A masterclass from ‘unplugged’ Simon Tedeschi

Simon Tedeschi playing one of the requests.  Photo: Peter Hislop

Simon Tedeschi Plays Your Requests

Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture

September 18, 2026

Reviewed by David Whitbread

Starting with the boisterous theme from The Simpsons and ending with an equally boisterous ragtime-infused theme from Super Mario Brothers, Simon Tedeschi astounded his audience with a masterclass in the piano.

Well, that’s what you get when you ask your audience on arrival to nominate what they’d like to hear – and you build your program by randomly selecting from a box of their requests!

It takes a special performer to be so comfortable with the unpredictable – this is only the fifth or sixth time he’s done it – and a prodigious memory to then perform to the outstanding level of artistry we witnessed.

Just a word of disappointment with the audience, not the performer.

Given the hosts were the ACT Keyboard Association, the almost capacity audience was made up of many piano teachers and students.

So why were the requests so predictable? Short of the bookends, there were no surprises in the requested composers, also no women, no Australians … it read like the contents list of European master piano works from the Baroque to the Impressionists. Yep, the B composers Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy … With only one other – Gershwin, of course (more later).

Tedeschi looking through the requests. Photo: Peter Hislop

The rules of the engagement are that, once played, a composer cannot be played again. Also that, while you can request a particular work, the pianist may play any work by that composer. He will also mostly deny requests for works written for piano and orchestra.

Tedeschi is an affable host, telling often funny stories prompted by the random selections and then performing immaculately. While always stylistically informed, he has a penchant for heightening the dramatic possibilities in any era. His interpretation is guaranteed to hold an audience in the palms of his hands.

Bach’s Great Fantasia (without Fugue) originally for organ showed how Bach foreshadowed what was to come – particularly in this realisation. It still retained the turns and trills, the counterpoint, but the shaping was exceptional.

A nine-year-old piano student requested Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 that Simon had played at Sydney Opera House when he also was nine. It demonstrated the required crisp clarity of fingering and interpolated the dramatic orchestral dynamics.

Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin has become synonymous with Tedeschi. He first performed it with Tommy Tycho in 1993. It is his most performed and requested work.

Understandably – when you hear this mighty solo piano interpretation.

After the opening sections, it got into its rhythmic centre with Tedeschi channelling Gershwin in the wild speed and shifting harmonies, with a mighty crescendo leading to a sudden stillness prior to the big romantic theme. Enormous dynamic contrast and a great, inventive walking bass line led to a thrilling climax.

When Debussy came up, Simon chose his most famous piano work, Clair de lune. A contrast to so many works on the random program, this had an incredibly beautiful and peaceful opening, so delicately played with melting harmonies and ringing tones, particularly in the upper register.

Yep, by the end, I had teared up.

First published at Canberra City News, September 19, 2026.

Biggins inhabits Keating with humour and poignancy

 

By Joe Woodward

Theatre presents biographical stories on a regular basis; myth, heroic deeds and interpretations of reality make great subjects dating back to ancient Greek theatre.

The lampooning and satirising of all such things also provides much comedy and creative substance going back just as far. Serious actors portray characters in the first instance while comedians will offer witty and often dangerous performances within the second. Jonathan Biggins, with his invocation of Paul Keating evokes the essence of both.

From the opening monologue, Biggins lampoons contemporary political issues and personalities with a kind of tongue-in-cheek vigour; all presented with a wink and nod in a Keating style. It fills the room with laughter and recognition from people of all political persuasion.

And then, Biggins, as Keating, takes the audience into the lessons to be learned from a lifetime. He is always aware of the audience being subject to his thoughts and stories.

Biggins is actually very respectful of his audience in both the writing and the performance. The lightness in the presentation also inhabits the darkness of some of his content. For instance, his seemingly dismissive references to AUKUS were grounded in the very sceptical utterances of Keating himself.

This is where Biggins work finds a liminality between himself and Paul Keating and between the real figure and the audience’s perceptions of him. Biggins inhabits the man, the historical icon and the politician in a way that takes his performance well beyond that of simple satire. His gestures and vocal intonations go beyond characterisation.

In effect, Biggins provides a self-effacing genius of endowment bridging the very act of performance with historical reality.

There is no imposition in his work. Biggins goes further than simply using an actor’s timing to make a point. He allows time to invest his every gesture and every utterance as an invitation for the audience to share in his multidimensional portrayal.

