Culture Club: Brisbane arts news and gossip
A HUSBAND-and-wife team have been acting “suspiciously” around the streets of Brisbane, though they haven’t yet attracted the attention of the law like one of their contemporaries.
Confidential
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IF YOU see Jan Jorgensen and her husband Martin lurking in your street, don’t be alarmed. They may be casing the joint, but it’s all in the name of art.
Jorgensen, 75, is the artist par excellence when it comes to painting the hilly, historic weatherboard suburbs of inner Brisbane: Paddington, Red Hill, Hawthorne... anywhere there are hills and cute old Queenslanders and lush subtropical foliage.
“I’ve been painting Brisbane like this since 1988,” Jorgensen says.
“When I go out looking for subjects to paint, Martin will drive and we’ll roll along the street and I’ll say ‘stop here’.”
Robert Brownhall, another local artist who does Brisbane, has had the constabulary ask him what he’s up to when he has been parked in his car sketching.
Jan Jorgensen says she hasn’t been moved on by the coppers — yet — despite the fact that she tends to lurk.
After sketching and sometimes taking photos she goes back to her studio at home at Boondall and creates the jaunty, colourful cityscapes that have made her such a loved artist in her hometown.
You can see a range of her new works now at Lethbridge Gallery in Paddington, and she’s working up to another major show there next year.
You can also buy a book about her work, Changing Places: Brisbane, which is now in its third edition.
Jorgensen does lament that Brisbane is changing, however, and not always for the better.
“It’s turning white around Paddington,” she says.
“There are whole streets now where all the houses are painted white. I hate it!”
She prefers colours, for obvious reasons.
To her Brisbane is the most beautiful city in the world.
“Someone said to me once, it’s only Brisbane, it’s not Paris,” Jorgensen says.
“So I started saying to people, this is my Paris.”
Harry launches magic year
THE Queensland Symphony Orchestra has always been good, but Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra has taken it up a notch since she joined the outfit. That got the QSO international attention. It has been going gangbusters, and things are just getting better and better.
De la Parra launched her season 2019 last night, and it’s a ripper, with everything from Bach to boy wizards and beat boxing.
The boy wizard turns up early in the year with a screening of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire on the big screen at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on February 9, with the QSO playing Patrick Doyle’s unforgettable score live.
Also, we don’t have to wait too long to hear the QSO’s exciting artist-in-residence for next year, superstar British pianist Paul Lewis who will also be on in February in a wonderful concert called Heavenly.
Alondra de la Parra will conduct and terrific soprano Morgan England-Jones will sing, and if you like a bit of Mozart and Mahler you’re in luck.
It’s a terrifically varied program next year with something for everyone, and Festival of Folk, featuring music from many lands, hosted by Guy Noble, sounds like a great idea and something a bit different.
In July guest conductor Simone Young, an Australian who is now an international superstar, will be here, and Brisbane’s world-famous violinist Ray Chen is also coming back, not to mention our own Karin Schaupp, a world-renowned classical guitarist.
Also on the program is Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrandez.
In March the Romeo & Juliet concert will open, with Rossini’s exciting William Tell Overture before Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra featuring French harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet.
The Opera Gala, featuring a night of opera favourites in June sounds like fun and there’s so much more.
It all comes to a dramatic close in December with Messiah, which has become a Brisbane tradition for the QSO.
More information at qso.com.au
Tell ’em they ain’t dreamin’
YOU’VE always wanted to run away and join the circus, right? And people told you were dreaming?
Well, keep dreaming, because your dream could become a reality.
Australia’s premier circus arts organisation, the National Institute of Circus Arts, is coming to Brisbane in October to audition circus wannabes.
You have until the end of next week to apply for an audition, and this could be your big chance.
NICA, based in Melbourne, is the only national arts training institute to offer a Bachelor of Circus Arts.
NICA graduates have joined nationally and international acclaimed companies including Cirque du Soleil, Dragone and our own Circa and Circus Oz.
NICA head of circus studies James Brown says he will be casting a broad net.
“Naturally we are seeking emerging circus artists, but our hunt is quite broad, extending to dancers, gymnasts, martial artists, theatre students, parkour enthusiasts, BMX riders and more,” Brown says.
“If you are highly focused and wish to make a career our of your skills, we invite you to obtain a degree in elite, contemporary circus arts training.”
Entry into the three-year Bachelor of Circus Arts degree is by audition, interview and successful completion of a medical assessment.
The innovative curriculum includes individual and group circus acts, performance and movement skills, circus history and cultural studies and much more. It will cost you $50 to audition.
Audition applications close on August 24 and auditions will be held at Flipside Circus, 117 Mina Parade, Alderley, on Tuesday October 2.
More information at nica.com.au
Say it isn’t so!
NATALIE Weir is stepping down as artistic director of Expressions Dance Company, one of Queensland’s most outstanding performing arts companies.
And I’m as shocked as you are.
Weir, who lives in Brisbane but hails from Townsville, is the heart and soul of Expressions, but she has been with our outstanding contemporary dance company for 10 years, so maybe she just wants to do something different.
“I had the privilege of taking on the role of artistic director from the founders of the company, Maggie Sietsma and Abel Valls, and I believe now is the right time for me to hand over the reins to someone new who can build on the company’s successes and lead it into the future,” Weir says.
“It has been a joy to guide EDC and I have worked, with so many beautiful artists who have touched my heart with their commitment and grace.”
Weir’s final signature work for EDC, Everyday Requiem, will premiere at QPAC in October. She is known for thoughtful, quite emotional work, and EDC is now recognised internationally and has been collaborating with dance companies in China recently.
EDC chairwoman Marian Gibney says Weir has “given her all to the company”.
We don’t know the full story yet, but we will keep you posted and now the hunt for a new artistic director begins.
Stay tuned.
Brisbane fashion coup as duo set up shop
A favourite label of Australia’s “first lady” will open a store-within-a-store in Brisbane City after closing their flagship Gold Coast outlet at the start of the year.
Kay McGrath to step down from anchor role
She is one of Queensland’s most famous faces but Kay McGrath has decided the time is right to read her final news bulletin. Find out what she’ll do next and who will replace her.