Lives in brief: JOY WARREN and SYLVIE STERN

Joy Warren

by Tony Magee

Well, January has been a rough month for the arts community in Canberra. We lost founder and owner of Solander Art Gallery in Yarralumla, Joy Warren, aged 92, on 3rd January and broadcaster, writer, photographer, animal lover and arts activist Sylvie Stern on 21st January.

In days gone by, Joy would occasionally call me and say "now darling, I'm having an exhibition launch next week and I'll need sophisticated live music, tasteful and colourful lighting in the garden and trees and two drink waiters". That was the usual request anyway. Naturally, I could arrange all that in no time and I was also always invited as a guest to the launches themselves. One year, Joy was launching an exhibition of works by artist Gerard Manion and my friend Daniel Mitchell accompanied me as a guest, along with his younger brother James, who was a last minute recruit as an extra wine waiter.

A lovely exhibition it was, and Daniel said to me at one point during the evening, "See that painting there? I just bought it"!

I'm currently the custodian of it whilst Daniel is away and here it is. It's called "Simon", by Gerard Manion and the subject of the painting is Australian concert pianist Simon Tedeschi.

Also pictured is Solander Gallery Founder Joy Warren and a portrait of Sylvie Stern by artist Barbara van der Linden from her 2013 Centenary project, “Faces of Canberra.”

Sylvie Stern

Sylvie Stern interviewed me on several occasions as a broadcaster on 2XX, a position which she just loved. She liked a bit of controversy if at all possible in her interviews and on one occasion in 2003, she was interviewing me about the forthcoming production for Canberra Philharmonic of "Sensationally Sondheim", of which I was musical director. 

I started to say something about how difficult it was to get audiences involved and enthused about the music of Sondheim (not on Broadway, but here in Australia) and she waived her arms, flapping madly! I thought she wanted me to stop talking, which I did momentarily, but then she motioned me to proceed, which I did. An excellent interview and as it turned out, we filled the Southern Cross Club to capacity over seven performances of that show.

Two great ladies who will be dearly missed.

Update, Sunday 25th July, 2021: In 2018, I passed the Gerard Manion painting "Simon" onto Daniel's mother, Elizabeth, who has enjoyed having it hung in her apartment in Canberra. And just the other day, Elizabeth called me and said that Daniel would like it hung in his own apartment now, so it will be transported to Perth, WA.