Cellist James Morley delivers outstanding performance

Canberra Symphony Orchestra

Conductor: Jessica Cottis

Soloist: James Morley

Llewellyn Hall

Thursday March 19, 2026

By Tony Magee

In a presentation where the overarching theme was friendship, Canberra Symphony Orchestra excelled in one the finest concerts I’ve heard from them.

Jessica Cottis conducts the CSO. Photo: Arianne Schlumpp

Conductor Jessica Cottis was in full control, sweeping the musicians through the multifaceted program with precision.

Opening with Through Changing Landscape by Australian composer Alice Chance, tentative steps forward began with just flute, with other instruments gradually joining until the full orchestras was playing.

A solid brass foundation emerged, then high above a piccolo made its mark, with piano octaves below.

Pizzicato from the five doubles basses and then the cellos carried the piece further with two massive orchestral climaxes as the high points.

Inspired by a long train journey with changing scenery as the train progresses, it was a very happy piece.

One of the few happy aspects to Prokofiev’s last years is the friendship he enjoyed with the young cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, for which he composed the unusually titled Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra, Op.125.

Outstanding young cellist James Morley was the soloist and he delivered a spectacular performance of incredible insight, technique and depth of emotion.

Playing from memory, he delivered superb tone production and projection.

James Morley. Photo courtesy Ukaria Cultural Centre

The opening Andante was in march tempo with a wonderful bass foundation. The following Allegro giusto brought forward furioso playing from Morley with dramatic interludes from the trombones and tuba in unison with timpani.

There followed an incredible cello cadenza where Morley was able to explore the full range of his instrument.

The closing Allegro marcato featured a wonderful and majestic fanfare from the horns underpinned by slow and deliberate pizzicato playing from the double basses.

At the conclusion of the work, the audience erupted in thunderous applause which just went on and on, and both Morley and conductor Cottis were called back again and again to take their bows.

Morley is studying at the ‘Hans Eisler’ School of Music in Berlin and has previously studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the ANU Schools Music, where he won Best Recital Award and the Audience Choice Award in the 2019 ANAM Concerto Competition, performing the Prokofiev Symphony-Concerto with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

He plays the ‘Ex-Robert Barrett’ cello made in 2004 by Rainer Beilharz.

The concert closed with a superb performance of The Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar. 

Elgar described how, on the evening of 21 October 1898, after a tiring day's teaching, he sat down at the piano and began to improvise various melodies in styles which reflected the character of some of his friends. These improvisations, expanded and orchestrated, became the Enigma Variations.

He is also quoted as saying that he would not explain the Enigma, “It’s ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture.”

Then, cryptically, “Through and over the whole set is another and larger theme which ‘goes’ but is not played…”

Elgar liked to tease his friends about guessing the Enigma. 

In November 1899, Elgar was in conversation with Dorabella Penny, subject of the tenth variation. Elgar asked: “Haven’t you guessed it yet? Try again!.” 

“Are you quite sure I know it?” “Quite.”

And on another occasion: “Well, I’m surprised. I thought you of all people would guess it.”

“Why me of all people?”

“That’s asking questions!”

Speaking with Troyte Griffith in 1923 - the subject of the seventh variation - Griffith asked, “Can I have one guess? Is it God Save the King?”

“No of course not, but it is so well known that it is extraordinary that no-one has spotted it.”

Is there actually a musical theme on which the variations are based? Most people assume so, but Elgar always referred to the subject matter as “it”, never tune or theme.

The famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin claimed to have solved the mystery in 1984, when he announced from the stage of Carnegie Hall, before conducting a performance of The Enigma Variations, that the solution was Rule Britannia. He later retracted his statement.

Sir Edward Elgar. Photo: Charles Frederick Grindrod, circa 1903
Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra filled Llewellyn Hall with a spectacular performance of the work. The third variation, Richard Baxter, was joyful. The fourth, William Meath Baker, was bold, featuring triple forte timpani.

After a timpani introduction, the sixth, Isabel Litton, continued with prominent brass. Troyte Griffith’s variation, number seven, featured a delightful clarinet opening.

The most famous of the variations is the ninth, Nimrod, dedicated to August Johannes Jaeger. It has been used countless times in television and film scores - from Monty Python to Dunkirk. The opening bars are a quote from the slow movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique piano sonata.

