With alumni Tahu Matheson wielding the baton and Sian Pendry in fine voice, the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University played a major part in a stunning open-air season of Verdi’s Aida on the Gold Coast in September.
Presented by Opera Australia, Griffith Opera on the Beach was held over six nights at Coolangatta Beach. Conservatorium students made up 80 per cent of the orchestra, not only providing a lush musical backdrop for the spectacular production, but giving them an invaluable opportunity to work alongside some of Australia’s best classical musicians.
Tahu Matheson studied a Bachelor of Music (Instrumental) at the Conservatorium, graduating in 1999. He completed a Master of Music in 2002. However, his musical education really began at the age of five, learning piano with his father, the renowned international conductor John Matheson.
Matheson has been a member of the music staff at Opera Australia since 2007, and has been a frequent accompanist for
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QCA showcases graduate work
If you are looking for the “next big thing” on the local art scene, don’t miss the annual Queensland College of Art Showcase.
The QCA will open its doors to the public this month for a series of exhibitions featuring the work of graduating students.
The annual QCA Showcase will take over the South Bank and Gold Coast campuses, featuring the work of final-year students from Fine Art, Film, Animation, Games Design, Photography, Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art and Design and Digital Media.
Many of the works on display will be on sale, helping kick-start the careers of emerging artists.
Director of the QCA, Professor Derrick Cherrie, said the exhibitions were an opportunity for the community to see the talent being nurtured in their hometown.
“The QCA is Australia’s oldest and one of the country’s largest art academies and has produced some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists,” he said.
“The showcase exhibitions are an ideal way to see the many diverse and exciting art forms the QCA has on offer and the extraordinary
Griffith lecturer curates blockbuster show at GOMA
It’s been a big week for Queensland College of Art lecturer Dr Rosemary Hawker.
She has spent the past five years curating a blockbuster exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s work, which has just opened at GOMA to rave reviews.
“It’s been a mammoth undertaking which started back in 2012.
“It is on a very large scale and there are works from multiple collections in Europe and the US.
“It’s logistically very difficult and expensive to transport the works, so it has been an enormous challenge.
“Some works are just too large to travel – you are limited to the size of the doors of the jumbo jet and people are nervous about sending works so far.”
Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images is the first major exhibition of his work in Australia, after well-received shows at high profile galleries including MOMA in New York and the Tate Modern in London.
Gerhard Richter has been called the world’s greatest living
‘Inspirational’ eight from Griffith to carry Queen’s baton
Australian of the Year, Professor Emeritus Alan Mackay-Sim, heads a list of noteworthy Griffith University representatives who have been handed a prestigious Batonbearer role on the Australian leg of the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR).
The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) has announced the names of Australians selected to carry the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) Queen’s Baton following its arrival into the country on Christmas Eve (December 24).
Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Ian O’Connor AC, congratulated the eight from Griffith’s academic, student and alumni community who received the news on Wednesday.
Some Griffith University QBR Batonbearers are as follows:
Professor Emeritus Alan Mackay-Sim, 2017 Australian of the Year and world-leading spinal cord injury researcher
Professor Emeritus Colin Mackerras AO, foundation professor at Griffith’s School of Modern Asian Studies in 1974
Professor Mark von Izstein, Director of Griffith’s Institute for Glycomics and a world-leading scientist in the fight against diseases like childhood leukaemia,
Regionally speaking – cultural leadership and advocacy from ASEAN to Australia
Griffith Asia Institute Director, Professor Caitlin Byrne and Professor Ruth Bereson, Dean (Academic) Arts, Education and Law Group have recently been awarded a grant through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia-ASEAN Council for their project Regionally Speaking – cultural leadership and advocacy from ASEAN to Australia.
This project builds on a unique model of engagement and capacity building that will bring 15 arts practitioners (10 from the ASEAN region and 5 from across Australia) together for 5-day workshop to explore and interrogate what it means to be a cultural leader or advocate in the Asia-Pacific region today.
