Speeches
Saturday, 01 March 2025
Musica Viva VIP Event for Jess Hitchcock & Penny Quartet
Rod and I are pleased to join you ahead of this evening’s performance of Jess Hitchcock and the Penny Quartet, in the beautiful Adelaide Town Hall.
I thank Musica Viva for hosting this gathering, and congratulate the organisation on celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
In particular I welcome guests who have travelled from interstate or overseas to attend this, and other, events as part of the Adelaide Festival.
As a city known for the arts, Adelaide shines particularly brightly in March, and I trust you are all enjoying the best of the Adelaide Festival, including Writers’ Week, and Adelaide Fringe.
Some of you will have attended last night’s Festival opening performance of Innocence and Writers Week today, though perhaps not everyone will have been able to squeeze in a few overs of cricket at Adelaide Oval for the final of the Dean Jones Cup 50 overs competition!
I thank Musica Viva for partnering with Adelaide Festival to bring this evening’s performance to South Australia and for enabling us to enjoy the voice of the enormously talented Jess Hitchcock.
I take this opportunity to thank Musica Viva for its broader work providing music education to indigenous students, such as during its recent completion of a residency program at the wonderful Ngutu College, here in Adelaide.
I also thank Musica Viva for supporting the award-winning Penny Quartet, and the 11 Australian composers who created new arrangements of Jess’s songs for this performance.
Friends,
As supporters of Musica Viva and Opera Australia, you are seasoned connoisseurs of fine music.
You understand how important music can be to our sense of wellbeing and enjoyment of life.
As Professor Anna Goldsworthy, Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, put it in her 2024 Boyer Lecture – music isn’t merely an ‘extra’ in education[1].
It’s fundamental to human development and society.
Thank you all for supporting the creation and performance of fine music in South Australia and across the country, for current and future generations to enjoy.
I trust we will all delight in this evening’s performance.