Pot-Pourri is an Australian opera/musical theatre group who perform a blend of opera, music theatre, cabaret, magic, didgeridoo and comedy both within Australia and internationally. The artists have all performed with Australia's major musical and opera companies.
Pot-Pourri began its life at a smoky jazz nightclub Madegans, in Brunswick, Melbourne in 1987 [1] and has since toured overseas on more than 40 occasions and released six CDs. The group began with the aim of making opera and musical theatre accessible to a wider audience. [2]
Performances include sell-out concerts at the Melbourne Concert Hall, Sydney Town Hall, Burswood Theatre, The Plush Room San Francisco, Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Port Fairy Folk Festival. [3] The group has toured throughout many parts of USA, Europe, New Zealand and Asia performing as guest artists with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, touring major concert halls in Taiwan. They were the only Australian production to be invited to perform at the 2002 International Music Theatre Festival in Korea. [4] Pot-Pourri have performed a season at The Summit Theatre in Japan and were the first Australian artists invited to play at the Macau Cultural Centre, as well as performances in Penang and Hong Kong.
The five classically trained performers also become The Warbles for children's charity The Song Room. [5] The performers take on the personae of Sylvie Soprano, Miffy Mezzo, Terry Tenor, Barry Baritone and Priscilla Pianist, teaching children about opera and classical music. [6]
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with drama and production arts. The school has students from over seventy countries. Widely regarded as one of the leading performing arts institutions in the world, it was ranked first in both the Guardian’s 2022 League Table for Music and the Complete University Guide's 2023 Arts, Drama and Music league table. It is also ranked the sixth university in the world for performing arts in the 2022 QS World University Rankings.
Amici Forever is a band of four classically trained singers who mix opera with pop music. The band's first album, The Opera Band (2004), reached number one on the Australian classical charts, number two on the United States (US) classical charts and the top 5 in the United Kingdom (UK) classical charts.
In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.
Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as Artistic Director. Richard Mills is the current Artistic Director. The company is supported through government funding, patron contributions and corporate sponsorship.
Richard John MillsDMus BA(Hons), is an Australian conductor and composer. He is currently the artistic director of Victorian Opera, and formerly artistic director of the West Australian Opera and artistic consultant with Orchestra Victoria. He was commissioned by the Victoria State Opera to write his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996) and by Opera Australia to write the opera Batavia (2001).
David McSkimming OAM was an Australian pianist best known as an accompanist and, over many years, a regular performer in concert and on radio for the ABC. After graduating with a master's degree in Piano Performance, he played harpsichord and organ continuo and piano with the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria and the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra. He also played horn in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. From 2006, McSkimming was Head of Music at Victorian Opera.
David Hobson is an Australian opera tenor and composer.
George Alfred Palmer is an Australian classical music composer and a former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
The Grant Park Music Festival is a ten-week classical music concert series held annually in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus along with guest performers and conductors, and claims to be the only free outdoor classical-music concert series in the US. The Festival is a non-profit organization. The Festival has been a Chicago tradition since 1931, when mayor Anton Cermak suggested free concerts to lift spirits of Chicagoans during the Great Depression. The tradition of symphonic Grant Park Music Festival concerts began in 1935.
Liza Lim is an Australian composer. Lim writes concert music as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects. Her work reflects her interests in Asian ritual culture, the aesthetics of Aboriginal art and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.
Teddy Tahu Rhodes is a New Zealand operatic baritone.
Will Todd is an English musician and composer. He is a pianist, who performs regularly with others in his own works.
Antoinette Halloran is an Australian operatic soprano.
Tania Karen de Jong is an Australian soprano, social entrepreneur, businesswoman, motivational speaker, and event producer. She is the Founder of Creative Innovation Global, Creative Universe, Creativity Australia, Dimension5, Music Theatre Australia, Pot-Pourri, and The Song Room, and co-founder of Mind Medicine Australia. De Jong was named as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Psychedelics" globally by Psychedelic Invest in 2021.
The Texas Early Music Project is a performing arts ensemble based in Austin, Texas, that focuses on bringing audiences a closer knowledge and appreciation of Baroque music, Medieval music, Renaissance music, and early Classical-period music. The group uses historical instruments in keeping with historically informed performance practice. The ensemble was founded in 1987 by Daniel Johnson, who remains the group's artistic director. The group is classified as a non-profit organization and operates primarily on grant money and donations for individual and corporate supporters. Income is supplemented by ticket sales and merchandise sales. Texas Early Music Project is a member of Early Music America. Performers are primarily professional musicians from the Austin area, although performers visit from Texas at large, from all over the United States, and occasionally internationally.
Alexander Lewis is an English-Australian operatic tenor and musical theatre actor who has performed in Australia, the UK, the US, and Germany. He sang in the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's opera Crossing.
Rosalind Phillippa Phillips, OBE, known as Linda Phillips, was an Australian composer, pianist and music critic.
Fanny Simonsen, also written Fannie Simonsen, was a French soprano singer who had a substantial career on the Australian stage, later a concert manager with her violinist husband Martin Simonsen. Several daughters and one grand-daughter, Frances Alda, were first-rate singers.