GO WEST, WITH LOVE, Canberra Qwire

 At The B, Queanbeyan, November 7. Reviewed by DAVID WHITBREAD

Qwire is indeed going west – to Perth next week – and they’re coming on strong with a diverse and fine program from The Berra. 

They’ll be performing their own Mixtape concert in Perth and also featuring in the Out & Loud Gala. This festival of LGBTQIA+ choirs celebrates community, inclusiveness and connection, as has Qwire itself over its 33 years.

Canberra Qwire – coming on strong

Musical director Callum Tolhurst-Close has trained them with a keen eye on interesting programming and attention to choral excellence. His direction is clear and focused. The unauditioned, all-age, 60-strong choir is super responsive. Their parts are secure, though the sopranos were occasionally harsh as they got higher. Their diction is excellent.

They started with Yuma, an unaccompanied musical acknowledgement of Country, followed by Marc Hayes’ excellent choral version of Over the Rainbow. Both had a warm and rich choral tone. Hayes’ harmonies were true and principal accompanist Hugo Temby’s sensitive support just right. Temby also played guitar in later works

Callum Tolhurst-Close conducting – clear and focused

The second in their accompaniment team was Sharwel Lei and they provided some spirited accompaniments, including Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours.

A strength throughout the program was the rhythmic clarity achieved, for example, with Qwire creating a vocal bed of rhythm underneath the lead lines. Or using repeated motifs to build their sound, or to increase their funk factor.

Qwire commissioned London-based Australian composer Alex Palmer to write a work which was given its world premiere at this concert. Palmer was present to introduce it. By interviewing Qwire members, the work began to take shape and became Find Your People.

It was unaccompanied and, through its four episodes, intoned words describing the character of supporters, then gave their names in a complex and fun sung recitation. A section of doubts and confronting thoughts, finally emerging with the original support: “ingenious, incredible, intuitive” into a space of joy. A lovely work.

Did I mention diction? Clarity is essential in new and unfamiliar works – and is seriously one of the strengths of this group.

The second world premiere was composed for Perth Pride’s choral competition by Meanjin/Singapura-based Cloud Tan. It employs complex moving lines, often descending at different rhythms and using a very wide vocal range. This clearly challenged the Qwire but was successfully traversed.

A quick mention of their exemplary MC Sarah Oakes, enthusiast with perfectly judged commentary.

Look, there was a great full program, but we only have room to select some for comment. Unexpected works included Sunday from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sunday in the Park with George. It was beautifully performed, despite the notorious complexity of Sondheim’s lines and cross rhythms.

Eriks Esenvalds’ Stars was given a moving performance with synthesiser taking the place of tuned water glasses as accompaniment. There was magic here.

In terms of anthems, you can’t go past This is Me from The Greatest Showman, Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now and, appropriately, Village People’s Go West, featuring the tenors and basses. Qwire clearly delighted in presenting these works, and they were sung with gusto and infectious good cheer.

But I know you want gospel, too. It would be hard to go past I Sing Because I’m Happy arranged and conducted by assistant musical director Lenore Studdert. She also duetted the opening with Andrea Higgins. Then it broke loose with the full Qwire letting rip with a fabulous speedy, classic gospel vibe, with joyous accompaniment on synth and piano by Tolhurst-Close and Temby respectively.

Moving songs included Let Love Rule by Archie Roach, Feels Like Home, and Judy Small’s Let the Rainbow Shine featuring the altos. These were given fine performances. 

Watch out, Perth! Qwire’s coming west with lots to love. 

Photos by Peter Hislop

This review originally appeared in Canberra City News. Link here 

VERDI'S REQUIEM, Canberra Symphony Orchestra

 At Llewellyn Hall, November 5. Reviewed by DAVID WHITBREAD

A capacity audience held its collective breath while Jessica Cottis created an elongated silence at the conclusion of this glorious work. Then they erupted and rewarded all the performers with an extended standing ovation.

