26 episódios
Tall Poppies The Podcast Breandáin O'Shea
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- Sociedade e cultura
Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson. That Hollywood spotlight ensures that most of us know the name of these celebrity Aussies, but what about those many other Australians who have forged impressive careers around the globe? Artists, academics, sportsmen and women, scientists and no doubt many, many more professions. People like the Melbournian Barrie Kosky, who is today one of the world’s most-celebrated opera directors, conductor Simone Young, who directs international orchestras and Sydney-born singer-songwriter Kat Frankie, a popular performer at top music venues all over Germany. As a journalist working internationally for decades, I’m constantly amazed at the number of Australians – high profile or otherwise – living outside Australia – who have remarkable careers and what’s more, remarkable stories to tell. In Tall Poppies I’ll be sitting down with one of these inspiring Aussies each episode to chat about their work, living abroad and their passage to international success. Of course we will also look at how growing up in Australia influenced them in the past and even today in their work.
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Alma Moodie Part I
This is part I of two podcasts featuring the life and music of Alma Moodie.
She was born in 1898 in rural Australia, and moved to Europe early last century. She became a student of the legendary Carl Flesch, who referred to her as his favourite student. The violinist collaborated with renowned composers, among them Stravinsky, Pfitzner and Reger, and cultivated friendships with aristocracy, philanthropists and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
Alma Moodie’s influence and fame were far reaching, well beyond her untimely death in 1943.
In this podcast we meet the Australian musicologist and historian Kay Dreyfus, who published “Bluebeard’s Bride”, a biography of Alma Moodie in 2013. More recently Kay edited “The Fractured Self”, a book featuring 270 letters from the Moodie collection. Also joining me are musicians Diana Weekes, who translated Moodie’s letters, and violinist Goetz Richter, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music. Goetz has researched and performed many of the pieces associated with Moodie during her lifetime. Two of his recordings of Moodie inspired works also featured in the podcast. -
Special: Poetry and Music with Alice Miller & Matthew McDonald
The poets Matthew McDonald and Alice Miller join Breandáin O'Shea to talk about poetry and ponder music's curious relationship with the spoken word.
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Alma Moodie Part II
This is the second of two podcasts featuring the life and music of Alma Moodie.
Moodie was born in rural Australia, but moved to Europe early last century and eventually became a student of the legendary Carl Flesch, who referred to her as his favourite student. The violinist collaborated with renowned composers, among them Stravinsky, Pfitzner and Reger, and cultivated friendships with aristocracy, philanthropists and artists including German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Alma Moodie’s influence and fame were far reaching, well beyond her untimely death in 1943.
Guests include the Australian musicologist and historian Kay Dreyfus, who published “Bluebeard’s Bride”, a biography of Alma Moodie in 2013. More recently Kay edited “The Fractured Self”, a book featuring 270 letters from the Moodie collection. Also joining me are musicians Diana Weekes, who translated Moodie’s letters, and violinist Goetz Richter, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music. We will also meet historian Michael Haas, author of “Forbidden Music,” a study of the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich. -
Matthew Larkum, Neuroscientist
Away from the challenges the world is facing during this pandemic, we are also living through another one of the greatest of scientific endeavours – that is - the attempt to understand the most complex object in the universe, the brain. Researchers are devoting massive amounts of time and energy to exploring what brains do and new technology is enabling them to both describe and manipulate that activity. It came as a surprise to discover that here in Germany, one of the country’s leading neuroscientists is Sydney-born Matthew Larkum, who heads the Larkum Laboratory at Humboldt University, Berlin. He joins Breandáin O’Shea on this episode of Tall Poppies: The Podcast.
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Matthew McDonald, Principal Bass Berlin Philharmonic
In this edition, Matthew tells Breandáin about his journey from Canberra to becoming a principal player with one the world’s most prestigious music ensembles. He reflects on the effects the current pandemic has had on musicians and shares a hilarious story about taking a swim at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on his way to perform a Mahler Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
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Liza Lim, Composer
On this episode of Tall Poppies, The Podcast Breandáin meets the composer Liza Lim. She is Professor of Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she also runs the Composing Women Program.
Liza has created compositions for many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and the SuedwestRundfunk Orchestra and her music has been featured at many notable festivals.
She was born in Perth, but spent much of her childhood in Brunei. Liza attended boarding school in Melbourne, and then completed her tertiary studies in Australia. Among her numerous accolades are the Don Banks Award for Music and the 2021 Hans and Gertrud Zender Foundation’s Composition Prize 'Happy New Ears'. For 2021/22 Liza Lim is a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin or Institute of Advanced Study.