The tenth, Dorabella Penny, began with woodwinds and then a beautiful viola solo played superbly by Tor Frømyhr. Leader of the cello section, Patrick Suthers, opened the twelfth variation, Basil G. Nevinson, and his excellent playing was featured prominently throughout.

With the first variation being dedicated to the composer’s wife, Caroline Alice Elgar, the work came full circle with the Finale being Elgar himself.

So closed an absolutely superb concert from the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and one that I will remember with fondness for a long time.

At 104, George Franklin is months away from becoming the world's oldest conductor

By Lauren Smith

George Franklin, aged 104, could soon become the record holder for the title of the world's oldest conductor. 
(ABC News: Lauren Smith)

For most people, turning 104 is an accomplishment in itself.

For Western Australian musician George Franklin, the milestone puts him closer to another achievement: holding the record for being the world's oldest band conductor. 

Music has always played a big part in the life of Mr Franklin, who celebrated his 104th birthday on March 11 among friends and family.

He started playing the cornet at the age of seven, before joining the City of Perth Band in 1934.

Mr Franklin was the conductor of the City of Perth brass band from 1974. (ABC News: Lauren Smith)

Today Mr Franklin is their longest serving and most notable member, having conducted the brass band for decades before moving on to conducting the swing band every Monday evening. 

George Franklin conducts the City of Perth swing band every Monday evening. (ABC News: Lauren Smith)

He credits his love of music for his longevity.

"When it's grooving it can send shivers up and down your spine, it's exciting," Mr Franklin said.

"We've had music all our lives and we enjoy it."

Mr Franklin served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War Two, and after that, he joined a military band until he was retired.

It was then that he joined the City of Perth Band, where he's only months away from becoming the new Guinness World Record holder for the title of the world's oldest band conductor.

George Franklin turned 104 years old on March 11, 2026.   (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)

American musician Frank Edmond, who passed away in January 2023, currently holds the record. 

Mr Edmond conducted the Pensacola Civic Band until he died aged 104 years and 168 days.

Mr Franklin will pass that milestone on 27 August, 2026, but he remains sceptical.

"How would you know it's a world record? [Maybe] someone hasn't owned up to their age,"  Mr Franklin said.

"If that's true I don't know how long I will have that because I'm sure there will be someone around the corner who says I know someone else."

With or without a record, Mr Franklin's family and friends believe he is a very accomplished musician.

"He's been a musician all his life, he's still able to write music," daughter Gail Franklin said.

Long-time friend and band member Don Steel described him as "amazing".

"He's a very experienced musician and a pleasure to play under," Mr Steel said.

First published at ABC News, March 26, 2026

The unmasking of Banksy sparks public debate

Banksy’s mystique is taking a hit after a media report about his real name, reports LAURIE KELLMAN in London.

Banksy’s apparent unmasking generated talk about whether the works retain financial value. (AP PHOTO)

Years before the rise of Instagram, Banksy figured out that the key to real influence lay in not being famous, exactly, but in being anonymous. 

The mystery of his identity has long been part of the value of his art, which for decades and across continents defied authority from public walls and self-shredded on the auction block.

Now, Banksy’s apparent unmasking by the Reuters news agency has generated talk about whether the works themselves retain their cultural and financial value.

It also raises the question: Why pop the red balloon of his mystique in the first place?

Many Banksy fans mourned the loss of the mystery and lashed out at the news outlet.

One said it was like being told without warning that Santa Claus doesn’t exist.

“I feel like they are telling me how a magic trick is done,” said Thomas Evans, a Denver-based artist on Instagram.

“Sometimes I just want to enjoy the magic trick.”

But some art experts say the murals and the message will survive Banksy’s naming because his appeal wasn’t driven solely by his anonymity.

He and his works — mischievous and also dark — stand as witnesses to injustice, oppression and inequality around the world, from the artist’s native England to walled-off Bethlehem and war-ravaged Ukraine.

Subtract his anonymity, they say, and the work still inspires reflection and discussion.

“People buy his works because they absolutely love it,” said Acoris Andipa, director of the Andipa gallery in London.

“The main feedback that I get is that they really, frankly, don’t care if they know who he is.”

