Category Archives: People

Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie

Bremen, Germany

 

In orchestral years Glenn’s career trajectory is fast tracking. This summation does not do justice to years of learning of course, and his arms, wrist, hands, and fingers bear the weight of practise perfecting artistry. His memory retains untold musical scores for solo, duet, trio, quartet, chamber, and orchestral violin. That’s a load for any person to carry.

As a lad in Mackay, Central Queensland, with the choice of picking up a tennis racquet, cricket bat, hockey stick, lacing on football boots, or donning swimming goggles. Glenn never wavered, he walked directly to the violin. Three and half years old and he knew.

Glenn threw down the gauntlet competing in 2009 at the prestigious Kendall National Violin Competition. The prize, a concert violin made from Australian wood by leading luthier (violin maker) Graham Caldersmith. Internationally renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, commented, “a great opportunity to own a real Australian violin…a wonderful instrument with a beautiful sound.”

Not only was Glenn announced competition winner taking the concert violin, but he also walked off with everything on offer; Bach Performance, Australian Composition, Audience Choice, and Timberlay International Travel Scholarship.

At this time, he was studying at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Music, First Class Honours. Repeating his earlier effort once again taking everything on offer, the Conservatorium Medal, the Music Medal, and the University Medal. The first graduate ever to be awarded the three highest prizes. Time to take his place in the world.

Glenn became Concertmaster of the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2012 and 2013 and an Australian Chamber Orchestra Emerging Artist in 2012. From 2012 to 2014, Principal First Violin in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He performed, broadcasting live on ABC Classic FM, was a finalist in the 2014 ABC Young Performer Awards. He moved to Sydney in 2014 becoming a full-time member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra under the demanding and watchful eye of Richard Tognetti. Six years later, in 2020, resigning to take up offers in Germany.

Next, everything stopped.

Globally contracts were cancelled, performances cancelled, theatres closed, entire orchestras unseated. Musicians, a close-knit community, left with nothing but to pack their instruments, and go home.

“In one fell swoop Covid decimated the livelihood of all artists,” said Glenn. “Our world ended. And it was rapid.”

“Fear is what I felt most strongly. Not for my health, but for my very existence having just left a full-time position.

“Luckily I had a contract waiting for me in Germany. But borders closed, international travel was restricted. As a non-essential service all movement was forbidden.

“I couldn’t get out of Sydney, even if I had a flight I wouldn’t gain entry.

“Much of the pandemic was spent shuffling emails between Germany keeping me hopeful the contract remained open. In isolation, I was fearful.”

The position with Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Deputy Concertmaster and Principal 2^nd Violin remained open. Glenn is now resident in Bremen.

“Living in the heart and soul of European classical music is the quickest way to restore anyone’s optimism,” says Glenn.

“The orchestra’s management style is democratic, no hierarchy. Decisions are made laterally. If you work for the company you have input, everyone is valued. It’s a breath of fresh air.”

This has also allowed managing time to appear in Paris with Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, in Munich with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and racking up frequent flyer points returning to Brisbane for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Small wonder Glenn is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician and guest principal musician in Australia and internationally, appearing at festivals and masterclasses such as the Coriole Music Festival, Murten Classics, Musica Viva Festival, Bangalow Festival, Tyalgum Festival, and the International Musician’s Seminar, Prussia Cove.

Glenn still has time for a grand passion. The Mackay Chamber Music Festival, an annual festival he started in his hometown in 2018, of which he is Artistic Director.

“It’s thrilling,” said Glenn. “Mackay has its own classical music festival.”

“The best part is the feeling of community. I get to work with amazing musicians and music lovers on and off stage.

“It’s important to program works relevant to today’s audiences, so we have works by living Australian composers Anne Cawrse, Elizabeth Younan, Harry Sdraulig and Paul Stanhope, alongside classic works from Schubert, Mozart, and Mendelssohn.

“A rewarding initiative is giving young, and young at heart musicians, guidance through an extensive education program.

“Regardless of where you live, you should have access to wonderful music and music education.”

If a weekend in the country listening to world class chamber music appeals, dates for the fifth annual festival are 21-23 July 2023.

Exuding calm, meanwhile his internal driving mechanisms, intent and purpose, seldom lie idle. He observes, listens, considers. A man secure in his ability still seeking to grow, hone, question, learn. Astute, considered, even tempered, and unassuming, he laughs readily. I doubt he startles easily.

Glenn is still in the early stages of a musical career that promises longevity. Take note of his name and watch his star rise.

For further information on Mackay Chamber Music Festival visit: https://www.mackaycmf.com.au/

 

Photo above: Lyrebird Trio – Glenn Christensen (violin), Angela Turner (piano) Simon Cobcroft (cello)

Karen Bailey Millinery

Casino, NSW, Australia

 

Daring to dream big pays dividends. Today in Paris, making a fashion runway statement, a hat by Australian milliner Karen Bailey.

