Contributions to Musical Life in Australia

Brian’s period of service as Head of Performing Arts at the SA College of Advanced Education and the University of Adelaide included several occasions when he was able to help facilitate the establishment of new musical instrumentalities, including…                                          

The Adelaide Connection   

Adelaide’s first and most distinguished Jazz Choir was formed under the musical direction of English Baritone, John McKenzie upon the amalgamation of the Salisbury CAE and the Adelaide CAE in 1982. Brian’s role was to identify resources necessary for this highly accomplished ensemble to operate at a professional level. Testimony that The Adelaide Connection was truly distinguished comes from the fact that between 1985 and 1991 three highly successful LP/CDs were recorded and distributed under the ABC Records label by the ensemble with associate artists Don Burrows, James Morrison and George Golla.                

The Australian String Quartet    

This ensemble was formed in 1986 as a resident professional ensemble at the SACAE. Leader, William Hennessey, had advised Brian two years earlier of his desire to form such an ensemble as soon as resources could be found. In 1986, as Head of School, Brian was able to offer founding members of the ASQ fractional teaching positions within the String program of the Bachelor of Music at the SACAE. This was the trigger for Mr Hennessey to seek and secure matching funds from Arts SA and thus form the ensemble resident at the SACAE. When the SACAE Performing Arts School merged with the Elder Conservatorium to become the Faculty of Performing Arts at the University of Adelaide in 1990, the Residency status of the ASQ was preserved in the combined institution, a privilege it still enjoys today.

Friday Lunch Hour Concerts        

Throughout his time as Head of Performing Arts at the SACAE, Brian was responsible for a rich program of public concert offerings to provide performance platforms for resident performance staff and distinguished students. Part of this program provided for weekly lunch hour concerts in the Hartley Concert Room. When the merger with the University of Adelaide occurred in 1990, this program was maintained. Lunch hour concerts had been a feature of Brian’s student years at the Elder Conservatorium but had lapsed for several years by 1990. They were re-instituted in 1991 and their popularity grew rapidly. By 1992 they had outgrown the Hartley Concert Room and were transferred to the Elder Hall. They are still offered today…..and normally only early birds are assured a seat.          

Jazz South Australia           

Since it offered the only formal jazz training program in SA it was logical that jazz interest groups would look to the SACAE for support in laying healthy foundations for coordinated jazz activity in Adelaide. In 1985 Brian served as Chair of a Steering Committee whose aim was to establish the Jazz Coordination Scheme of SA. This group had representation of around 8 diverse jazz interest groups from across wider Adelaide. Submissions were made to the State Government and the Federal Government for support to appoint a Jazz Coordinator. Funds were allocated and a person appointed to this position in 1985, resident at the SACAE.  The scheme in expanded form still operates today.

Barossa Pilgrimages          

For the 300^th anniversary of the birth of JS Bach, the music staff of the SACAE looked for a suitable vehicle of celebration. It was the brainchild of South Australian “Living Treasure” Lyndall Hendrickson to celebrate the birth of this great composer with a Pilgrimage to the birthplace of Lutheranism in South Australia at the Barossa Valley. The idea of Barossa Pilgrimages was born. Under Brian’s chairmanship the organizing committee successfully mounted a day’s pilgrimage with multiple buses transporting multiple mobile audiences throughout the delightful Barossa countryside from small church to small church listening to instrumental and vocal mini-concerts accompanied by original 19^th Century Lemke organs. It was a massive logistical exercise and its huge success demanded repetition several years later.

Adelaide Festival Youth Orchestra       

As part of the Adelaide Festival in 1988, Brian convened, coordinated and conducted in rehearsal the Adelaide Festival Youth Orchestra  which was formed especially to provide orchestral workshop opportunities for Adelaide’s instrumental students under Sir George Solti and Sir Michael Tilson Thomas who performed in the Adelaide Festival that year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Publications

                Australian Composers, ed Sir Frank Callaway [pub OUP] [chapter on Malcolm Williamson]

              Calling Me Home,     Graham Jenkins [pub SACAE] [MD of accompanying recordings]

                   A Decade of Music Education in SA           Australian Journal of Music Education, April 1977

                        Music History: What do we leave out?   Australian Journal of Music Education, October 1980