Banksy, long thought to have been born Robin Gunningham around 1972, grew out of a tradition of street artists who viewed the undercover act of posting their art in public as a subversive form of expression.

The post-industrial landscape of his native Bristol was his canvas and gallery.

The walls of London, New York and elsewhere gave him a global stage just before the rise of social media.

Banksy’s apparent identity has been an open secret among protective fellow artists, and has long been easy to find online for those who wanted to know.

The Daily Mail reported in 2008, “compelling evidence suggesting” that was the artist’s birth name.

It has been published by other news outlets, including by The Associated Press in 2016, as part of their coverage of the detective work.

Banksy’s apparent unmasking generated talk about whether the works retain financial value. (AP PHOTO)

Reuters reported last week that after The Daily Mail’s story, Banksy changed his legal name to David Jones — the second most-popular name in Britain.

It’s also the given name of another rock star, the late David Bowie, whose Ziggy Stardust avatar inspired a 2012 Banksy painting of Queen Elizabeth II.

Bansky’s lawyer didn’t respond to a request for comment, and the artist’s spokeswoman declined to participate in this story.

Reuters pieced together that a David Jones travelled to Ukraine with a well-known associate of Banksy’s in late 2022 — just before the artist’s work began appearing on buildings that had been bombed by Russia.

Banksy later confirmed that he’d created seven murals in the war zone, including one of a child flipping over a grown man who is wearing a black belt.

Russian President Vladimir Putin practices judo.

There’s evidence that even some in the establishment he was protesting have accepted Banksy.

They didn’t arrest him, for example, after the Royal Courts of Justice removed a Banksy stencil depicting a judge in a traditional wig and gown beating an unarmed protester with a gavel.

Some street artists groused that they might be arrested for creating such graffiti — but when it’s a Banksy, it’s art.

Robin Gunningham wasn’t always so elusive

On September 17, 2000, a Robin Gunningham was arrested for defacing a Marc Jacobs billboard atop a building on Hudson Street in New York.

In a handwritten, signed confession, he described the work on the night in question: “I had been out drinking at a nightclub with friends when I decided to make a humorous adjustment to a billboard on top of the property,” he wrote in court records unearthed by Reuters and confirmed by the AP.

“I painted eyeshadow a new mouth and a speach(sic) bubble” on the photo of a male model. He was charged with a misdemeanour.

The artist doesn’t need an alleged naming to make news.

He created multiple works just in London in 2025, and grabbed headlines elsewhere for having his art sold or auctioned for millions.

But Banksy has courted a public image centred around morality, justice and guerrilla tactics — he’s often likened to Robin Hood or Batman.

“Banksy woz ere,” he wrote with his animal murals at the London Zoo, which were removed in 2024.

Still, along with the sadness, there’s ample speculation in the art world and on social media that the artist himself orchestrated this round of naming. He didn’t deny the Reuters story.

That “would be very much in line with his practice of stunts and satire,” observed Madeleine White, the senior sales and acquisitions consultant at London’s Hang-Up Gallery.

“As they say, ‘all publicity is good publicity.'”

She noted, however, that the backlash is directed at the media — not the artist, or the potency of his work.

Reuters says it opted to publish some, but not all, of the information its reporters uncovered about Banksy’s identity, because he is a public figure, whatever his name — and he’s had an outsized influence on public events and discourse.

What’s more, much of his work has been done on other people’s property.

Banksy’s star power is about far more than anonymity. Named or not, Banksy’s stardom lives, art experts say.

It endures in the wonder of his ability to erect new art under the noses of authorities well into the age of closed-circuit television and social media.

It appeals because his spectacle and wit draw people in and the settings — the hulk of bombed buildings, for example, or Israel’s towering wall at the border of the West Bank — invite them to reflect.

Now, fans are on the lookout for how and whether he’ll respond to the news of Robin Gunningham and David Jones.

Joe Syer, a Banksy expert and founder of MyArtBroker, said that the artist has always responded to world events. “And that’s where the real relevance and value sits.”

“If anything, Banksy’s anonymity has functioned less as a celebrity device and more as a way to keep the work universally accessible, detached from personality, ego, or biography,” he said.