High reward indeed for what began from an overly imaginative eleven-year-old brim full of ideas deciding what her head needed best, was a hat. Grabbing her mother’s scissors, she eyed a piece of fabric and got to work. Nothing would get in the way of “finishing the hat, look I made a hat, where there never was a hat” to quote the overly imaginative lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

“I don’t remember exactly what the hat was like,” said Karen. “But I have never forgotten that piece of fabric. I cut it from one of my dresses. Something my mother was never happy about.”

But the seed was sewn. Nineteen, living in Rockhampton, Karen read an article about Peter Jago, Australia’s enfante terrible of millinery. Her mind was made up, but how. Should the word “hat” appear in any shape or form she tracked down the source hoping it would reveal information to acquire the art of millinery.

The answer came from a technical school in Sydney offering a correspondence course. Weeks’ worth of work arrived in bundles. Karen voraciously turned the material around, gaining marks in 90+ range, often creatively inverting hats to better suit her imaginings to improve the design. Even then she knew her mind. The next step revealed itself. Elizabeth R was sweeping the Brisbane high-fashion stakes with showstopping headwear.

“I moved to Brisbane. Needing supplies to continue my millinery course I met Elizabeth for the first time. When she saw me wearing one of my hats she offered me a position there and then. This became the turning point, her knowledge, skill, taste, style, craft, artistry she freely passed to me. The everyday work of choosing fabric, trim, ribboning, piping, hand sewing for hours, fabric flower making, all at my fingertips. After three years I understood attention to detail. I felt equipped and ready to go it alone.

“I made a collection of hats expressly to show the buyers at David Jones in Queen Street. Nervously, hatted and with hat boxes bigger than me, I walked into the meeting, and walked out having my complete collection bought by them.”

Thirty years on, with hundreds of unique, one-of-a-kind creations, made and worn around the world, Karen is full of ideas.

“Ideas come from everywhere,” Karen enthused. “It may be a colour, a pattern, the curve of a bird’s wing in flight, angles, architecture, historical costumes. More often, and strangely, I see the hat in a dream hoping to remember when I fully wake. I don’t do sketches; I physically begin making.”

To view the “making” means being invited inside the studio. My imagination lodged in the Victorian era conjures images of stepping inside a bricolage hatbox.

There are rolls of ribbons and trim all colours and textures, buckets of buckram, an abundance of pins long and short all fiercely sharp, scissors and pinking shears share a cosy drawer, hat boxes plain and fancy line the tops of shelves or sit beguilingly, largest to smallest, on the floor beside you. But the heart of hattery, in a showstopping display, floor to ceiling shelving laden with mind boggling shaped and sized wooden hat blocks alongside their companion, small to wide hat brim curved blocks. There is not much machinery evident. It is after all a hand-crafted art. Here the magic begins. This is where Karen’s dreams materialise.

The scope of her millinery success has been worn in feature films and theatre productions, one-off specialty “art” creations commissioned for special events and launches, also a confidential clientele of global high-flyers. Worn at weddings, functions, and race meetings the world over.

Finest materials, flawless finish is her hallmark. You are at the Rolls-Royce end of the market. An eye for detail sets Karen Bailey Millinery at the forefront.

“When a woman wears a hat she changes,” Karen enthused. “She is unafraid being watched, pointed out, talked about. Her stride is self-confident, her head higher, shoulders straight. She walks taller.”

Set outside Irene Molloy’s Millinery shop in the streets of New York Jerry Herman wrote in his musical Hello Dolly exactly what it takes to get away with wearing a hat to make it in society.

We got elegance
If you ain’t got elegance
You can never ever carry it off.

Style, sophistication, elegance is the yardstick of millinery perfection. At the very least a hat must be stylish however, styles come and go. To “complete the outfit”, the cloche, picture hat, beret, fedora, toque, pill box, boater have all been desired. Desire articulated as fashion must at best be sophisticated, most preferably elegant.

Do you remember Jackie Kennedy’s pink pill box hat, Audrey Hepburn’s black hat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Elegance.

On Derby Day in Melbourne 1965 British model Jean Shrimpton appeared, two hours late on the arm of boyfriend actor Terrance Stamp, in a simple white dress the hemline alarmingly ten centimetres about her knees. No stockings, no gloves, and scandalising racegoers, NO hat.

This brings us back to the Karen Bailey Millinery design making its debut in Paris today at Montmartre Marie Town Hall, a sold-out show of 300 people. A question was raised as to what could be done to refine Jean Shrimpton’s design choice. Hat or no hat? Karen’s hat called ‘Oops’, an imagined response to the fashion faux pas, is a simple, yet upon inspection, exquisitely refined black and white bowl-shaped hat. The white material having a slight “shimmering” effect caught both the light and breeze effecting a perfect counterpoint to the simple shift dress. At the back of the hat a black bow with sharp peaked points. Check a photo from 1965 and look at the toe of the shoes worn that day. Inspired.

Success has been achieved competitively at London Hat Week, MAA Design Award, her latest Royal Brisbane Show entry won Best in Show and came first in its category.

Hats are to be celebrated, something to sing about. Don’t lie, you’ve sung along to “In Your Easter Bonnet.” Randy Newman wrote “You Can Leave Your Hat On”, originally unambiguously growled by Joe Cocker, and in case you missed the memo first time round, re-confirmed by Tom Jones.

