News

Congratulations to Shane Lestideau on the publication with ABC Classic of her CD, Wintergarden Fantasias, which presents a selection of Scottish fiddle music derived from the collection of Robert Baillie, a Scottish-born violinist who arrived in Australia in 1912. This is one of three personal music albums Shane discusses in her chapter in Memories of Musical Lives (Lyrebird, 2022), where she explores how “Scottishness” is expressed in this repertoire. More information about the CD can be found on the ABC website here.

Congratulations also to Rosemary Richards, one of the editors of Memories of Musical Lives, who presented a lively talk about the nineteenth-century music collections of Georgiana McCrae and Robert Wrede on the site where McCrae herself lived for a time, the McCrae Homestead near Arthurs Seat. As well as selections from McCrae’s albums beautifully sung by Clara Adams and accompanied by David Adams, Rosemary recalled her very first visit to the homestead, where she discovered one of McCrae’s albums sitting on the shelf of a bookcase. That album is still held in the homestead, cared for by the National Trust, and was available for everyone present to look over. Our thanks go to the Mornington Peninsula branch of the National Trust for hosting the talk and afternoon tea, and enabling us to make the Memories book available to those present.

Memories of Musical Lives will be launched at the 2023 conference of the Musicological Society of Australia on Thursday 30 November at the University of Adelaide.