“It allows the work to sit in public space, politically and culturally, without being anchored to an individual in the way the mainstream press often frames it.”

Christopher Banks, founder of the New York-based Objects of Affection Collection, reads Banksy’s naming “not as a biographical event, but as a structural stress test” of the artist’s system of managing his absence.

“Banksy’s best works carry their meaning without the author. He was there,” Banks wrote, citing the artist’s murals in Ukraine and his solidarity with the war’s victims.

“The name matters less than the presence. The presence was always what the work was about.”

Published in Canberra City News, through Australian Associated Press, March 23, 2026

Additional artwork and information (added by Tony Magee, March 26, 2026)

Banksy’s Girl with Balloon, Waterloo Bridge, Southbank, London, 2002.
A 2017 Samsung poll ranked it as the United Kingdom's number one favourite artwork.

Further reading:

Identity of street artist Banksy revealed in new investigation. ABC News, March 17, 2026

In search of Banksy. Reuters

Girl with Balloon. Wikipedia [Ed: an absolutely fascinating read]

John Travolta's old luxury jet bound for Australian aviation museum by ship

By Justin Huntsdale and Fairly Hamilton

The fuselage of John Travolta's old jet has been dismantled and transported to a ship bound for Australia. 
(Supplied: Worldwide Aircraft Recovery)

After years of logistical setbacks, millions of dollars in repairs and false starts, John Travolta's luxury jet is officially on its way to Australia.

The movie star first announced he would donate the plane to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) almost a decade ago.

The former Qantas ambassador purchased the Boeing 707, gave it Qantas livery and fitted out a luxury interior that includes two bedrooms, a bathroom and entertaining areas.

Despite being in excellent condition, airworthiness restrictions meant members of Shellharbour's HARS were unable to fly it to Australia.

Instead, the plane was dismantled and sent by ship.

Bob De La Hunty says it was cheaper and safer to transport the plane by ship. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

"We probably could've taken off and flown it to Australia and been arrested when we landed here, so we thought we better not,"  HARS president Bob De La Hunty said.

"We decided the most safe and practical way to do it was the big jigsaw puzzle, and that was the answer to those very expensive problems."

While the engines and small parts have already been shipped to HARS, the fuselage and wings have now been loaded onto a ship at Brunswick, Georgia, where the plane has been stationed.

John Travolta talks to media in front of the Connie aircraft at Shellharbour Airport in November 2019. 
(ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

When will the plane arrive?

The dismantled 707 is due to arrive at Port Kembla on May 9.

Once cleared by customs, it will take a short 15-kilometre drive to HARS at Shellharbour Airport by truck.

The journey will most likely be in the middle of the night due to traffic disruptions, and some fencing will need to be removed from the airport to allow the aircraft to get in.

"It will then be craned off, and that will be before the Wings Over Shellharbour Airshow the following week, so the public will be able to see quite a construction going on," Mr De La Hunty said.

"There are 4,800 bolts that came out that need to go back in."

Taxi rides to give insight into life of rich and famous

Once the plane is rebuilt, Travolta has committed to being in Shellharbour for the official unveiling.

The intention is to bring the aircraft up to a standard where it can be taxied around the Shellharbour Airport tarmac for tourists.

The Boeing 707 has been stationed at an airport in Georgia since being moved from Travolta's property. 
(Supplied: Worldwide Aircraft Recovery)

"Another future generation of fanatics like me might try and get it back in the air, but we'll have it so we can take people around in it," Mr De La Hunty said.

"The interior is very expensive, and it's an example of what the rich and famous do to fly aircraft around the world with accommodation and entertainment areas.

"When John took us through the aircraft, he said Barbara Streisand sat there, and Frank Sinatra sat there when he owned the aircraft, so there's a huge amount of history for the visitors to Shellharbour."

US crew thrilled to be part of 'monumental relocation'

The plane has been painstakingly dismantled and moved by a small team of aviation enthusiasts in Georgia.

The crew spent 60 days disassembling the aircraft to be transported this week.

"Being involved in such a monumental relocation has been amazing," Worldwide Aircraft Recovery member Jay Penry said.

"We are just a small company doing extremely large things, but all three of us love saving aviation history.

"Saving aviation is our passion, and we are glad that we were able to be a part of this amazing move."