Back to the Rolls-Royce of lyricists, Stephen Sondheim and the gravel voiced Elaine Stritch, herself a hat wearer, wrote herself into theatre folklore with her biting delivery, “Does anyone still wear a hat?”

Yes, they do.

Which is good news for Karen.

She has taken a teenage high school student, intent on becoming a milliner, under her wing .

“I’m really pleased. The industry needs more men.”

View a gallery of Karen’s work: https://thegodlesstraveller.com/finishing-the-hat/

Visit Karen’s website: https://www.karenbaileymillinery.com.au/

Hat: Oops!   Photo: Stavros Sakellaris   Model: Rai Jones

 

Multimedia Contemporary Artist

Philadelphia via Lima,

San Jose, Costa Rica and, Madrid

“Who l am is a political person,” said acclaimed artist Cecilia Paredes. “I do not rest in indifference with any of the world issues or the wonders of nature.”

Cecilia is one of life’s seekers and her work in art is continuous. “You start, finish, start again, like a weaving, the last thread gives way to the next one,” she explains. Not constrained by one artistic disciple Cecilia moves easily from one disciple to another: sculpture, installations, painting, engraving, or performance. Deriving inspiration from four sources: history, mythology, poetry, and politics, these are her points of departure and when in need of an idea, she reads.

Cecilia is currently based in Philadelphia and has been since mid-March due to COVID-19 where only a week before she was in Madrid participating in Arco art fair. Pre-pandemic, in her ‘parallel world’, she works between Philadelphia, Madrid, San Jose, Costa Rica. Cecilia began life in Lima, Peru.

“I lived in Lima continuously until l was 24. l started to travel first to study abroad but then at age 33, for political reasons, l left Peru and have never been back to stay. But Peru never left me. l still have strong relations with it. l am aware of all the conflicts which generates this love-hate relationship. You must have read about the recent political turmoil in Peru, even now as l write we have no president.”

 

Cecilia’s series of works based on the idea of camouflage has captured international attention, a series the artist herself talks of as her “landscapes.” Elaborate and exquisitely decorative panels in which she seemingly disappears; a bold vision of hiding in plain sight. The concept of disguise as duality can be viewed through the phrase “now you see me, now you don’t”.

“When migrating, everyday life is slow you must address another language, another politics, other ways and you also have to address your own loneliness which is always present despite the happiness. When I started doing the landscape series I was inserting myself in my new territory in some works, and longing for the lost world in other works.

“l began my “landscape’ series in 2004 to address the subject of re-location and adaptation to my new geography. The aim, to become part of the landscape. I started to do the performance where I appear camouflaged or almost integrated into the background that surrounds me.

“The illusion of “disappearing” into the surroundings is an act of blending in. The motivation is re-location after displacement and migration. Without forgetting our origin, one must adjust to belong. It is tough but it has to be done.

 

 

“The process starts the week prior to shooting where we discuss what we are going to do. ‘We’ being my assistants involving a painter, a lighting technician, personal assistant, a photographer, and me. We discuss the theme, do some rehearsal. Later I drape the fabric if the location is in my studio. I set the whole atmosphere prior to the moment of shooting.

“On the day of the shooting we start at 7:00am, usually finishing around 3 pm. I use make-up, body paint, or any costume that I need to achieve the image. We work in absolute silence, no background music, phone, or interruption. Once we are ready, the actual shooting is six to 15 minutes, that of course leaves us in a state of elation.”

The environment, history, personal life, experience, all contribute to change. Art changes despite pursuing the same idea. In 2018, when Cecilia  felt at home, the series started to take a new path, the ground disappeared and the character is now the landscape, as in the piece called Dorsal where the background is all black, not needing it as support. And a new series called Abandoned where the artist inserts herself in abandoned sites, where life used to be and is now gone. An experience she describes as “quite a disturbing coincidence given what we are all living right now.”

Impeccable detail, design, and composition are hallmarks of the completed images. As has been revealed Cecilia is an artist of strong political and social conscience, bursting with humanity, revealing a sense of playfulness, teasing us to see further, look deeper, ask more questions. Driven by climate change and the ecological state of the world Cecilia’s response is more overtly performance-based pieces; her spine a line of dragonflies, or a frog poised beside a rock pool.

“The dragonflies posing on my spine are wings that gave me, and all women, the possibility to fly. I started to interpret animals out of love and admiration. Marginal animals, the ones l feel comfortable with like armadillo, fish, skunk, or snake. Again, I use body paint, but the surroundings give context to think about a solitary animal. Climate change or ecological conscience are implicitly intertwined in my work.

“I was invited to participate in a project at Lake Cooroibahin, Queensland. Every morning early, to beat the heat, l would go and work alone until before noon. First l checked the water, and every morning a curious white spotted ray would come to check me. She became my company; l anticipated her visit. Every morning she always showed up, just came, said hi, and left. Who can ask for more?”

Cecilia’s work describes her life.

 

For more information on Cecilia visit: https://thegodlesstraveller.com/in-plain-sight/