The workshop program will leverage Brisbane’s distinctive cultural expertise and landscape – particularly in visual, screen and performing arts as vehicles for engagement in the Asia-Pacific. It has been timed to coincide with the 2018 Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM), and participant’s will have the opportunity to part in inter-cultural dialogues and observe
GBS student receives recognition from Foreign Affairs minister
It’s not everyday you receive a glowing job reference from Australia’s Foreign Affairs minister.
Courtney Organ certainly wasn’t expecting it. She received a call from the New Colombo Plan alumni group while she was in the library studying for her final year at Griffith Business School.
After quickly making an exit, she was told that Julie Bishop had shared Courtney’s experience as part of her speech to the Tourism and Transport Forum Leadership Summit.
“Her internship was two months in a town in southern Japan where she worked for their tourism organisation, she designed their website, she worked on their marketing campaign and she said she learnt more about Japanese thinking, culture, lifestyle, way of life than she could have ever dreamed,” Ms Bishop told the audience.
“She was from Griffith University, she’s now back concluding her studies, and what a fabulous potential employee she will be.”
When Courtney recovered from her initial shock, she
Suicidology graduate improving mental health in young people
Improving mental health support for young people who’ve suffered bereavement is the focus for Griffith University Masters of Suicidology graduate Karl Andriessen.
Named this week, as the winner of the Health Group Outstanding International Alumni Award, Mr Andriessen, a graduate of Griffith’s Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP), said he is ‘delighted’ with the recognition of his 30 year career in suicide prevention.
His current research with UNSW School of Psychiatry has revealed that when adolescents aged 12-18 experience the death of someone close to them, there can often be greater feelings of anger and injustice when compared to the same experience in an adult.
“We have found that young people in this age group have significantly different needs to an older population,” says Mr Andriessen. “They may often feel that it is very unjust that someone close to them has died and really struggle with these feelings.
“They may also be
Griffith expert joins Transparency International board
A Griffith University expert has been elected to the board of directors of Transparency International (TI), the peak global organisation working against corruption.
Professor A J Brown, from the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, was elected for 3 years at the TI Annual Members’ Meeting, held in Berlin, Germany on Sunday October 15.
The vote was taken by representatives of the global anti-corruption movement from 91 countries, with another 22 countries in attendance, along with other individual members, supporters and staff from TI throughout the world.
“It is an honour to be entrusted with this unique opportunity to help oversight and target the efforts of the world’s most important accountability organisation, as well as assist in its own governance and organisational development,” Professor Brown said.
Professor Brown has been a board member of Transparency International Australia since 2010, and involved in world-leading research in partnership with TI for over 15 years including on
‘Obama’s Superman’ to headline 2017 Integrity 20
Truth, disorder and optimism is the theme for this year’s annual Integrity 20 forum which begins on Wednesday 18th October.
Bringing together some of the most courageous and proactive thinkers, the forum will articulate and communicate ideas exploring societies’ ongoing crises in a time of unparalleled global transformation.
Griffith University’s fourth annual Integrity 20 is highlighted by a lecture to be delivered by former Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich whom former Prime Minister Paul Keating famously remarked was the ‘best US Ambassador ever sent to Australia.’
Previously serving as Special Counsel to President Obama in the White House, the 24th Ambassador to Australia (2009-2013) had also earned the moniker of ‘Obama’s Superman’ for his outstanding civil service over many years.
Mr Bleich’s lecture is titled ‘Fame, brand, spin and debt – Facing up to the slow violence of moral neglect’ and will be delivered in the Queensland Conservatorium on the night of 18th October as Integrity
Griffith expert warns of more flooding if ecosystems aren’t remedied
A leading Australian rivers expert warns flooding will continue to impact our rivers and coastal waterways because our catchments are no longer resilient to extreme weather events.
As parts of South-East Queensland experience flooding after a heavy rainfall band crossed the coast, rivers and water catchments are being pushed to the brink.
Professor Stuart Bunn of Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute said many of our river systems are vulnerable to these all too frequent extreme weather events.
“More water ends up in our river networks quicker due to a number of reasons but chief among them is the loss of our natural vegetation cover and modifications to stream channels.
“Every time it rains water gets concentrated into the channel network and with the unstable channels, river banks are easily eroded and we end up with problems including damage to infrastructure, and loss of valuable farm soil.”
Professor Bunn said we are also paying the price