Two Holocaust missions in Amsterdam for Anne

In 2015, during a visit to Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House, a Sydney Jewish Museum’s curatorial volunteer, Anne Slade, was asked by the then International Project Manager at the House, Levien Rouw, to undertake the task of locating people who had written to Otto Frank, Anne’s father, following the publication of the Diary of Anne Frank. Read more

Wagnerian flavour of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music

Perhaps in acknowledgement of NAIDOC Week, the customary acknowledgement of country was replaced with the Rhythmic Acknowledgement, based on rhythmic patterns first documented in the early 1800s. Read more

Mozart as Wolfgang would have heard his music

In a program titled “MOZART”, Richard Tognetti and his Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), augmented with musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and guest musicians, gave the audience at Sydney’s City Recital Hall a real treat. Read more

The child holocaust survivor who devoted his life to looking after people

Dr Steve Kalowski’s life has been a triumph of spirit over the adversity and horror into which he had been born. Read more

Never give up!

On April 7 this year the world lost one of its most significant quiet achievers. Ben Ferencz was the chief US prosecutor at the 1945 Nuremberg trials, resulting in the conviction of all 22 Nazi Einsztzgruppen members indicted. Read more

At the Adelaide Festival with Alan Slade

The Adelaide Festival Theatre is an impressive structure and one of South Australia’s most prestigious venues. Read more

At the Adelaide Festival: The Adelaide Writers Week

In the lead-up to Adelaide Writers Week (AWW), the director Louise Adler’s decision to include at least 10 Palestinian contributors and not even one Israeli author caused controversy. Read more

At the Adelaide Festival with Alan Slade

Most Jewish Australians will have heard of William Cooper (1860? – 1941), the Aboriginal political activist who, in 1938, led a delegation of the Australian Aboriginal League to the German Consulate in Melbourne to deliver a petition condemning the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany”. Read more

At the Adelaide Festival

Cédric Tiberghien, the French classical pianist, started learning to play the piano at age 5, which may explain his masterful rendition of Mozart’s Sonata K331 in the concert he gave in the magnificent Adelaide Town Hall as part of the Adelaide Festival. Read more

Lunch with Umberto

A Little Lunch Music is a long-running series created by the accomplished Australian pianist Kathryn Selby in 2007. Read more

The United Ukrainian Ballet company’s Swan Lake: reviewed by Alan Slade

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian soloists Stanislav Olshanski and Alexander Tutunique were performing in Amsterdam with the famous former principal dancer in the Dutch National Ballet, Igone de Jongh. Read more

La Traviata: an opera review by Alan Slade

It’s always disappointing when you walk into the foyer ahead of a performance to read a sign advising that one of the principal players is not in the performance. Read more

Manon: a ballet review by Alan Slade

The scandalous tale of Manon Lescaut was first published in Paris in 1731, written by L’Abbe Prevost and banned until republished 22 years later with a warning. Read more

Jack Ritch: A quiet achiever and unsung hero

Jack Howard Ritch was born during World War II in Glasgow on 11th December 1941, the first child of Doris and Eddie Ritch. Read more

Ray Chen plays Mendelssohn: a music review by Alan Slade

Ray Chen, the Taiwan-born Australian violinist who came with his parents to Brisbane as an infant, played his 1715 Stradivarius “Joachim” violin in a spectacular rendition of Felix Mendelssohn’s E-minor concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor, New Zealand’s Gemma New, in the Thursday afternoon series in the just-reopened concert hall of Sydney’s Opera House. Read more

A little lunch music

The aptly named “A little lunch music” is a series of six musical experiences curated by Kathy Selby and Sydney’s City Recital Hall. Read more

A Little Lunch Music: a music review by Alan Slade

“A Little Lunch Music” is a series of 6 concerts in Sydney’s iconic Recital Hall, whose interior is modelled on Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and which is acknowledged to have among the best acoustics in the world. Read more

With the Zionists in Gallipoli

A friend in England happened to acquire a historic 1916 edition of “With the Zionists in Gallipoli”, the book written by Lt-Colonel J. H. Patterson while he spent a month in hospital in 1916…writes Alan Slade. Read more

Beyond Duty: an exhibition review by Alan Slade

The exhibition in the lobby of the NSW State Parliament House titled “Beyond Duty” is a must-see for everyone, especially families of Holocaust survivors. Read more

An opera star continues his ascendancy

The star of Massenet’s “Werther”, currently playing at Sydney’s iconic Opera House in the recently upgraded Opera Theatre is Michael Fabiano. Read more

Australia’s modern Mozart

Anton Koritni wrote his first composition at age 4. He is a pianist, singer, composer, music and poetry historian, actor graphic artist and teacher…writes Alan Slade. Read more