Jessica Cottis conducts Verdi Requiem

Conductor Jessica Cottis is in control. Such vast resources. Such dramatic material to work with. She gives clear direction and inspires orchestra, choir and soloists, shaping their sound. She is rewarded with impressive responsiveness.

There is even a moment in the famous Dies Irae when she crisply and decisively stopped the whole juggernaut midstream with a magic moment of silence.

Arguably, Verdi’s finest work, his Requiem exhibits all the drama of his operas for which he is justly famous. It has tunes. It is triumphant. It is delicate.

But most of all, it is colourful. Verdi employs a vast colour range to deliver the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra clearly revelled in capturing those passing colours. Lustrous, rich, and shimmering.

From the opening horn solo by Robert Johnson offstage, playing Australian composer Liza Lim’s Dianna, written to celebrate the French horn’s history, from hunting calls to magpie song.

The Requiem segued with stillness and affecting warmth from the CSO strings. The enormous sound of the Dies Irae featured Veronica Bailey’s tremendous bass drum beats. And a completely wonderful moment with the trumpet section – where we were seemingly surrounded by trumpets from the gallery too.

Later an amazing high bassoon solo from Ben Hoadley with three vocal soloists. An ethereal solo from oboist Megan Pampling with high strings. A long sinuous first violin line into the Lacrimosa chorus.

The Offertory had stunning tremolos from both low and high strings and a sweet clarinet line against muted strings. Agnus Dei featured a delightful flute trio with the female soloists. Lux Aeterna a rich brass choir. Libera Me a stunning bassoon quartet.

Matching the orchestral palette with an impressive vocal palette, CSO Chorus was immaculately prepared by choirmaster Tobias Cole.

They sang with accuracy, strong clear lines and excellent diction throughout. But more than that was their dynamic control – from almost whispering warmth to the cataclysmic and thrilling Dies Irae.

That famous chorus was exciting and spectacular each time it returned. While the orchestra threatened to overpower the chorus at times, Cottis skilfully maintained balance.

The 75-strong chorus also showed nice vocal agility and tone in the demanding Sanctus.

Four visiting Australian soloists provided operatic gravitas with their impressive voices and equally impressive CVs.

Soprano Helena Dix was transcendent in Libera Me with unaccompanied chorus. One of the highlights of the entire night, this movement had sublime moments of great beauty and demonstrated her full vocal and dynamic range.

Mezzo soprano Deborah Humble shone in her Lux Aeterna solo line, but also shared a number of fantastic duets with Dix. The danger point here was the amazing unaccompanied octaves between soprano and mezzo in the Agnus Dei. The women blended their voices in true collaboration from their first pairing in Recordare.

Tenor Paul O’Neill showed his true operatic tenor tone from his solo in the Dies Irae. He seemed less certain of his lines in the vocal trios and quartets.

Bass Warwick Fyfe captured Verdi’s drama with some nice vocal acting in his solid solos.

What a magnificent event.

Photo by Arianne Schlumpp

This review originally appeared in Canberra City News. Link here

PART II, Bach Partita and Paganini Caprice Cycles, Daniel Röhn

 Wesley Music Centre. October 25. Reviewed by DAVID WHITBREAD

Wesley Music Centre doesn’t disappoint. 

When an artist with such an international reputation presents a solo recital, expectations are high. And Daniel Röhn exceeds them splendidly.

As he said, it started with the serious bit and moved into the fun stuff. What an understatement in both cases.

Daniel Röhn, violin. 

He began with JS Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B minor, an eight movement tour de force. It was not unlike the familiar solo cello suites, but for solo violin.

Bach followed the partita’s four movement form – allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue – but substituted the gigue for a bouree. The eight movements come from a ‘double’ (from the French) of each, elaborating on the chord progressions from the preceding work.

A grand theme began the opening allemande, performed with rhythmic firm vibrato, accurate trilling and turns. The double courante was performed at startling speed with nicely shaped lines. The sarabande was almost entirely in two distinct voices with multiple stopping throughout and quite incredible to hear – and see – it coming from only one instrument. The final double bouree demonstrated great dynamic contrast.