The humour and poignancy of Biggins’ creation is testimony to the artists inhabiting of a very real personage within an historical setting.

Biggins creates a distinct new genre of theatre.

He breathes life into multiple genres of theatre with his tour de force creation of Paul Keating. The Gospel According to Paul is profound writing and exceptional acting.

There is no imposition in his work. Biggins goes further than simply using an actor’s timing to make a point. He allows time to invest his every gesture and every utterance as an invitation for the audience to share in his multidimensional portrayal.

The humour and poignancy of Biggins’ creation is testimony to the artists inhabiting of a very real personage within an historical setting.

Biggins creates a distinct new genre of theatre.

He breathes life into multiple genres of theatre with his tour de force creation of Paul Keating. The Gospel According to Paul is profound writing and exceptional acting.

First published at Canberra City News, September 18, 2026

The Gospel According to Paul

written performed by Jonathan Biggins

Canberra Theatre Centre

Until September 26, 2026

Amazing restoration of the feted Hannah Cabinet

The cabinet in the gallery after the Lismore flooding had receded in March 2022. Photo: Brian Henry

By Meredith Hinchliffe

Many readers will remember the Hannah Cabinet that filled the front gallery at Bungendore Wood Works a few years ago, a six-year labour of love for its maker Geoff Hannah.

The Cabinet was returned to Hannah’s home town Lismore where, after major fund raising and with assistance from the maker, it became the centrepiece of the regional gallery.

But on February 28, 2022, after heavy rain, the Lismore river reached its highest on record (14.4 metres) and caused catastrophic damage all over the district.

The cabinet had been placed on the third floor, the highest position. But the water reached it and knocked it over completely.

The cabinet had originally been made in Lismore by Hannah and after major fundraising and with assistance from the maker, it became the centrepiece of the gallery’s collection.

Five days after the flood, International Art Services brought the pieces in climate-controlled trucks to Patinations Furniture Conservation Services in Canberra, where it was held at 2°C for several weeks to stop the mould. Nevertheless, there were marks from mould which spread over the timber pieces. 

Restorer Greg Peters (left) uses a heat lamp and vacuum on the Hannah Cabinet, watched by
Geoff Hannah centre and Wayne Creaser.

Greg Peters from Patinations in Fyshwick explained that it was full of silt, sewage, tan bark, mud and other rubbish. 

The drawers – and there were many – acted as wine barrels, holding the water. The gilding and veneers were peeling off while most of the stone in the door fronts and on the drawer fronts survived.

Fortunately, Hannah had listened to Peters give a talk at Bungendore Wood Works, where he encouraged furniture makers to use animal glue and French polishing, rather than PVC and polyurethane and had followed this advice, so the joints and finishes could all be replaced. Everything was taken apart and rebuilt. The cabinet had been made to break into six parts, and this has made the conservation and restoration a little easier. 

Hannah Cabinet when unveiled in 2009. Photo: Flawless Imaging

Hannah, now living out of Armidale, NSW, is overseeing the process of conservation and recovery. The timber is being re-French polished, and re-gilded. 

Peters expects that less than five per cent will ultimately remain unsaved, but that the average viewer will not notice this. 

“The final piece will reflect the flood,” he tells me. 

When I visited Patinations, the centre top section of the cabinet was undergoing the transformation process. 

Once finished, it will go back to Lismore where the time-consuming French polishing will begin.

“The process of conservation is a mix of traditional 18th and 19th century techniques and state-of-the-art conservation,” Peters says. 

“Vacuuming will suck the moisture out and heat lamps dry the timber. There is considerable staining around all the holes where screws were used, and we are removing all the marks, too.”

It has been a massive and expensive undertaking to return it to its original state. There has been insurance money, but also conservators have made a huge contribution. 

Staff at Patinations have worked on it almost solely since the parts arrived in Canberra in March 2022. While they will be finished soon, Peters anticipates work will not be completed in Lismore until late next year.

First published at Canberra City News, September 16, 2026

Triumphant concert came with a sense of anticipation

Louis Sharpe conducts the NCO. Photo: Peter Hislop

By Len Power

Joining forces with the St Vincent de Paul Society, Canberra/Goulburn, the National Capital Orchestra presented a charity concert to help support people in our region experiencing hardship.

