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| 2019 Artist of the Year Michael Dooley. Photo: Peter Hislop. |
Composer and pianist
Michael Dooley was singled out by the Canberra Critics Circle judging panel as a
composer and pianist whose astonishing year has involved jazz and classical
performances, recordings and compositions. These included a work premiered at
the Canberra International Music Festival, film scores, a song cycle, a gospel
oratorio, works for the Canberra Wind Symphony and his first piano concerto,
premiered by the National Capital Orchestra.
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| Christopher Samuel Carroll, winner of the Helen Tsongas Award |
Earlier in the evening,
the inaugural Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting was presented by ACT
Arts Minister, Gordon Ramsay to Christopher Samuel Carroll, whose many
performances in 2018-19 have included roles Icarus and Metamorphosis at The
Street Theatre, Howie the Rookie at
Smith’s and Malvolio in Lakespeare’s
outdoor Twelfth Night.
The new award is an
initiative of the Tsongas family to keep alive the memory of their daughter and
sister, the well-known Canberra actor Helen Tsongas, (Brajkovic) who died in a
motorcycle accident with her husband 8 years ago.
The ACT Arts
Awards evening, hosted by the Canberra Critics Circle at the Canberra Museum and
Gallery, also featured the circle’s own awards, which went to visual artists
Julie Ryder, Raquel Ormella, Dianne Fogwell, Hiroe Swen, Helen Aitken-Kuhnen,
Mio Kuhnen, Gilbert Riedelbauch and Keiko Amenomori-Schmeisser, writers Ginger
Gorman, Kathryn Hind, Robert Macklin, Moya Pacey, Sandra Renew, Nigel
Featherstone and Ginger Gorman, dance artists Zara Bartley, Daniel Convery,
Nathan Rutup, Ryan Stone and the Australian Dance Party, theatre artists Jarrad
West, David Atfield, Omar Musa, Christopher Samuel Carroll, The Street Theatre
and Mockingbird Theatre, musical theatre artists Pippin Carroll, Pee Wee
Productions and Charlotte Gearside, musicians Barbara Jane Gilby, Louise Page,
Phillipa Candy, Michael Dooley, Christopher Latham, Dan Walker and Super Rats,
led by Tim Meyen, film producers Lisa Shaunnessy and Andy Marriott and film
director Tony D’Aquino.