This is artistry rarely heard so distinctly and consistently. Röhn uses the full length of his bow – and maintains strength across its length. He achieves a mighty volume from his instrument, even in his secure double stopping.

All works in this recital were played from what must be a prodigious memory. And I’d have to say with a no-nonsense presentation style. Daniel is not ‘showy’ – his movement is contained and always in service to the composer. You witness him crafting the sound and shaping each line with intelligence and accuracy.

After a short break, he returned to the Wesley stage to perform four of the Paganini Caprices. ‘Fun stuff’ they certainly are – but they take the technical demands on the violinist up a notch.

It is masterful programming to pair them with the Bach Partitas. You witness almost a century of musical development from the Partitas of 1720 to the Caprices written over almost 20 years up to 1818.

Interestingly, for a solo violin, they feature many of the same techniques of rapid notes and double or multiple stopping. Spread chords across the four strings. Different lines on two adjacent strings. The difference being in the harmonic and melodic complexity – and the speed!

Paganini himself was a noted violinist of his age, so players are put through their paces by these works. Once again, Röhn meets the challenges with artistry and supreme musicality.

From the opening of No. 8 in E flat major, he demonstrated incredible dexterity, his left hand and fingers leaping along the neck and fingerboard, his bow reaching dazzling speeds.

No. 19 in E flat major continued the beautifully held long notes on one string which sang, while another string had light running passages played underneath. Fantastic descending and ascending sequences, often in parallel thirds or even octaves on occasion. Crystal clear harmonics.

No. 18 in C major started and finished with almost a horn call that seemed to be all on the G string. It featured delightful German folk-like dance rhythms with the bow fair hopping along.

No. 5 in A minor finished the recital with a flourish at simply incredible speeds and completed the drama of the set.

The small but appreciative audience, which included many violinists and violists from Canberra, were enraptured. Don’t miss the next parts in this inspired series.

Photo by Peter Hislop.

This review originally appeared in Canberra City News. Link here

WORLD WIDE WEBS, April Phillips

 At Megalo Print Studio, Kingston, until November 28. Reviewed by DAVID WHITBREAD

Immaculate hand-printed screen prints pay homage to both digital and analog worlds in an arresting exhibition playing with imagery of spider webs and The Web. 

One of April Phillips’ screenprints, installed on a wall. World Wide Webs Installation view.  

Photo: Kevin Miller

Wiradjuri-Scottish April Phillips lives and works in Canberra and the southern coastal region. In this exhibition, she was ably assisted by screen printer Alex Lundy. Megalo presents this small but mighty exhibition in partnership with Canberra Art Biennial.

Arachnophobes beware. All the imagery features spiders and/or webs. Sometimes like characters from early pixelated computer games. Sometimes naïve as if drawn by a child in crayon. Sometimes grand geometric constructs.

The major work of the exhibition is a massive six-metre wide and 1.5-metre deep screen print in 36 joined frames. Titled Spider Warrior, Girl Protector, Infinite Internet, it takes your breath away as you enter the Megalo exhibition space.

April Phillips, World of Webs, 2026

It cleverly uses striking blue subdivided (pixelated?) commercial dishwasher racks as frames for the imagery. But it reads as a whole – a magnificent spider at the centre of a web. Each pixel subdivides into a miniature artwork. Like a fractal. Mostly using a four by four or eight by eight grid. Simple geometric shapes create the patterns that undulate across the composition and read from afar as webs, in which smaller primary coloured compositions of pure red and yellow are caught. These tantalisingly tease as parts of potentially larger images, presumably already devoured by our spider.

The prints themselves are perfectly designed, printed and mounted. The matte black ink has a velvety depth and sits gloriously flat without stretching or rippling the white paper base.

In the other smaller works, Phillips plays with the textures of screens. Printed textures of dots like old comics. Pixelated line screens from early computer graphics. But anybody who lived through those pixelated wonders would quickly suss out that she is using them without the pixel boundaries – so they can lurch at different angles to each other in free form.

