Sydney Symphony Orchestra Flash Sale

Sydney-based music lovers shouldn’t miss the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 72-hour flash sale. Design your own concert package and book three performances from twenty different programs in the 2016 season and receive 50% off the full ticket price. Possible combinations include Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony, and Pink Martini or Pinchas Zukerman Playing Tchaikovsky and Mozart. Terms and conditions apply, and this special bundle rate is only available until 9 am, Thursday, 25 February. Visit the SSO’s website for more information and to explore the full SSO 2016 season.

 States of Poetry

ABR's poetry content continues to expand. To complement the Porter Prize, monthly poems and reviews, and our Poem of the Week podcast, we are delighted to introduce States of Poetry, the first federally arranged poetry anthology project to be published in this country. With handsome support from Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund, each year we will publish individual state and territory anthologies intended to highlight the quality and diversity of contemporary Australian poetry. The full States of Poetry anthologies will appear free of charge on our website, with poems, biographies, recordings, and introductions from our state editors. Each month we will publish a selection in the print edition. South Australia is first up in the March issue, with poems chosen by Peter Goldsworthy (SA state editor). The first full online anthology will be the ACT, edited by Jen Webb.

Winner of the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award announced

UWA Publishing announced the winner of the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript on the weekend at a ceremony at the 2016 Perth Writers' Festival. From 130 entries, Josephine Wilson's manuscript Extinctions was named the winner of the prize. She receives $10,000 courtesy of Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. The judges, Publishing Director of UWA Publishing Terri-ann White; poet and niece of Dorothy Hewett, Dr Lucy Dougan; and author and RMIT academic David Carlin, praised the novel for its, 'strong, complex sense of Perth' and called it, 'funny throughout in a wry, as well as an absurd laugh-out-loud way'. Named in celebration of renowned radical Australian writer Dorothy Hewett, the award will become an annual fixture in the Australian arts scene. You can find out more about the award on the UWA Publishing website, here.

fortyfivedownstairs new season

Celebrating its fifteenth birthday this year, fortyfivedownstairs has just launched its 2016 season. It boasts several world premières, including Louris van de Geer's Triumph, directed by Mark Pritchard, and Helen Yotis Patterson's Taxithi: An Australian Odyssey directed by Petra Kalive. The season features nine productions and is a mixture of new Australian works, revivals of hit Melbourne Theatre Company and La Mama Theatre productions, and collaborations with artists such as Paul Capsis and the Davey sisters. You can see the full program on the fortyfivedownstairs website.

Cancellation of the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award

Major national cultural institutions are under attack, and few of them are older or have a richer pedigree than the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award, which has been abandoned after 72 years. Past winners included Nance Grant (1960), Caroline Almonte (1992), Brett Dean (1981), Rosamund Illing (1976), Emma Matthews (1993), and Geoffrey Parson (1947). Limelight quotes Symphony Australia CEO Kate Lidbetter: ‘It’s a very expensive thing to do and there are other opportunities out there for young musicians’ (March 2016). Let’s hope she's right.

Newcastle Writers Festival

The 2016 Newscastle Writers Festival program has been announced, and it features an impressive line-up of Australian literary talent, including Tim Flannery, Carmel Bird, Stan Grant, Kerry O'Brien, and Charlotte Wood. The festival runs from 1 to 3 April, and you can explore the full program here.