The Renaissance Players

Broadcast *30 years ago tonight* on The Great Outdoors on the Seven Network. Ernie Dingo interviews several groups of "mediævalists" performing demonstrations of their various crafts outside the Commemorative Pavilion at the 1994 Sydney Royal Easter Show at Moore Park...including 1066, us, and our friends from Ruth Brent's "Arabesque" belly dancing group. Much more was filmed than was used, but this segment is a very nice memory to have.
Featuring Winsome Evans (naturally), Barbara Stackpool, Llew Kiek, Andrew Lambkin, Nick Wales and Benedict Hames.

The Renaissance Players meet Ernie Dingo Ernie's report on medieval recreation groups in and around Sydney for The Great Outdoors, 3rd June 1994. Filmed at the 1994 Sydney Royal Easter Show.

https://sydneychamberchoir.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=da825f1db18f35805aa86ce22&id=75ecc6778c&e=9b97f6318b

sydneychamberchoir.us3.list-manage.com

As seen in a musicians group on Facebook: "I am in charge of game day atmosphere and would love to see if we could get some live music in the stadium as fans walk in. I feel guitar would be best for this. Please let me know if you or anyone you know are interested in this opportunity." Upon inquiry, musicians discovered that the opportunity was unpaid. When questioned about the lack of compensation, the organiser responded, "I don't think it's okay at all. I just don't have a budget for that. I apologise."

Why do people continue to ask musicians to work for free when they know it's wrong? As musicians, what can we do to challenge this poor practice and ensure fair pay for our work?

Together we can change the music industry. Demand to be paid and join your union today 👉 https://meaa.io/3I799TL

Virtually all of us engage with and consume music - it's the most profitable sector in the entertainment industry. So why is it that musicians are so poorly remunerated?

The music industry is broken and we need your help to fix it. This is why we're running a survey on the state of the live music industry. Your voice will decide the next steps for our union in 2024.

All respondents will go in the running to win 1 X $500 gift voucher to a select music store.

Complete our 2023 EOY Survey now 👉 https://meaa.io/3RnGkG4

Referencing the events of 16.12.1803 in Zalongo, Epirus, Greece.

Mina Kanaridis singing and narrating, Llew Kiek on bouzouki, Andrew Lambkin on darabukka and our director and arranger Winsome Evans on saxillo and harp (via the well-known 19th century technique of overdubbing).

This weekend sees the 220th anniversary of the events in question. Not cheerful, but powerful and inspiring.

From our 2000 double album "Testament", please enjoy our recording of the Dance Of Zalongo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_aEKPjAWpc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_Zalongo

Dance of Zalongo - Wikipedia The Dance of Zalongo refers to the mass su***de of women and their children from Souli that occurred in the aftermath of the invasion of Ottoman troops on December 16, 1803. The event is commemorated in Greece in the context of the Greek War of Independence. About 60 women were trapped near the vill...

Flashback exactly ten years.
7th (or possibly 9th) August, 2013.
Quick publicity happy-snap for The 35th Runnymede Pop Festival, featuring most of the lineup for that concert series:
Nicole, Jenny, Mara, Andrew, Llew and Winsome.
Photo by Geoff Sirmai.

Here are a few "pre-show" photos that popped up from this day back in 1993, thirty years ago. After being so warmly received in early April 1991 when we were invited and hired to play for a soirée at Richmond Grove winery at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley, we went back for another fast daytrip from Sydney on June 19, 1993 and did it again!

Many thanks to Margot McLaughlin for this cracking little find from ABC-TV, c1975. A proper little time capsule of inner Sydney, including Reg Livermore AND (from 2:07 on the counter) eleven whole seconds of the mid-70s "dream team" core lineup of The Renaissance Players playing "Orientis Partibus" in street procession: Wayne Richmond! Michael Atherton! Graham Pushee (I think)! Winsome! And of course dear Barbara Stackpool. 🎶☮️💟🎵

The Queen Street Fair 1975 - ABC TV The Queen Street Fair in Woollahra, Sydney ran from 1972 to 1985, run by the Queen Street & West Woollahra Association. Queen Street was closed between Ocean...

APRA-AMCOS have been asking around...

Election Report Card — Vote Music. 2023 NSW Election Report Card This NSW election we’re calling for all parties to back our Vote Music plan, and commit $100M to contemporary music. Who backs the music you love?Below is a tally of commitments from parties and candidates. Party Policies & Letters of SupportNSW LaborThe Greens NSWAl...

The closest we got to an intentional "Christmas album" (although 1994's "The Ring of Creation [Dance III]" also rates an honourable mention if you have a copy). Released back in 2000, recorded in the wake of our 1998 and 1999 Christmas Pudding Concerts and its bumper 144-minute tracklist drawn from the musical fayre offered at both.

One of the fortunate aspects of the era in which we worked with Eckhart Rahn's label Celestial Harmonies (Tucson, AZ) was Eckhart's policy of never deleting a title on the label's roster, so this 2CD set is still technically in physical print, and currently most readily available from the label itself through its own ebay service at https://tinyurl.com/ebay-service ... although a bit expensive now. 😞

If you'd actually be happy to own the album in digital form as a set of 256kbps mp3s with no jewel case and no booklet, the album is still available via iTunes for rather less, at https://music.apple.com/au/album/testament-archangels-banquet-shepherds-delight/201349449

"A thumping good recording. Buy one." - Madeleine Rowles, Early Music Journal.

https://www.harmonies.com/releases/14197.htm

Arts and culture have been all but overlooked this election – but the Greens have a big-picture plan

'We are again at a time when renewal and reinvigoration of the arts is urgently needed – yet it has scarcely featured thus far in this campaign.

