Brisbane Music Festival’s home ground advantage

You would think a festival that takes up half the year would be hard to program. Not for Brisbane pianist Alex Raineri.

Artistic director of Brisbane Music Fesitval Alex Raineri with Irena Lysiuk. Picture: Josh Woning

You would think a festival that takes up half the year would be hard to program. Maybe Brisbane pianist and artistic director of Brisbane Music Festival Alex Raineri is a little too ambitious?

Nope. He’s confident that we have the talent to support his programming.

“Brisbane is an amazing town when it comes to talent,” Raineri says.

“I feel like we have doubled the amount of world class artists based here now things appear to be getting back to some kind of normality.”

Raineri has managed to navigate the pandemic and is now presenting his 5th Brisbane Music Festival, which is on through until December.

Alex Raineri with Irena Lysiuk.

Over six months the festival features 44 events in 16 unique venues and next week he stars in Jukebox, part of the festival’s Studio Series which will feature music by Prokofiev, Grainger and others presented in the Bowen Studio at New Farm.

October will be a busy month and will include, among others, a show entitled Something to Do With Rainbows at Holy Trinity Hall in Fortitude Valley featuring singer Irena Lysiuk.

This show will feature new arrangements of some of seminal UK band Radiohead’s best known hits. Lysiuk sings opera and more populist fare and likes the fact that Raineri’s festival mixes things up a bit.

“Because I do a bit of crossover it seemed like a good idea,” Lysiuk says.

“I wasn’t a massive Radiohead fan in high school, that was the band all the cool people listened to. The music is incredible though and it’s difficult and exciting.”

Lysiuk is a rising star in Brisbane and nationally and Raineri has quite a line up of other talent in his schedule including the likes of soprano Sofia Troncoso, violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto, cellist Katherine Philp of Camerata, Ensemble Q Quartet and popular music theatre star Amy Lehpamer. On of the most anticipated events of Brisbane Music Festival this year is An Evening with Amy at St John’s Cathedral on December 9 when she will share the songs of Sondheim, Porter, Gershwin and others.

Raineri says he tends not to think of it as a festival.

“It’s more a season of shows with a festival spirit,” he says. It will continue next year but may be a tad more condensed due to his international obligations. In 2023 he will be performing in Berlin, the UK and Ireland.

Gerwyn Davies at the Calile Hotel

Nobody needs an excuse to go to the Calile Hotel on James Street, Fortitude Valley. But here’s one anyway - the rather interesting artist Gerwyn Davies is showing there right now (the exhibition is entitled Pleasure) and he used the hotel as the backdrop for a new series of photos.

He’s an original homegrown talent whose star is on the rise and he is represented by the nearby Jan Murphy Gallery.

Gerwyn Davies’ Bellhop

“One of the fantastic things about Gerwyn’s works is the subject’s relationship with architecture and how his images have the ability to transport you to a different, more wonderful place,” Murphy says.

“The architecture of The Calile Hotel has the same ability, so to marry the two together seemed like a really interesting prospect and we were thrilled when The Calile team came on board with the collaboration.

The Calile Hotel has become synonymous with Brisbane, and it has been exciting to see Gerwyn approach this space with fresh eyes and an enthusiasm for extravagance.”

Gerwyn Davies’ Terrace

Davies describes his works as like “polished postcards from paradise,”

“The vibrant creatures are languid, sprawled and stretched,” he says. “They show no signs of check-out times and instead, embody the sense of sun-drunk resplendence that being cocooned inside the hotel arouses.”

Oh behave.

Dimitriades the DJ

Brisbane artist Michael Zavros painted a great portrait of the actor Alex Dimitriades, a fellow Greek Australian. So I guess Dimitriades figured he owed him one.

That may be why he’s agreed to be guest DJ at Zavros’s Brisbane Festival happening Saturday night.

Alex Dimitriades by Michael Zavros.

It’s called Dionysus Redux (not reflux) by Michael Zavros and it’s one of the Brisbane Festival’s Raise The Roof events.

The event takes place at Lina Rooftop at South Bank where contemporary Mykonos beach party meets Ancient Greek legends with a bit of opera, dance and feasting.

I’m told there will even be a Delphic oracle on hand!

Actor Alex Dimitriades will guest DJ for Zavros on Saturday. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Guest artists include opera singer Panayiota Kalatzis from The Seven Sopranos, pianist John Woods, bouzouki player George Bouzios, that oracle I mentioned and a troupe of dancers.

Now, Michael Zavros is a pretty classy guy so I think this is really going to be something special and hopefully there will be a bit of souvlaki on hand. Won’t there? Oh I don’t know. It’s all Greek to me.

The riches of QAGOMA

Spent a lazy Sunday morning at QAGOMA recently. We do this sometimes starting always at the beautiful Watermall Cafe. Fully caffeinated we then spent a couple of hours browsing between the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) where Chiharu Shiota : The Soul Trembles is packing them in. It finishes on October 3 and if you haven’t seen it you must.

It is positively transcendental.

The Soul Trembles.

What struck me though was the embarrassment of riches at both galleries right now. QAG is looking particularly good with Embodied Knowledge : Queensland Contemporary Art which is on until January 22. Then there’s the terrific Joe Furlonger Horizons until January 29 and Kin, which explores contemporary art in Papua New Guinea which is colourful and vibrant and it’s on until the middle of next year.

Back at GOMA there’s also Courage and Beauty : The James Sourris Collection and Transitions which features Indigenous art. Both those are on until the middle of next year too.

It’s an amazing art experience right now and I did, as usual, stop by the wall of Ian Fairweather masterpieces to pay my respects. It makes one feel rather proud really and having visited all the major galleries elsewhere I can tell you that we are looking good.

Konstantin the constant

I have just two words for you. Konstantin Shamray. Yes it’s a name. Have you heard him play the piano?

It’s nothing short of spectacular and Brisbane is on his radar now thanks to Ann Thompson of Medici Concerts and the Southern Cross Soloists chamber group who seem to have adopted him. This Russian born musician is one of the greats and despite what’s happening right now let’s not discount Russian culture.

Konstantin Shamray.

Shamray is playing Sunday at 3pm in the Concert Hall at QPAC with Southern Cross Soloists and I’m devastated I can’t attend. But that doesn’t mean you can’t and I’m strongly suggesting you do.

The concert is entitled White Nights and it features some Russian music including Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 12 and I couldn’t think of anyone better to play that than Konstantin Shamray who we may see more of next year. He lives in Adelaide but Brisbane is becoming a second home.

He’ll be joined by cellist Jonathan Bekes and our very own Chris Williams, a didgeridoo master. As well as Shostakovich there’ll be music by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky and others.