Echoes of Humanity described perfectly the emotive and famous works presented. That they were also a formidable challenge to perform created quite a sense of anticipation before the concert began.

Conducted by Louis Sharpe, the program began with the much-loved Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninov.

The piano was played by Lucas Krupinski. This Polish pianist, now living in Britain, made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 and has appeared with major orchestras across Asia, Europe and North America. He has also won many competitions. He performed at the Canberra International Music Festival in 2022.

Lucas Krupinski performs with the NCO. Photo: Peter Hislop

Krupinski’s playing was notable for its sensitivity, bringing out the richness in the melodies while stirring heightened emotions.

The orchestra, guided by Sharpe, played confidently and with great clarity. Together, Krupinski and the orchestra gave this work an excellent performance, showing why this work’s fame has endured since its first full performance in 1901. It was thrilling to have the opportunity to experience it live.

After interval, Sharpe and the orchestra returned to play another possibly even more formidable work – Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (Titan). Premiered in 1889, this deeply personal work is also highly emotional. It required a large orchestra to play, and Sharpe advised the audience that the orchestra on stage was the largest ever for the company.

From its quiet beginning, the orchestra showed great control. Through the various melodies and dramatic passages, they brought out all the shifting emotions of the work with enormous clarity and strength. There was particularly fine work by the French horns and the bassoons, and every part of the orchestra gave Mahler’s work a rousing performance of which they should all feel proud.

This was an exhilarating concert of two highly challenging works. Sharpe, the orchestra and Krupinski made this an event to remember.

First published at Canberra City News, September 13, 2026

Dolly Parton, country star, actor and philanthropist, dies aged 80 after cancer diagnosis

Dolly Parton pictured in 2022. Photograph: NBC/Katherine Bomboy/Getty Images

Songwriter of I Will Always Love You, Jolene and 9 to 5 invested millions in child literacy, Covid-19 vaccine development and other causes

By Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Dolly Parton, one of the greatest singer-songwriters in country music, who was also much cherished for her philanthropy, has died aged 80.

Her death was announced by nephew Brian Seaver on Instagram. “I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now,” he said. “It is an honour, an honour that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness.”

Parton’s team confirmed the singer died Tuesday “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer.”

“Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” the statement continued.

So gifted that she wrote two of the 20th century’s greatest songs – Jolene and I Will Always Love You – in a single day, Parton’s songwriting was characterised by its vivid storytelling, emotional acuity and melodic strength, all sung with strident clarity. From an eventual catalogue of hundreds of songs, she scored a record 25 US country No 1 singles and 47 albums in the country Top 10. She crossed over into the pop charts with 9 to 5, a US No 1 hit in 1980; balanced her music career with acclaimed acting, twice earning Golden Globe nominations for her roles; and donated more than 300m books to children through her Imagination Library literacy project.

This was all done with considerable panache, rhinestoned glamour and towering hairdos, with her immortal assertion regarding her appearance – “it takes a lot of money to look this cheap” – the most quoted example of Parton’s ready wit.

Parton was born in poverty in a one-room cabin in Tennessee, the fourth child to a mother who would have 12 children by the age of 35, and a father who was a farmer and construction worker. One of her best-loved songs, Coat of Many Colours, was about her mother creating patchwork clothes; Parton’s first guitar was cobbled together from a mandolin with bass guitar strings. Her first proper guitar was given to her aged eight by her uncle, and she went from singing in church to appearing on local television aged 10, to cutting her first record aged 13. That year, she appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, the concert hall in Nashville at the center of country music, and her performance was introduced by Johnny Cash. “I’ve always believed things would go well, and I dreamed that they would even before I was in high school,” she later said. “I always wanted to be a star. It just seemed natural to me.”

After graduating high school in 1964, she moved to Nashville and started out as a songwriter rather than performer. The following year, she was signed as an artist and initially moulded as a pop singer, without success; after she was allowed to switch to country, she scored back-to-back hits and released her debut album Hello, I’m Dolly. In 1966, she married Carl Dean – who died in 2025, with the couple renewing their vows in 2016 to mark 50 years together.

Beginning in 1967, a duet partnership with country singer and TV personality Porter Wagoner helped her star continue to ascend, and she had her first country No 1 in 1971 with the song Joshua.

