The Music Show

German countertenor Andreas Scholl returns to The Music Show whilst he’s in the country with the Australian World Orchestra. He talks to Andrew about the life of a countertenor: old repertoire, new repertoire, and looking after a voice when great demands are made of it.American pianist Donna Coleman deep dives into the life and influence of American modernist composer Charles Ives, whose 150th anniversary is this year. There’s more to this composer than the experimental (and sometimes chaotic) sounds he is best-known for.

Julia Fredersdorff, Artistic Director of Van Diemen's Band, talks about music from perhaps the most turbulent time in England's history - its Civil War. And, violinist, composer and vocalist Véronique Serret collaborates with nature on her latest (and ARIA Award nominated) album Migrating Bird.

Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark were a kind of power couple of the 20th century: she a prolific composer; he a less successful conductor but an influential producer and administrator. Annika Forkert is the author of Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark: the orchestration of progress in British twentieth-century music, and she tells Andy the story of their relationship and their work.Electronic pioneer Ash Wednesday has had a “self-imposed hiatus” from music over the last decade as he was confronted by a diagnosis of progressive multiple sclerosis. He joins Andy to talk about his new album, AfterMATH, a work for electronics and the majestic Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ, composed and generated around Ash’s loss of movement in the right side of his body.

Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and poet Raymond Antrobus are two of the UK’s most famous Deaf artists and their first collaboration is Another Noise, an album that captures first-takes of Raymond’s spoken word poems, accompanied by Evelyn’s percussion, completely improvised without her having prior knowledge of any poem performed. They join Andy at the start of what promises to be a beautiful friendship. Electronic artist Marcus Whale was last on The Music Show when he was in year 10, having composed a saxophone quartet entitled “The Whistler” as part of his high school’s composer scheme. Now he’s four solo albums and two critically acclaimed bands into his career, and he’s about to perform a live version of his album Ecstasy as part of the Liveworks festival in Sydney. He joins Andy to talk about the ritual and sensuality of both the church and the dancefloor, and to remember his friend and collaborator, the singer songwriter Jack Colwell, who has died at the age of 34. If you need support, you can reach Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

Crooked Fiddle Band refer to their music as “chainsaw folk”, but their fourth studio album The Free Wild Wind & the Songs of Birds is heavier on the folk than on the chainsaw. The band comes into The Music Show studio to play live from the new album, and talk about eighteen years playing together.What’s it like to have thousands of fans sing your own words back at you? Angie McMahon knows this feeling well after touring last year’s ARIA-nominated album Light, Dark, Light Again. And she recently surprised us with the five-track companion EP Light Sides. Angie joins Andrew Ford to talk about the catharsis she gets from songwriting, and how she also loves to 'live inside' other peoples' songs (ABBA, Bonnie Tyler, Australian Crawl). 

Henry Wagons remembers Outlaw Country figurehead Kris Kristofferson, who has died at the age of 88. From Nashville to Hollywood, from Oxford University to the US Army, he had a life almost as unique as his voice.That leaves Willie Nelson the last of the Highwaymen, the original Outlaw supergroup, and his music is the subject of New Zealand-based Canadian songwriter Tami Neilson’s new album Neilson Sings Nelson. From a childhood singing in the travelling Neilson Family Band to a career that’s put her on stages with greats like Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker and Willie Nelson, Tami returns to The Music Show after a US tour performing at venues like Dollywood and the Grand Ole Opry to talk about the legacy of country music in the US, as well as Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

With a voice that's 'equal parts balm and blowtorch' Irish multi-instrumentalist and singer songwriter Susan O'Neill makes a welcome return to The Music Show. She was one of our last live guests in March 2020 before she had to cut her tour short and race home. The last four years have been filled with nature, songwriting and collaboration and she joins us from her home in County Clare to pull apart the music and lyrics on her brand new album Now In A Minute.British cellist Steven Isserlis returns to Australia, and The Music Show, to talk about “falling madly in love” with Gabriel Fauré, and his friendship with György Kurtág.Susan O’Neill will be playing in Australia in December and January.Steven Isserlis plays with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 3-5 October.

Singer songwriter Eliza Hull has been writing and performing piano-driven pop music for over a decade. She's also a disability advocate and has championed increased visibility and access for musicians around Australia. Only in the last couple of years has she started sharing more about her own disability in her songwriting, including last year's EP Here They Come. Eliza is on The Music Show ahead of Alter State - a Deaf and Disability-led arts festival in Melbourne.Sir Donald Runnicles is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Sydney Symphony, the outgoing Music Director of Deutsche Oper Berlin, Artistic Director of Grand Teton Music Festival and Chief Conductor Designate at the Dresden Philharmonic. Between all that he managed to swing by the studio to talk about “having all the fun without too much responsibility” with the Sydney Symphony, and bringing Duruflé’s requiem to the orchestra for the first time.

Ten years ago Melody Pool was a rising star of the Australian folk music scene. She won awards and released two acclaimed albums of heartbreaking songs, and then she disappeared. It takes a lot of guts to step back publicly from the music industry when your career has so much momentum, but Melody made the decision to prioritise her mental health.Last year she made a return to recording and touring; free of the constraints of a major label contract and determined to do things on her terms. And she's writing some of her best music yet.When Sam Weller started conducting he didn't have an orchestra to practice with so he started his own. Over eight years Ensemble Apex has introduced eclectic audiences to classical and contemporary repertoire in unconventional settings (think art storage facilities, breweries, and rooms where the audience sits amongst the orchestra). Sam Weller is also one of 6 'designated winners' of the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam and he explains to Andrew Ford the rigours of a competition like this, and why it pays to be versatile.

The gods are unhappy with a despotic king (Gilgamesh). They create a half-man, half-beast to topple him (Enkidu). They meet, Enkidu doesn’t topple him. They fall in love, destroy a forest, there’s retribution from the gods. Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh wonders what the point of life is. He searches for immortality. And of course there are dancing scorpions.That’s the shortest possible version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as summarised by composer Jack Symonds, who’s taken on the tale for its first English language opera adaptation. Gilgamesh brings together Sydney Chamber Opera with the Australian String Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, and support from Opera Australia to stage this enormously ambitious piece at inner-city post-industrial venue Carriageworks.Andy pops into rehearsal to talk to Jack, Jeremy Kleeman (Gilgamesh), and Mitchell Riley (Enkidu), and to hear a live performance from Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and those dancing scorpions. And with the sad news this week that Australian-Tatar singer, folk musician and director of The Boîte, Zulya Kamalova has died, The Music Show remembers her energy and her music with a live performance from Zulya and the Children of the Underground, and an interview from the archives.