DJ Albo is in da house – but orchestra left worrying about funding

DJ Albo, better known as PM Anthony Albanese, is partial to his vinyl record collection, Toto (the dog, not the band) and Radio Birdman, but it seems time in the top office might be rounding out his musical tastes.

He penned a glowing tribute in the program notes to the elite musicians who performed last week with the Australian World Orchestra.

Think of the AWO as classical music’s answer to the Olympics. Some 100 of the best Australian orchestral musicians fly in from the four corners of the world to play together on home soil each year. Schedules are so tight artistic director and chief conductor Alex Briger needs a spreadsheet to co-ordinate these international superstars.

Take Nick Deutsch, one of the country’s most sought-after oboists of his generation. He flew into Sydney and Melbourne last week and back the next morning bound for the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany where he is professor of oboe, no less.

The Australian World Orchestra receives not a skerrick of funding from the federal government arts funding body, Creative Australia, reliant as it is on the box office and private donations.

The PM’s stirring words of support for AWO have raised hopes the feds might turn flattery into financial support.

The sector could do with some good news as Albo’s former political foe Julie Bishop is busy slashing the music department of the Australian National University.

The cutbacks have angered the usually mild-mannered maestro Richard Tognetti, who’s the latest name in the arts world to join the barricades. Australian writers are still fuming at Melbourne University Publishing’s shock axing of Meanjin, one of Australia’s second-oldest literary journals, and plan protests on Thursday.

For art’s sake

CBD donned a jaunty beret in honour of the late John Olsen to crash the VIP preview at the Sydney Contemporary art fair. Among the early arrivals was former television news presenter Anne Fulwood, Museum of Contemporary Art’s Suzanne Cotter and board director Bridget Grant Pirrie, as well as Carriagework’s Fergus Linehan.

Artspace’s Victor Wang came for the art, as did philanthropists Andrew Rothery, Andrew and Cathy Cameron, and fund manager Will Vicars.

Art Gallery of NSW chair Michael Rose was expecting director Maud Page to join him, both preoccupied of late with managing the gallery’s $7.5 million shortfall threatening 51 jobs. Affected staff intend to leaflet art lovers over the course of the art fair to draw attention to the budget cuts.

Clutching an empty chequebook, we could only admire Untitled (1993) by Emily Kam Kngwarray. It’s one of only 12 paintings produced by Emily in the style of long vertical panels with large florettes. Utopia Art Sydney director Christopher Hodges was a long-standing art dealer of Emily. He prefers the spelling Emily Kame Kngwarreye, used exclusively throughout her career.

Untitled has an asking price of $1.5 million, equivalent to a box-sized apartment in inner Sydney.

Lead balloon

The wineries dotting the rolling countryside around Mudgee in NSW’s central west are a drawcard for Sydneysiders keen for a weekend escape.

It turns out if the company proposing a controversial open-cut lead, silver and zinc mine east of Mudgee gets its way, visitors might have another stop on the tourist trail.

That is, if staring into a massive pit takes your fancy.

Bowdens Silver has had the idea tourists could visit a “viewing platform” at the mine site.

Yet winemakers and prominent identities from the world of thoroughbred racing are unconvinced – to put it mildly.

Cattle producer and William Inglis & Son director Jamie Inglis reckoned it was an insane idea.

“We are talking about a lead mine. You couldn’t chase people to the site to view it. Who wants to look into a pit?” he said.

Inglis has joined winegrowers and tourism operators fighting against the mine due to fears about lead contamination decimating their businesses.

Prominent local winemaker David Lowe said, with tongue firmly placed in cheek, that it could help Mudgee rival Mount Isa as a tourist mecca.

“I could add a mine to my winery,” he quipped.

Bowdens said a viewing platform was raised as a “potential enhancement project”, and remained “only a potential idea”.

Tourism might not be nearly as lucrative as open-cut mining, after all.

Betoota’s News Corp revelation

Satirical website Beetoota Advocate’s editor-at-large Errol Parker (real name Charles Single) turned heads on Wednesday with news of a takeover offer by News Corp.

Single published a photograph on LinkedIn of what appeared to be a News Corp letterhead titled “Expression of Interest” regarding a “potential acquisition”.

“We recognise Betoota’s unique market position as a highly trusted and widely read masthead, with particular success in engaging younger audiences who are otherwise challenging for legacy media to reach,” the letter stated, next to an asthma puffer.

“This capability has been noted with interest at Holt Street.”

Single wrote a caption next to the photograph: “F—s sake, didn’t take Lachlan very long. Should we do it? Or no way?”

The post went viral and triggered industry chit-chat about whether the site was really up for grabs, after the media mogul settled a long-running family feud worth billions with his children. “So, we know he’s smart then,” firebrand broadcaster Libbi Gorr wrote.

CBD went straight to the source with questions.

“There are always barbarians at the gate in this industry,” Single responded. “Reaction has been mixed but I’m not able to provide further comment at this time.”

News Corp were contacted for comment.

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