deal of knowledge and a gentle way of doing things and showing determination, focus and commitment. They really want to be there. There’s no hierarchy and presenters are given a considerable amount of leeway. It’s a very grownup way of doing things.’
Pat Tucker