Jolene, her unforgettably raw and desperate plea to a rival lover, was released in 1973 and became her first UK success, reaching No 7. I Will Always Love You, written to Wagoner as a farewell after their creative partnership ended, was a country No 1 in 1974 and again via a re-recorded version in 1982, and would go on to be a huge pop success when revived by Whitney Houston for the soundtrack of The Bodyguard in 1992: it is still the bestselling single of all time by a woman, with an estimated 20m sales.

In the mid 1970s, Parton broadened her sound, embracing pop-rock arrangements on songs such as 1977’s Light of a Clear Blue Morning – its accompanying album New Harvest … First Gathering was her first entry in the pop album chart. Later that year, its follow-up, Here You Come Again, reached the Top 20 and was her first million-selling LP, powered in part by its hit title track, which also won Parton the first of her 10 Grammy awards.

The year 1980 was a peak in her success, with three back-to-back country No 1s, including 9 to 5, taken from the film of the same name, which Parton starred in alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, earning her an Oscar nomination for best original song. Parton would later write songs for a stage musical version of 9 to 5, in 2008.

Another classic single came in 1983 – Islands in the Stream, a duet with Kenny Rogers, which topped the US pop charts – and a Christmas album with Rogers in 1984 went two times platinum. There were more notable film roles in the 1980s, too, opposite Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone, and an all-star female ensemble in Steel Magnolias.

Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris in 1987. Photograph: Paul Harris/Getty Images

A landmark Parton album came in 1987 with Trio, an exquisitely harmonised, springwater-clear collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, earning Parton her only nomination for album of the year at the Grammys. Another all-star trio recording came in 1993, with Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn on the album Honky-Tonk Angels, followed by a reunion with Harris and Ronstadt for Trio II in 1999, featuring a Grammy-winning cover of Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush.

The turn of the century brought a trilogy of acclaimed bluegrass albums, and Parton would release 10 more LPs, the most recent being Rockstar in 2023. She was courted by a younger generation of stars, appearing with country artists such as Brad Paisley as well as pop singers such as Kesha, and her goddaughter Miley Cyrus. There were fewer acting roles, but she lent her voice to animated film Gnomeo and Juliet in 2011 and the following year appeared alongside Queen Latifah and more in the musical film Joyful Noise.

Alongside her music and acting, Parton was an astute businesswoman and philanthropist. She founded the film and TV production company Sandollar, with former manager Sandy Gallin, which went on to produce hits such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Father of the Bride film series. In 1986, she took a stake in the Silver Dollar City theme park in Tennessee and renamed it Dollywood, doubling its size over the next two decades, and a Dollywood-branded spa, cabin complex, theatre-restaurant concept and waterpark have since been opened.

Dolly Parton in Joyful Noise. Photograph: Van Redin/Publicity image from film company

The Dollywood Foundation, funded through these business ventures and creative projects, was created in 1988, initially awarding college scholarships and running a program to help children complete high school in her native Sevier county, Tennessee. In 1995, Parton began her Imagination Library project, which sent an age-appropriate book to every child in the county every month until they were five. “My father could not read and write, and I saw how crippling that could be,” she explained. It expanded nationwide in 2000, internationally in 2006, and 40m books are now distributed each year across the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland.

In 2022, Jeff Bezos donated $100m (£83m) to the foundation. That year, Parton explained that as well as improving child literacy, “it’s the fact they get recognised. They get this little book with their little name on it in the mail, and they feel special. They start taking pride in themselves, and they know that somebody out there is thinking of [them].”

Parton also set up a reserve in 2003 to help preserve the bald eagle; contributed $500,000 to the opening of a Sevier county hospital in 2006; coordinated relief efforts for people affected by the Smoky mountain wildfires of 2016; and contributed to an HIV/Aids charity album. She supported Black Lives Matter and transgender rights, opposing a North Carolina “bathroom bill” that restricted transgender people’s access to toilets (Parton was also nominated for an Oscar for her song in trans drama Transamerica, entitled Travelin’ Thru).

She made a number of donations to Vanderbilt University’s medical center in Nashville, Tennessee, where her niece was treated for leukemia. The most high-profile of these was in 2020, when she donated $1m for research into Covid-19, which formed the basis for the eventual Moderna vaccine.

In May 2026, Parton cancelled her Las Vegas residency over health issues. A Broadway musical is also set to open later this year after a run in Nashville.

 This article was amended on 26 August 2026. The Imagination Library has donated more than 300m books to children, and distributes 40m books a year. An earlier version said these figures were “more than 150m” and “nearly 25m” respectively.