First published at ABC News, March 18, 2026

Film reveals the genius of pianist Geoffrey Tozer

Tozer shortly before he left for the opening recital of the Berlin Festival in September 2001.
Photo: Peter Wyllie Johnston

For all its beauty, the film Pure Genius: The Geoffrey Tozer Story leaves the sense that the renowned pianist himself remains, in some ways, unknowable, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.

An enthusiastic crowd of music lovers with long memories gathered at Palace Cinemas earlier this week for the unveiling of a new film about the life of the late Australian virtuoso pianist Geoffrey Tozer, who died in 2009 of liver disease at just 54.

It is not to be confused with a 2018 film Eulogy, which featured the late conductor Richard Gill in search of the truth about Tozer.

The documentary, Pure Genius: The Geoffrey Tozer Story, is a labour of love produced by Tozer’s estate executor, Peter Wyllie Johnston, a musician, writer, former opera singer and longtime friend of the pianist.

Wyllie Johnston wrote the script and co-directed the film with Raymond Hoefer. Hoefer also handled cinematography alongside Oscar Nasri, while actor Colin McPhillamy narrates the film.

Wyllie Johnston says the documentary aims to restore Tozer “to his rightful place among the ranks of the world’s great musicians.”

At his death in he left a catalogue of over 150 compositions, more than 1000 live recording and 45+ CDs on Chandos and other labels.

The film includes breathtaking archival material, featuring around 50 musical performances by Tozer. Among them are historic concerts filmed at the Sydney Opera House in 1982, the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest during 1987, and performances with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 2000s.

A child prodigy, Tozer quickly achieved international acclaim.

But even late in life he stood out. One of the film’s most remarkable moments revisits a historic performance in China. In May 2001, Tozer became the first Western artist invited by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to perform the Yellow River Piano Concerto in China. The concert was broadcast live on national television and reportedly watched by an audience of 80 million people. He was swamped with floral bouquets.

As the film shows, despite his global reputation, Tozer spent 10  important years living and working in Canberra as a pianist, composer and teacher. The film explores this chapter of his life and his friendship with former Australian prime minister Paul Keating.

Keating appears frequently in the documentary, describing Tozer as a rare genius of the keyboard. The prime minister first became aware of Tozer when his son was studying at St Edmund’s College Canberra and it emerged that an internationally respected pianist was teaching there to supplement his income. Keating was instrumental in getting him signed up with Chandos records.

Their association grew strong. Through his Creative Artists’ panel, Keating later awarded Tozer two major fellowships — each worth $150,000 — under the government’s Creative Artist Fellowships program, widely known as “the Keatings”.

The documentary also examines Tozer’s time in the Canberra region, including troubling, haunting footage of the pianist wandering the corridors of Benedict House, a former convent in Isabella Street, Queanbeyan. Tozer and Keating had purchased the building with plans to establish a music centre there, although the film offers little explanation as to why the project ultimately failed.

Similarly, the documentary leaves some mysteries unresolved. It does not fully explain why Tozer’s flourishing European and Australian concert career came to an abrupt halt, though Keating suggests he may have been the victim of Australia’s indifference to the arts and believes Tozer might have fared better had he lived overseas.

The film also touches only lightly on Tozer’s formidable mother, Veronica Tozer, who travelled to India to give birth to him and later moved with him to Australia once it became clear he was a prodigy.

Tozer is seen mourning the loss of both his aunt and his birth father, of whom we had previously heard nothing, but no mention is made of his mother’s passing.

Instead, Pure Genius focuses primarily on Tozer’s extraordinary musical achievements. The film includes reflections from friends and admirers, among them the late Hazel Hawke, actress Patricia Conolly, former model and movie star Jill Goodall and Canberra music advocate Ross Gengos, who served on Keating’s fellowship committee.

But many aspects of Tozer’s personal life remain veiled, including the illness that eventually led to the liver disease which ended his life prematurely.

For all its beauty, the film leaves the sense that the pianist himself remains, in some ways, unknowable.

I once talked with Tozer sitting quietly beneath a flowering tree outside the ANU School of Music. Even then, he seemed a figure of mystery.

Despite the insights offered in this loving documentary, he remains one still.

First published at Canberra City News, March 14 2026