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ABC’s 2024 Boyer Lectures to Explore Australian Classical Music

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2024 Boyer Lectures Series on ABC: Classical Music’s Contemporary Voice

The 2024 ABC Boyer Lecture Series is set to explore the role and evolution of classical music in today’s cultural landscape, presented through four in-depth orations by prominent Australian musicians and cultural figures.

Beginning on Thursday, 31 October at ABC Ultimo Studios, the series will open with Professor Anna Goldsworthy, who will interweave a live music performance with reflections on the bond between music and life.

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Professor Goldsworthy, an accomplished pianist and Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, speaks to the communal power of performance in her lecture, saying,

“Performing is an act of communion: with the composer, with your colleagues, but also – critically – with your audience, which almost wills the experience into being. It offers a mode of connection that can feel telepathic. It was the internet before the internet; it is a social media that feeds rather than depletes.”

This year’s series represents a milestone as the 65th anniversary of the Boyer Lectures, which began in 1959 as the ABC Lectures and were rebranded in 1961 in honour of Sir Richard Boyer, former chair of the ABC. ABC Chair Kim Williams AM highlights this year’s focus on classical music, noting it as the first time the series has dedicated its platform to the musical arts.

“To hear the series address music seriously will be, I have no doubt, a rare and special treat for many Australians,” he remarked.

The Boyer Lectures have long been a staple of Radio National, airing insights on pivotal social, cultural, and political issues by leading Australian thinkers, and often drawing parallels to the BBC’s Reith Lectures, which began in 1948. Williams added that the Boyer series has occasionally adopted an anthology format, such as in 1988 for Australia’s Bicentennial and in 1993 to mark the UN’s Year of Indigenous People.

Hosting the 2024 lecture series will be Andrew Ford, celebrated composer, writer, and long-time presenter of The Music Show on Radio National, who will connect audiences with each speaker’s reflections.

The program will feature four speakers across November. After Goldsworthy’s opening lecture, the series will include Lyn Williams AM, founder of Gondwana Choirs; Iain Grandage, former Artistic Director of the Perth Festival and a leading Australian composer; and Aaron Wyatt, a versatile Noongar violist, conductor, and composer.

About the Speakers

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Professor Anna Goldsworthy brings a rich background as a pianist, writer, and festival director. She is a founding member of the Seraphim Trio, whose work includes the ARIA award-winning Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds, recorded with Paul Kelly, and the Trio Through Time set with ABC Classics. Goldsworthy’s literary work includes the widely translated memoir Piano Lessons, and she is the author of Melting Moments, a novel published in 2020.

Lyn Williams AM is known for over three decades of work with youth choirs, including the Sydney Children’s Choir and Gondwana Voices. Her choirs have performed internationally and with major Australian orchestras. Williams’ commitment to fostering connections with Indigenous musicians has been highlighted in collaborations like the Spinifex Gum project, developed with Felix Riebl of the Cat Empire.

Iain Grandage, a multi-award-winning composer, served as Artistic Director of the Perth Festival and has collaborated with ensembles like the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Brodsky String Quartet. Grandage’s compositions for theatre and film have earned critical acclaim, including scores for The Secret River and Satan Jawa, a silent film collaboration performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Aaron Wyatt is a pioneering conductor and violist whose contributions to classical and contemporary music span ensembles, orchestras, and digital music innovation. Wyatt’s versatility has seen him work with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Decibel new music ensemble, and his interdisciplinary achievements include the creation of graphic notation software for musicians.

The first Boyer lecture will be broadcast on ABC TV and ABC iview on 1 November, with an audio version airing on Radio National on 2 November.

Subsequent lectures will continue on Radio National throughout November, offering audiences nationwide the opportunity to reflect on the enduring and evolving role of classical music in Australian culture.

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Kevin Perry
Kevin Perryhttps://perryexcav.com/
Senior Editor and Co-Owner of the TV Blackbox website, Kevin Perry is an experienced media commentator focused on TV Production, Consumer Tech, SVOD & Sports Broadcasting. Media enquiries please Call or Text 0428-275-111
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