A CHORAL conductor and mentor credited with bringing the healing and
comforting joy of music to thousands of young Canberrans was tonight named 2016
“Citynews” Artist of the Year at the 26th ACT Arts Awards Night.
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| Alpha Gregory accepting the award |
Alpha Gregory, praised for her
“passion, energy and commitment,” was singled out by the Canberra Critics’
Circl, which judges the award, for her 19 year contribution to choral music in Canberra,
particularly through her inspirational leadership of the Woden Valley Youth
Choir.
Ms Gregory, the circle said, had shaped the musical lives of two
generations of Canberra’s youth and has taught them invaluable life skills as
they have grown into adulthood as members of the choir. As well as being
the Artistic Director of the three choirs which make up the Woden Valley Youth
Choir organisation she has been choir conductor, teacher, tour guide, CD
producer, administrator, yearbook publisher, choreographer, stylist, fiercest
supporter and strongest music critic.
In the ceremony at the Canberra Museum
and Gallery she was presented with a $1,000 cheque and a F!NK vase designed by
the late artist Robert Foster.
The music panel said of Ms Gregory:
“Alpha has shaped the
musical lives of two generations of Canberra’s youth and has taught them
invaluable life skills as they have grown into adulthood as members of the
choir. As well as being the Artistic Director of the three choirs which make up
the Woden Valley Youth Choir organisation she has been choir conductor,
teacher, tour guide, CD producer, administrator, yearbook publisher,
choreographer, stylist, fiercest supporter and strongest music critic.
 |
| L to R Critics Circle member Meredith Hinchliffe, Alpha Gregory, and Caroline Stacey |
“She has organised
and run successful tours both within Australia and overseas and brought choirs
from throughout the world to Canberra all the while providing choristers with
unforgettable worldly experiences and raising the international profile of the
choir. She has exposed and taught choristers a wide range of choral music and
has been dedicated and devoted to commissioning, then performing, works from
Australian composers.
The announcement of
Ms Gregory’s award by former “Citynews” Artist of the Year Caroline Stacey was
preceded by the presentation of the 2016 Canberra
Critics Circle awards across a wide range of art forms, with the certificates presented
to artists by the director of artsACT Adam Stankevicius.
The Canberra Critics Circle is made up of the following arts
reviewers in the ACT—
Meredith Hinchliffe, Bill Stephens, Alanna Maclean,
Frank McKone, Joe Woodward, Kerry-Anne Cousins, Cris Kennedy, Samara Purnell,
Simone Penkethman, Clinton White, Jennifer Gall, Michelle Potter, Helen Musa,
Len Power, Jane Freebury, John Milner, John Lombard, Jessica Oliver, Anni Doyle
Wawrzynczak, Ian McLean, Graham McDonald and Peter Wilkins.
The full list of 2016 CCC recipients is as
follows:
Film
For the brave and confident debut
feature film, directed by Sotiris Dounoukos, about a recent and still quite raw
part of Canberra's social history. Exceptionally made, from spot-on production
design, glorious lighting and cinematography, and a sensitive and supportive
soundtrack, a marvellous showcase of not only Canberra, but of the fresh school
of talent to be found both on-screen and off.
Joe Cinque's Consolation
Dance
For her tireless and consistent efforts as a dancer,
choreographer and facilitator towards advancing professional contemporary dance
in the A.C.T through her performances, collaborations, and programs,
culminating in the establishment of her dance company, Australian Dance Party.
Alison
Plevey
Dance
For her innovative promotion of dance in the ACT
exemplified by her co-ordination and presentation of “Great Sport!” at the
National Museum of Australia, which spectacularly showcased the work of The
Gold Company, Dance for Parkinson’s, Canberra Dance Theatre, and of a number of
local and interstate choreographers, in a memorable and remarkable
presentation.
Liz
Lea
Visual
Arts
For her poetic essay conceived in porcelain, slips and
glazes which presented a coherent statement of the artist’s vision, reflecting
the both the natural and man-made landscape filtered through a thoughtful
sensibility, in her exhibition Elements of Place at Form Gallery.
Avi
Amesbury
Visual
Arts
For her sophisticated, complex and highly effective
use of colour, surface texture and form in her solo exhibition of paintings,
It’s All About Eve, at ANCA Gallery.
Emma
Beer
Visual
Arts
For their ambitious, immersive installation Barbed
Maze that evidence the nightmare of uncertainty, surveillance and containment
experienced by refugees in Australia’s detention centres.