First published at The Guardian, August 26, 2026

Japanese polka dot artist Yayoi Kusama dies aged 97

By Kurumi Mori, Tokyo correspondent and Harry Sekulich

Polka dots, pumpkins and infinity room mirrors are hallmarks of Kusama's artistry

Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, who became famous for her colourful polka dot-covered sculptures and installations, has died at the age of 97.

Kusama, who had voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades, was known for her bright red wig and her giant, quirky creations.

Her exhibitions drew large crowds around the world, and her vibrant works fetched some of the highest ever prices for a female artist.

A statement from her company said: "Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry."

Yayoi Kusama pictured with one of her installations in 2001

Kusama died at a hospital in Tokyo on 14 August, the statement said.

It added: "She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.

"We will carry forward Kusama's wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world."

Kusama became one of the world's most recognisable artists and a global cultural icon in her 80s and 90s, after having been mostly overlooked for decades.

Poorly received by a masculine-dominated art scene of New York in the 1960s, Kusama caused a stir with her exhibitions of phallic sculptures, including a fabric couch, and frequent displays of nudity.

Frequent nudity in her works drew scorn in Kusama's native Japan

In 1965, her work "Infinity Mirror Rooms", in which mirrors and lights create seemingly endless spaces, attracted millions of visitors. Later, her polka dot and pumpkin works became highly sought-after.

However, she became distressed when her ideas were copied by or "inspired" her male contemporaries – including Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Lucas Samaras – whose works would be displayed at more prestigious galleries.

After spending years watching male artists gain recognition for her work, she returned home to Japan – feeling dejected and distraught.

She entered a psychiatric facility receiving treatment for mental illnesses, where she would live and work for the remainder of her life.

Miraculously, she managed to find a hospital where the doctors were interested in art therapy and checked herself in. Such a secure environment allowed her to focus on creating art.

Through the 1970s and early 80s, her work depicted uncharacteristically dark series' of collages in which she embraced the imagery of natural life cycles.

Kusama went on to become Japan's first solo artist to represent the country at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Twenty-seven years earlier, she had turned up, uninvited, and laid down 1,500 mirror balls on the ground.

The roaring success of the exhibition led to a huge transformation in how she was received both in Japan and abroad.

In 2001, she was awarded the Asahi Prize – recognising outstanding cultural, academic and artistic contributions in Japan.

One of her paintings fetched about $10.5m (£7.7m) at auction in 2022, making her works some of the highest-earning in the world for a female artist.

Kusama's Infinity Rooms immersed visitors in the installation using mirrors and lights

She held major exhibitions around the world, including at the Tate Modern gallery in London, which ran for three years after being extended several times because of its popularity.

Catherine Wood, interim director of Tate Modern, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday it was "our most visited exhibition of all time because people really love Kusama's work".

The exhibition invited visitors into the artist's Infinity Mirror Rooms.

"You would step in there and the lights would go down, and it felt like you were looking into the mysteries of the Universe," Wood said. "She was very good at conjuring this sense of wonder and infinity that she was obsessed with."

A sculpture of Yayoi Kusama was erected outside Maison Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2023, with the store
covered in colourful polka dots

As a child, Kusama experienced hallucinations of embers and flashing – later using her art as a vehicle for others to understand her vision of the world.

"One day, after seeing a tablecloth with a red flower pattern on a desk, I saw the same red flower pattern all over the ceiling, windows and pillars. It filled the room, and covered my body," she wrote in her autobiography.

Kusama was born in 1929 in the rural provincial town of Matsumoto, based in the central Nagano region of Japan.

Her parents did not support her early moves to study painting in Kyoto.

She was later told her artistry caused great shame to her conservative family. Some elements of the US press also criticised what they perceived as an endless desire for publicity – either in her messaging promoting peace or critiquing the art establishment.

Kusama staged a major exhibition in Manchester in 2023

The world, along with her native Japan, radically changed its perception of Kusama in her later life.

Social media fuelled a spike in interest over recent years – with her museum's bold floral shapes and shiny steel orbs turning into a desired backdrop for selfies and poses.

Among her many motifs, the pumpkin has become iconic in her works. To her, the vegetable represented comfort and nostalgia.

She once said in an interview: "Pumpkins speak to me. "They embody a sense of stability and gives me peace of mind."

First published at BBC, August 27, 2026