All those textures are beautifully realised in screen printing by Lundy’s excellent technique.

The imagery of computers within the prints features familiar keyboard layouts, and what we would consider retro software windows from early paint programs and early drawing tools. The limited print colour palette mimics the limited colour palettes in early computing too.

This is clever referencing and invites the viewer into the images. As you look closer, there’s more to enjoy.

There is a set of three prints titled Internet Spider Girls: Yellow, Red and Blue immaculately printed and double framed in colourful frames to complement the imagery.

These spiders with their crazy coloured hair bows are powerful female images and remind me of early Grrl imagery where early women adopters wanted recognition that women were working in the Internet space, but were largely invisible due to male domination. That is the clear politics here too.

Girlhood Computer Time features young women caught in a web of presumably conversations and interactions with computers and each other. Each interaction in the web net blooming. It is probably the most complex of the images and the polemic. 

A thought-provoking graphic exhibition that showcases the craft of screen printing. 

This review originally appeared in Canberra City News. Link here

‘illuminate ’26

 Visual Arts Exhibition Review – Brian Rope

‘illuminate ’26 - Friends of the Gardens Photographic Group

Australian National Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre Gallery

5 - 29 November 2026

The Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) Photographic Group has been in existence since 2011. It brings together people interested in photographing the natural world. Their emphasis is on capturing images of native plants, birds, animals and fungi, especially those found in the ANBG. The more experienced photographers in the Group share their knowledge and experience with other members, through individual mentoring and workshops.

The ‘Illuminate’ annual photography exhibition is an opportunity for Group members to display and offer for sale their photos in the ANBG Visitor Information Centre Gallery. Members also provide merchandise such as calendars for sale. Sales help support the operation of the Gardens.

Exhibitions in the Gallery explore the Australian environment through diverse creative forms. This annual exhibition is of photographic artworks, using light to illuminate the subjects in a variety of ways.

Yet again the standard of the works in this year’s exhibition is high – both technically and creatively. The imagery is what we expect in nature exhibitions – focussed absolutely on nature, fauna and flora, depicted authentically, and capturing the highly valued essence of nature. There are portraits of native plants, close-up images of Australian flowers, birds and insects, and intimate landscapes in the gardens.

This year’s judges selected images by four entrants as winners, runners up and highly commended entries. The winner of the David Cox Memorial Award (which honours and celebrates the contribution made to the Photographic Group’s activities by the late David Cox) for images of flora and fungi was Simone Slater, for her fine image of rain droplets on a plant known as Eucalyptus pulverulenta or ‘Baby blue’.

Baby Blue after the rain, Simone Slater

The runner up in this category was Pam Rooney for her image of an actinodium cunninghamii (or swamp daisy) and a highly commended award went to Debbie Howard for her image of a homoranthus darwinioides (or fairy bells) plant.

Swamp Daisy, Pam Rooney

Fairy Bells, Debbie Howard

In the fauna category, Pam Rooney was again successful, this time taking out the top spot for a delightful image of a mother Australian wood duck with her oh so cute ducklings.

Australian Wood Ducks, mother and ducklings, Pam Rooney

Simone Slater again featured too. This time her image of a spiky bird dropping spider (Calaenia calotoides) was runner up. And Narelle Aldridge’s image of a Thread-waisted Wasp (Sphecidae on Calandrinia ememaea) “drinking it in” was highly commended.

Spiky!, Simone Slater

Drink It In, Narelle Aldridge

In addition, the rangers at ANBG also selected one work for their Ranger award. They are experienced educators who specialise in bringing the stories of the Gardens to life. So it is most appropriate to allow them the opportunity to select an award.

They selected a very different image to those already mentioned. It shows a group of eucalyptus rossii, commonly known as inland scribbly gum or white gum, a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. They are alongside one of the quiet pathways in the gardens where visitors regularly wander.