The Liberal Party’s policy statements do not feature the arts. In contrast, Labor’s Arts policy, announced last night, promises a “landmark cultural policy” which would restore arms-length funding, explore a national insurance scheme for live events and ensure fixed five-year funding terms for the ABC and SBS.

There is a choice for the arts on 21 May between stasis and renewal. I’ll take the renewal, and hope it becomes a renaissance.'

'The relation between politics and culture is clear and real': how Gough Whitlam centred artists in his 1972 campaign Cultural policy has scarcely featured in the 2022 campaign – when Whitlam campaigned in 1972, the arts were centre stage.

28.04.1992.
Thirty years ago tonight at Channel 7 studios in Epping, Sydney, recording an instrumental cantiga performance for Clive Robertson's Newsworld.

L to R: Andrew Lambkin, Andrew Tredinnick, Katie Ward, Winsome Evans.

Others recording on the same night to generate a week's supply of music spots for Clive's programme included Rick Price and Club Hoy.

A very big Led Zeppelin album has just turned 50, by the way.

Stelbishte oro - Macedonia Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesStelbishte oro - Macedonia · Winsome Evans · The Renaissance PlayersThe Sephardic Experience, Vol. 1: Thorns of...

Farewell, Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains, departed at 83

https://youtu.be/JNBlUR9RKnA

Paddy Moloney, The Chieftains founder, dies Paddy Moloney, the founder of The Chieftains, has died.Originally from Donneycarney, in north Co Dublin, Moloney was from a musical family and began playing ...

Because I can’t imagine Winsome’s body of work without the spirit of The Beatles lurking somewhere within, I’ll just post this here in memory of Sheila Bromberg, player of the most famous harp part in popular music, whose recent passing at the age of 92 has just become widely known. https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/artist/sheila-bromberg/

Sheila Bromberg (artist) From Bucks Free Press, October 26, 2013: ONE day it would be Paul McCartney, the next day, the Bee Gees, or perhaps Bing Crosby. That was the kind of star studded daily routine...

Professor Frederick May, our beloved poetry reader during much of our first decade, was born on this day in 1921.

The gentlemen of the house of May were regular members of The Renaissance Players over three generations! Here with Winsome – appearing in the Players for the first time together at what turned out to be the last ever season of our Christmas Pudding concerts on December 20, 2003 – are Frederick's son David and grandson Christopher.

Photo by Wayne Richmond.

Professor Frederick May was born on this day in 1921 in London. In his later years he was not only inaugural Professor of Italian at The University of Sydney but a beloved institution of early performances by The Renaissance Players until a matter of weeks before his passing in Rozelle in January 1976.

Here, digitised from reel-to-reel video tape by the National Archives, is a performance by The Renaissance Players at Narrabeen North Primary School in October 1977, featuring Frederick's son David (himself a Renaissance Players regular over several decades) performing the poetry segments of the concert in place of his late father.

The lineup for The Renaissance Players in this 72 minute concert recording was:

Winsome Evans
David May
Graham Pushee
Barbara Stackpool
Wayne Richmond
Michael Atherton
Rosalind McGrath
Andrew Allen
Greg Dikmans
Jenny Tebbutt

Many thanks again to Wayne Richmond for the film discovery, YouTube upload and performance notes.

Renaissance Players at Narrabeen (October 1977). The Renaissance Players performing for Narrabeen North Primary School in October 1977.

Professor Frederick May was born on this day in 1921 in London, and was for many of his later years a beloved institution of early performances by The Renaissance Players.

Here, digitised from reel-to-reel video tape by the National Archives, is one of his final appearances with the Players in December 1975, weeks before his passing in January 1976.

David May, son of Frederick, recently wrote: "I am very happy that the video records a performance of Let Me Have My Fun – a poem, appropriately enough, by an Italian poet, and one which expressed something of his own drive to challenge conventional expectations about art and life. It was a text perfectly suited to become his very own party piece."

Also appearing in The Renaissance Players in this 54 minute recording of their show at Epping Boys High School were:

Winsome Evans
Graham Pushee
Barbara Stackpool
Wayne Richmond
Michael Atherton
Rosalind McGrath
Stephen Stewart
Greg Dikmans

Many thanks to Wayne Richmond for the film discovery and the performance notes.

The Renaissance Players with Frederick May at Epping High School Dec 1975 The Renaissance Players with Frederick May performing at Epping High School in December 1975.

Our dear friend, poet, colleague and inaugural Professor of Italian at The University of Sydney, Frederick May (1921-1976), was born 100 years ago today.

Frederick May (academic) - Wikipedia May was born in the suburb of Kensington in London, England, on 3 August 1921. His parents were John May, a labourer, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann (née Owens).

Our dear friend, poet, colleague and inaugural Professor of Italian at The University of Sydney, Frederick May, was born 100 years ago today.

Biography - Frederick May - Australian Dictionary of Biography Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

Professor Frederick May
Born 3rd August, 1921
Remembered with Love

Happy Centenary, Professor.

The Conversation

We shouldn't expect lovers of art and literature to be nicer people – just a little better at understanding the complexities of experience.

The tragic story of the man who inspired millions to love music - BBC Music

Forty years gone already. The BBC remembers David Munrow.

bbc.co.uk As Radio 3 re-run episodes of their landmark music programme for children, Pied Piper, we remember its presenter - early music specialist David Munrow

The New Yorker Cartoons

A cartoon by Sam Marlow. See more cartoons with our randomizer: http://nyer.cm/D0H8Cke

Out this month! A new solo project from Winsome!

Edwina Corlette Gallery