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| Louise Page as Brian's mum, photo Peter Hislop |
THIS winter’s “In
Conversation with the Canberra Critics' Circle" sessions at the Canberra
Museum and Gallery got off to a cracking start on July 16 when soprano Louise Page
joined the critics for an informal talk at Canberra Museum and Gallery.
The idea of the conversations, now in their fifth year, is
to inform the critics (from all art forms) and to have them rubbing shoulders
with practitioners and thinkers in the arts to broaden their perceptions and experiences.
One of Canberra’s best-loved artists, Louise Page was named Canberra
Times Artist of the Year in 2007.
Over the years she has performed in opera, operetta,
oratorio, cabaret, recital and radio broadcasts throughout Australia and
Europe. In recent years she has been in everything from Chris Latham’s World War I project The Flowers of War to the comic oratorio
inspired by Monty Python's Life of Brian
– she played Brian’s Mum
–in the Canberra Choral Society and National Capital Orchestra production at Llewellyn Hall.
Page has given back to Canberra by performing for many
community events over the year and told critics of her long love affair with Canberra.
Although raised and initially trained in cello in her home town, Perth, she made
her home in Canberra and, often with difficulty, but always with the support of
her husband John, found a way of making music while raising a family and enjoying
the life the National Capital has had to offer.
She has recorded ten CDs of music varying from Lieder to
operetta to premières of Australian music and Christmas songs. She is also a
teacher, adjudicator and arts facilitator, and in 2013 was awarded an OAM for
services to the performing arts.
Page graduated with distinction from the Canberra School of
Music and then, after a short stint in Germany, joined the Young Artist Program of
the Vienna State Opera, performing in operas, oratorios and concerts in
Austria, Germany and Belgium, where she won the ‘City of Ghent’ Prize in the
Belgian Radio and Television Opera en Bel Canto competition.
A past vocal grand finalist in the ABC Young Performer of
the Year competition, where her performance of the Four Last Songs of Richard
Strauss with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra earned a ‘MO’ Award nomination for
classical performance, she was also the inaugural winner of the Mietta’s Song
Recital Competition, a ground-breaking initiative by Melbourne restaurateur
Mietta O'Donnell to put sophisticated classical song into a cabaret milieu.
She has appeared as a soloist with the Sydney, Queensland,
Canberra and Central Coast Symphony Orchestras, the National Capital Orchestra
and the Canberra Youth Orchestra. She was also as a soloist in the Voices in
the Forest concerts at the Arboretum.
Now after a
life in music, Page has announced her retirement in late November,when she will appear for Art Song Canberra with her long-time associate artist, pianist Phillipa Candy.
Questioned by the sceptical critics, she was quite definite that she would ‘cut off’ completely from engagements and spend time with her family, for the time being, at least.
Questioned by the sceptical critics, she was quite definite that she would ‘cut off’ completely from engagements and spend time with her family, for the time being, at least.
But first she will be singing in her last Flowers of War
event, The Lost Jewels, a concert of
musical and artistic treasures lost to the Great War, at the James O. Fairfax
Theatre, National Gallery of Australia, Friday 10 August 7.30pm and Saturday 11
August 2pm. Bookings to theflowersofwar.org