The Quiet Path, Emily Erwich 

Other works which particularly attracted my attention included a pleasing shot of white everlasting daisies, a most interesting circular presentation of a Banksia Epica flower spike, and a vibrantly coloured portrayal of the spikes on a Philotus manglesii (Pom-Pom).

White Everlasting Daisies, Brenda Runnegar 

Banksia Epica, Karin Neufeld 

Pom Pom, Narelle Aldridge 

And finally, I must mention an image of the gardens’ wonderful Grass Trees by Steven Playford. Yes, there are male photographers in the exhibition! In fact, by my count, the exhibitors are 9 men and 10 women. 

Grass Trees in the fog, Steven Playford

This is an exhibition well worth visiting if you can - to see all the artworks, not just the ones I have shown and/or spoken about here. You would also have an opportunity to pick up some delightful Christmas gifts for friends or family whilst you are there.

This review is also available on the author's blog.

 

ALTER - Belco Arts Canberra

Jareen Wee- Luvenia Kalia - Aida Redza  in "ALTER"

Directed by Liz Lea & Peta Khan - Choreographed by Liz Lea and company.

Creative Technologists: Low Zi Xiang and Steve Voon

Lighting Design by Karen Norris – Composer and Musical Director: Kay Ansah

Technical Direction by Roni Wilkinson – Sound Operator: Kyle Sheedy

Presented by The Bold Festival and Liz Lea Creates.

Evening performance on November 7, 2026, reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Unarguably one of Canberra’s busiest and most creative dance makers, Liz Lea’s latest work is a fascinating cross-cultural creation combining advanced technology with live performance. The result is both captivating and perplexing.

Created as part of both the BOLD and Craft + Design Canberra Festivals, Alter is a two-part, cross-cultural work for which Lea has worked with both Malaysian and Australian dancers and creative technologists to devise a two-part work embracing multiple themes of design, dance, disability and dissent.

Introducing the work, Lea explained that for the first section entitled 3, the dancers were fitted with sensors which allowed them to interact with images projected on to a huge screen at the back of the stage. For the second section, Virtual View, avatars had been created prior to the performance to which the dancers would respond.

Jareen Wee - Luvenia Kalia - Aida Redza in "ALTER"

As the title suggests, 3 was performed by three Malaysian dancers, Luvenia Kalia, Aida Redza and Jareen Wee. Though costumed individually in black, the stunning lighting design by Karen Norris kept their movements clearly visible throughout the entire section, which commenced with the sounds of water cascading over an abstract horizontal image reminiscent of a brownish waterfall.

The dancers in the waterfall section of "ALTER"

 Eventually this image was replaced with another vertical image suggesting harp-strings which twisted into shapes like huge raindrops, or exploded like fireworks, sometimes in response to the movements of the dancers, but at others, seemingly unprovoked.

Jareen Wee -Luvenia Kalia - Aida Redza - in "ALTER"

Not unexpectedly, the choreography for the dancers was also abstract, favouring   graceful arm, hand and finger movements associated with traditional Malay and Indian dance styles.

Watching the three dancers gracefully interweave with each other, as they executed Lea’s complex and demanding choreography, with its beautiful extended unison passages, as well as create striking shadow images and interact with the technology, one could only wonder at their skill and virtuosity.

However. given the quality of the trio, it seemed a shame that just a little more time hadn’t been spent on sharpening the detailing of those unison passages.

Although the dancing was meditative and calming, watching the technology respond to the dancers’ movements often distracted from it, leaving the two elements seeming to compete for attention.

The dancers in the "Virtual View" section of "ALTER"

The interplay between dance and technology continued in Virtual View, the second section of Alter, but with pre-created avatars rather than images responding live to movement.

Aida Redza and Jareen Wee joined local dancers Mia Rashid, Lim Yu En and Katie Senior, members of Lea’s Chamaelon Collective, in responding to the avatars which resembled mythical hairy mountain creatures.

Lim Yu En and Mia Rashid in the "Virtual View" section of "ALTER"

Shorter than the first section, and covering similar ground, this section, while providing a charming conclusion to the work, felt contrived.

