Songs for nature

Adelaide Hills musician Anya Anastasia has been named as a finalist for the $20,000 Environmental Music Prize alongside a stellar line-up of other artists including Midnight Oil, Flume, King Stingray, Tash Sultana and Troy Cassar-Daley.

The publicly voted award was introduced in late 2021 by not-for-profit Environmental Music Ltd with the aim of recognising artists who “create exceptional music videos that celebrate the beauty of nature and our connection to it”, with the inaugural prize won by Melbourne rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

Anastasia, a familiar face on the local live music scene, was nominated for her song “Losing Wild” and its accompanying music video, shot at Weerewa / Lake George in New South Wales, which she says she hopes will inspire people to take climate action and protect biodiversity.

“Losing Wild explores how the loss of biodiversity diminishes human imagination,” she says. “The song suggests that the extinction crisis not only poses heartbreaking and planet-threatening external risks, but also heralds the end of good poetry and diminishment of playful minds.”

All the 22 finalists’ music videos can be viewed on the Environmental Music Prize website, with members of the public invited to vote for their favourites before June 4.

A fresh face at Feast

Feast Festival CEO Tish Naughton (centre), with former Feast Ambassadors Will Sergeant and Charlotte Coulthard-Dare and board members Jo Robinson, Sam Silvester and chair Adam Gardnir. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

Entrepreneur Tish Naughton has been appointed as the new CEO of Feast Festival after serving as the organisation’s operations manager since February.

Naughton, who has owned and operated small businesses in the finance and retail sector, describes herself as a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, with the announcement of her appointment timed to coincide with international Lesbian Visibility Week.

“Now, more than ever, we need a strong Feast Festival,” she says of the annual month-long celebration, which encompasses a range of queer arts, culture and community events.

“We’ve come so far, but that progress cannot be taken for granted. Feast has had a wonderful 25 years and achieved so much for our community, and we need to honour that, as we move forward into the next 25 years. We must continue the fight for representation, visibility and celebration.”

Feast Festival chair Adam Gardnir says Naughton has an “ambitious vision for Feast Festival”, adding: “I believe Tish’s future-focus will open Feast up to new communities and I invite all members of our wonderful rainbow and our allies to get in contact.”

Naughton takes over from former CEO Helen Sheldon, who led Feast for the past six years.

Carclew’s new chief executive

Mimi Crowe. Photo: Cath Leo

Multi-arts organisation Carclew has also appointed a new chief executive, with Mimi Crowe taking over the reins from long-time head Tricia Walton.

Crowe most recently led the City of Adelaide’s Creative City program, and has also held roles with the National Association for the Visual Arts, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Tarnanthi Festival, State Theatre Company of SA, and the Office for Design + Architecture SA.

Carclew celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2022, and chair Rachel Healy says Crowe has the right experience to lead it into its next chapter: “The combination of Mimi’s expertise in cultural strategy, operational leadership and business development with her drive, generosity and commitment to innovation is the right mix of skills and personal qualities to lead Carclew into its next phase and advance its leadership role in the local and national youth arts sector.”

Crowe will begin her new role on June 1.

Adelaide’s latest music festival

Django Rowe.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new festival in town this weekend – and it’s all about jazz.

“As well as appealing to regular jazz fans, our aim is to surprise, inspire and delight audiences who might think jazz is not really their thing,” says Adelaide Jazz Festival founder and producer Kaya Blum. “It’s a festival for people with passion for music, not just jazz.”

The April 28-30 program (available online here) features gigs across a range of Adelaide venues from musicians including instrumental sextet Soylent Green, nu-funk band The 6ft Pelicans, jazz singer Penny Eames, swing band Lucky Seven, and Django Rowe Quartet. It also incorporates creative partner the Adelaide Festival Centre’s annual UNESCO International Jazz Day Concert, which is on this Sunday and features local jazz trio ER@SER DESCRIPTION and  Women in Jazz’s nine-piece collective The New Standard.

Rare ballet experiences

Jill Ogai performs in Ramonda Act III, part of Australian Ballet’s triple bill Counterpointe, presented in Adelaide last year. Photo: Daniel Boud

A range of rare and exclusive experiences will be up for auction at the Australian Ballet 60^th Anniversary Gala Dinner in Adelaide in June ­– including a dinner for two with Australian Ballet artistic director David Hallberg, and an opportunity to join the company’s music director in the pit for a live performance.

The gala dinner, at the Adelaide Town Hall on June 9, will be hosted by Jessica Adamson, with Hallberg attending the event alongside two senior dancers including South Australian Jill Ogai. As well as celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Australian Ballet, the dinner will seek to raise funds to support the company on its upcoming tour to London, where it will perform at the Royal Opera House for the first time in 35 years.

Organisers says the auction prizes are all exclusive experiences, and also include a behind-the-scenes opportunity for two people to sit in the wings with the stage manager during a performance, two tickets and gala party passes for the opening night of the London tour, and a chance to sit alongside Hallberg in a private viewing room for one of the company’s mainstage performances in Sydney or Melbourne. Further gala dinner details and tickets are available here.

Waiting for the perfect break

Adelaide writer and performer Chris Pitman has drawn on stories of people living alone on the fringes of society in remote and regional areas along Australia’s coastline for a new one-man show set to premiere at Goodwood Theatre next week.

Shore Break is centred on a man who, after a difficult childhood and adolescence, has turned to the ocean for connection and spent years in self-isolation, camping by the ocean and waiting for the “perfect wave” to break so he can feel alive for just a few moments.

Pitman – a seasoned stage and screen actor whose SA credits include Flying Penguins’ Glengarry Glen Ross and Brink Productions’ Long Tan ­– both wrote and performs in the play. He says he, too, has spent his fair share of time alone by the ocean.

“I have often seen people there, living out solitary existences, backs turned to the world, diluting their troubles into the water, and I’ve always been fascinated by them. How did they get there? What did they do? What was done to them? Is this the way they live their last days, or will they find their way back to people? I finally decided this was a story I wanted to tell.”

Shore Break is directed by Chelsea Griffith and will be presented by Brink Productions at the Goodwood Theatre from May 2-13.

A 50^th birthday party

Adelaide Festival Centre will celebrate its 50^th anniversary on June 2 with a special concert hosted by local cabaret performer Libby O’Donovan and featuring an all-SA line-up of artists.

The 50^th Anniversary Celebration Concert, announced on the weekend, is among a number of celebrations the centre has planned this year and will take place in the Festival Theatre on the date it first opened.

Johanna Allen is creative director of the event, which will feature performers showcasing the AFC’s five festivals, including classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan (artistic director of the Adelaide Guitar Festival), cellist Sharon Grigoryan, First Nations singer-songwriters Nancy Bates and Katie Aspel, cabaret artist Michael Griffiths and trumpet player Lazaro Numa. There will also be an after-party in the Banquet Room with dancing, birthday cake, and DJs.

Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture.

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