Treble clefs have no interest in racism or sexism. But today, even The Rite of Spring, were it submitted for a grant or commission awarded by panelists kept deliberately nameless, could face rejection for appropriating the culture of ancient Russian pagans. It would amount to nothing more than grist for grievance-studies academics

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The new national cultural policy, Revive: A Place for Every Story, a Story for Every Place, seems to prioritise Australian arts infrastructure -- existing, large-scale national institutions and, of course, bureaucracies -- at the expense of independent artists and, even more so, of art itself

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To quote Paul Keating, a man with whom I would not normally find common ground, 'The state of the arts in a country goes to the heart of what a nation is.' That Australia’s arts are so encumbered by questions of identity at the expense of quality and authenticity would suggest our nation is not at all in such a good way

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Could it be that legislation seeking to 'protect First Nations cultural expressions' is a further attempt to control Australia’s understanding of Aboriginal history and culture? Might I be up on charges for, say, composing music for a ballet on Aboriginal theme or Keith Windschuttle if activists take issue with his research? These questions must be asked and loudly, for the peril is real and quite likely imminent

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"I cannot help but feel an immense sorrow for someone of Sitsky’s years. Here is a man who tasted what could have been a golden age of culture in this country; that age never properly took shape, and since the 1990s it has declined into non-existence, vanishing from both sight and memory"

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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s administration, so financially embattled during the pandemic, stood down its musicians in 2020 to avoid bankruptcy. The same orchestra now offers discount tickets for Aboriginal patrons, plus those of Iroquois, Itza, Inuit and any other what-have-you descent. It is a tokenistic, infantilising and totally reprehensible gesture

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If Australian opera is to have a worthwhile future, craft, style and quality are essential. That artistic merit should be trumped by quotas and chromosomes is laid out in a recent paper, Risky Business: Policy Legacy and Gender Inequality in Australian Opera Production. Have the authors never heard of Simone Young, our greatest living conductor?

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In December 1932, a nineteen-year-old Miriam Hyde penned a letter to her mother, Muriel, from London. “I had my piano lesson yesterday,” she began, having arrived at the Royal College of Music early in the year. “I did the Waldstein, chiefly [the] last movement, and I feel that I have never added so many ‘finishing […]

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In the music world and the art world more broadly, particularly here in Australia, we are failing to evolve the very best ideas. Rather, we are regressing into an era of cultural decline. The impetus for this deterioration seems to be the widespread and ever-growing prioritisation of a creator’s identity ahead of his or her craft

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A vanity project and media vehicle that keeps a hanky-headed self-promoter in the headlines, ARM has a fresh scheme for the selection of candidates and, from that shortlist, an elected president. It all sounds very simple and it is -- as simple as the thinking, to use that word advisedly, which could and would elevate narcissistic demagogues. Then again, perhaps that is what republicans actually want

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