So that as a creative experiment in the context of both the BOLD and Craft+Design Festivals, Alter has much to admire for its audacity and inventiveness. In its present two-part iteration, however, it’s difficult to see its virtues as a fully realised dance work.

Audience members playing in the technology following the performance of "ALTER"



Photos by Olivia Wikner - O&O Photography.

    

  

 

CLOTHING THE LOOP 2026 - CIRCULAR DESIGN FESTIVAL - OPENING NIGHT FASHION SPECTACULAR

ADP dancer Jahna Lugnan performing in "Off the Fringes" during the opening night fashion spectacular.

 Presented by Australian Dance Party, and Kelli Studio as part of the 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival, supported by ACT Government and the Canberra Institute of Technology. Cr

Presented at CIT Woden Campus November 6 & 7, 2026.

Evening Spectacular, November 6^th   Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Building on its highly successful launch at The Vault last year, the event this year was staged over two days at the CIT Woden Campus.

The first evening of the festival was devoted to a lavish fashion spectacular, which began with an inspiring presentation by Australian fashion icon, Linda Jackson AO.

Fashion design icon Linda Jackson AO addressing the audience during the opening night fashion spectacular.

Jackson reminisced about the circumstances leading to the establishment of Flamingo Park Fashion with her design partner, Jenny Kee, and how that partnership led to them becoming acclaimed pioneers of Australian fashion. Her talk was presented in front of stunning film footage of garments and fabric designs which led to that acclamation.

A centrepiece of the evening was a new dance work, “Off the Fringes”, choreographed especially for the festival by Australian Dance Party Artistic Director, Alison Plevey.

ADP dancer Gabriel Sinclair performing in "Off the Fringes" during the opening night fashion spectacular.

Performed by ADP dancers, Ashlee Bye, Gabriel Sinclair, Jahna Lugnan and Max Burgess, costumed by Kelli Donovan and performing to an exotic soundscape performed live by Sia Ahmad, the work commenced with the dancers costumed in drab boiler suits, moving as though depressed.

The mood changed however when the boiler suits were discarded to reveal Donovan’s spectacular jewel-coloured creations, to which the dancers responded with cleverly choreographed lyrical movement suggesting a mood reaction to their clothes.

That idea was further enhanced by a third costume change which heralded a delightful segment during which each of the dancers returned to the stage to describe, with amusing, heightened gestures, the rescued garments they were wearing, and what those garments meant to them.

For Jahna it was her black tee shirt, worn over bright red pants, which represented her attachment to Canberra. For bare-chested Gabriel, it was his black tracky daks with “a hole in the knee and a split in the crutch”.

Max was proud of the singlet top, prized because of an adjustment by a friend. For Ashlee it was her elegant ombre silk dress, made with love by her Aunt-in-law, particularly treasured because of its concealed pockets.

Having neatly established the raison d’etre for the festival, the dancers vacated the stage amid appreciative applause, to music played by on a wooden accordion-like instrument by Sia Ahmad, who had joined them on stage.

Models displaying circular fashion during the opening night fashion spectacular

Then commenced the main event. A spectacular fashion parade demonstrating the endless possibilities of recycling discarded garments and materials, with more than sixty models showcasing the inventive creations of twelve participating design houses.

Modelling circular fashion during the opening night fashion spectacular

The parade commenced with garments by Corella & Crow, followed by Dissonance, Saloon, Fia Lucia, the Green Shed, Neo3DT, Treerose Revival, Magenta Fox, Harry’s Clarry, Blak Label Dreaming, Keli Studio and Linda Jackson.

Modelling a Linda Jacson creation during the opening night fashion spectacular

The event ended with all the models retaking the floor to provide one last look at their modelled garments, before inviting guests to join them on the dancefloor, or take opportunity to revisit the many stalls and seek out favourite pieces spotted during the parade, having   whetted their appetite for the myriad events scheduled for the rest of the festival.

Party time following the opening night fashion spectacular


Photos by O&J Wikner Photography.