Denise
Higgins and Gary Smith
Visual
Arts
For his exceptional exhibition that surveyed more than
50 years of electrifying expressionist painting practice, revealing a complex
and beautiful vision of our region and inspiring a new generation of artists at
Canberra Museum and Gallery Michael Taylor: A Survey 1963-2016
Michael
Taylor
Visual
Arts
For her exhibition, the work of a mature and confident
artist in full command of her medium, in which she created the personal concept
of home is a place of security and safety in impressive and richly coloured
luminous small works and three-dimensional objects that were imbued with a warm
and lively sense of humanity, Black Box: Life, Walls And Houses at Craft ACT.
Judi
Elliott
Poetry
For his indefatigable support of the poetic profession
through his fortnightly evenings at Smith’s Alterative, which include his
interviews with guest poets, under the title. “That Poetry Thing that’s on at
Smith’s every Other Monday”.
Josh
Inman
Poetry
For his masterly use of verse in the stage comedy Cara
Carissima, a savvy look at sibling relations set in the milieu of Canberra’s
coffee culture, in “Plevna: A Biography in Verse”, the story of swashbuckling
Australian medico Charles Plevna Ryan, and in his wry anthology Gods and
Uncles, where he moves into free verse.
Geoff
Page
Poetry
For her book of poetry Transit, which touches on the
intersections of people, place, culture and history experienced by travellers.
Niloofar
Fanaiyan
Fiction
For her novel, The Grief Hole, a masterpiece of dark
fantasy and horror by a tremendously inventive writer.
Kaaron
Warren
Nonfiction
For Hamilton Hume, Our Greatest Explorer, which brings
to life a neglected figure of Australian history in an accessible style.
Robert
Macklin
Writing
For providing a platform for women’s writing and
talent through her online literature and arts journal Feminartsy.
Zoya
Patel
Musicals
For his pitch-perfect performance as the Major-
General in the Canberra Philharmonic Society’s production of The Pirates of
Penzance.
David
Cannell
Musicals
for her outstanding effort in writing, composing,
co-directing and producing Acoustic Theatre’s production of her confronting
musical The Last Time.
Lucy
Matthews
Musicals
for his outstanding performance as Frank Abagnale
Junior in Dramatic Productions production of Catch Me If You Can.
Alexander
Clubb
Musicals
For her confident direction of Phoenix Theatre’s
production of Next to Normal. Its challenges were solved with flair and
feeling.
Kelda
McManus
Musicals
For its stylish, elegant and effervescent production
of Cole Porter’s classic musical, Anything Goes.
Canberra
Philharmonic Society
Musicals
For her beautifully realised performance of the
enigmatic Fanny Brice in Supa Production’s Funny Girl.
Vanessa
de Jaeger
Theatre
For the creativity and excellence of their production
of Playhouse Creatures, directed by Jordan Best. An absorbing and atmospheric
reminder of the struggles of the first English actresses.
Pigeonhole
Theatre
Theatre
For revitalising and advancing Canberra Youth Theatre
through three fine youth theatre productions Dead Men’s Wars, a collaborative
work with NZ’s Long Cloud Youth Theatre, The Verbatim Project, in collaboration
with GOLD, and Antigone, a fresh and original look at a classic play.
Katie
Cawthorne
Theatre
For his masterful interpretation of Brecht’s
alienation effect as the Narrator in Canberra Repertory’s production of The
Threepenny Opera.
Dick
Goldberg
Theatre
For the impact and power of her performance as Lady
Macbeth in Jordan Best’s production of Macbeth for Canberra Repertory.
Jenna
Roberts
Theatre
For his powerful performance in the challenging,
complex and diverse role of Dr Raymond Gerrard in The Street Theatre’s
Production of Tom Davis’s play The Faithful Servant.
PJ
Williams
Theatre
For the fiery, aggressive and often mystifying
production Evangeline at the Courtyard Studio, performed in butoh style by a
dedicated team of actors.
Chenoeh
Miller
Music
For his imaginative and innovative artistic direction
and development of the Griffyn Ensemble and for his composition Hanging Rock
Cello Sonata.
Michael
Sollis
Music
For her dedicated and outstanding leadership of the
Canberra Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster, and for her inspired performance
as violin soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in
C Major with the National Capital Orchestra
Barbara Jane Gilby
Music
For her 19 year contribution to choral music in
Canberra particularly through her inspirational leadership of the Woden Valley Youth
Choir.
Alpha
Gregory
Music
For fostering the art of percussion, seen in his
participation in community events, his creation of The Groove Warehouse and his
outstanding concert, The Power of Drum at The Street Theatre.
Gary
France
Music
For his wide-ranging conducting practice with the ANU
Choral Society, Canberra Gay and Lesbian Qwire, Musica Da Camera and the
National Capital Orchestra and especially for his leadership of the Canberra
Youth Orchestra.
Leonard
Weiss
Music
For their 2016 album, Beginning at the End, taking its
cue from 1980s punk in Canberra and reflecting the band’s epic, psychedelic
aesthetic.
The
Young Docteurs.
