Alan Slade, Author at J-Wire

Organic Saint-Saens

Alan Slade — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 05:46:26 +0000

Oh, boy – did the Concert Hall of Sydney’s iconic Opera House get an acoustic workout in Saturday afternoon’s Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Saint-Saens Organ Symphony concert! The concert started with a sparkling walk-on by Anna Lapwood, official organist of the Royal Albert Hall and the soloist for the Saint-Saens. Her black dress with sparkling diamantes […]

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Cocktail hour with Rosemary Curtin

Alan Slade — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:19:41 +0000

There is something special about chamber music being heard in a chamber vis-s-vis in a concert hall. The Cocktail Hour series opened its ninth year with a Mozart concert arranged for a chamber ensemble and selected by Rosemary Curtin, the John and Jane Morschel Chair for viola in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The concert was […]

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La Traviata

Alan Slade — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 22:54:30 +0000

An opera review by Alan Slade The last time this avid operagoer heard a collective audience intake of breath on the first note sung by a soprano was the 1965 performance of La Traviata when Joan Sutherland let out her first note just before the well-known Brindisi. It happened again in the Sydney Opera House […]

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The Music of John Williams: a music review by Alan Slade

Alan Slade — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 02:48:06 +0000

“The Music of John Williams – Iconic Film Scores Live in Concert” played to a capacity audience in the Concert Hall of Sydney’s iconic Opera House on opening night, June 13, featuring 80 members of the SSO and 120 singers of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs conducted by Nicholas Buc. The trio behind this concert are […]

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A conversation for the times

Alan Slade — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 06:32:15 +0000

Sky News Host Sharri Markson and Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton headlined “Behind the Scenes Conversation” at a sold-out function held at Sydney’s Moriah College. The concept for the event was the brainchild of Sharri Markson and Carole Pillemer, director of the major sponsor, The Orah Fund, with ticket sales going to JCA. JCA President […]

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Two Holocaust missions in Amsterdam for Anne

Alan Slade — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 04:19:25 +0000

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. […]

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Wagnerian flavour of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music

Alan Slade — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 05:25:56 +0000

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. The piece, lasting five minutes, involved the entire percussion section of the SSO, augmented with the brass section seated in the same row, exchanging their usual instruments with […]

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Mozart as Wolfgang would have heard his music

Alan Slade — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 07:18:17 +0000

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. Originally, the concert concept developed from informal music-making of the 17th century. Development of the concert affected […]

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

Alan Slade — Sun, 07 May 2023 07:24:45 +0000

Dr Steve Kalowski’s life has been a triumph of spirit over the adversity and horror into which he had been born. Warsaw, on his day of birth, June 25th, 1942, was in the second year of Nazi Germany’s decree establishing a ghetto in Warsaw. The decree required all Jewish residents of Warsaw to move into […]

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Never give up!

Alan Slade — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 07:15:34 +0000

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. That he went on to be the driving force behind the establishment of the International Criminal Court […]

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