Tait Turns Thirty at Australia House

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VEC Acorn Trust

The past 30 years...

It really seems like yesterday when my mother asked me if I could help look after a young Australian singer from Rosebud, Victoria, called Liane Keegan. She had won the coveted Shell Covent Garden Scholarship, but had no support network in London. “Perhaps you could put on a concert for her?” my mother

suggested. I had hardly ever been to Australia House except to read newspapers, but we had a connection with Australia House in Trevor Baldock, the Agent General for Victoria. He kindly agreed to give us the Downer Room for the concert, thinking we’d only get a small audience. I made a list of all the Australians I knew, and before long I’d collected a 300-strong crowd with their English partners and friends.

On 9 December 1992 we held our first concert in the substantially bigger Exhibition Hall, introduced by Derek Nimmo. Since then we have held over 170 fundraising events in various London venues, big and small, some online due to COVID, and given out £800,000+ to young performing artists from Australia and New Zealand – instrumentalists, singers, and ballet dancers – studying in the UK. Many events have been held in Australia House, with the

staunch backing of the Australian High Commission, and the High Commissioners for which we are very Photos by Angus Forbes

grateful.

It must have been the Tait entrepreneurial heritage and spirit, but I quickly realised how much I enjoyed putting together concerts and other events! These of course have been absolutely vital to our fundraising, but also served as important performance platforms

for our awardees. These have offered enjoyable and relaxing social occasions for the Australian and New Zealand communities and our Tait Friends in London.

I am most proud of the concert we shared with the Australian Music Foundation under Chairman Peter Andry for Dame Joan Sutherland’s 70th birthday Celebration in 1996. Artistically Directed by Jan Black this memorable event was very successful for both our charities. Jan and Jeffrey Black brought their artistic professionalism to the Tait Trust and continued to do

so for many years.

For me personally, tonight is very special: almost 60 years after my father brought Joan and Richard to tour Australia for the first time, Richard is here with us in spirit - his lovely message means a great deal to me!

A heartfelt tribute to other absent founding members of the Tait family who have brought us to where we are tonight - Anne Longden, Shirley Barr, Tina McFarlane and Sally Mellor - as well as our very dear Patrons, Committee and Trustees, a few who are sadly no longer with us: my husband Julian; Dickie Lowe, event decorator extraordinaire; and just this year we keenly felt the loss of committee members Jan Gowrie-Smith and Janet Hotham (Hogarth-Scott), as well as our most valued Trustee John Rendall, and also John Crisp, who left us a generous bequest in his will to fund awards in his name for many years to come..

After this sadness, I am so touched that my special friend Elspeth Turner Laing has helped me with tonight’s concert to mark our significant birthday. We have received further generous sponsorship from Mr Roses, Mindberry, VEC Acorn Trust, Bird in Hand and Investment NSW, with superb catering by Jane Sutherland.

Photo by Angus Forbes

Finally, I acknowledge the unfailing presence of a few Tait troupers: my artist sister Ann Seddon and photographer cousin Angus Forbes, and my three boys: two awardees from the early days, current administrator James Hancock, and his predecessor and now my PA, Jeremy Vinogradov, as well as tonight’s Master of

Ceremonies Ross Alley, who has been arranging and presenting concerts for us for more than eight years..

Thank you for all your support! The past 30 years would not have been possible without our sponsors and venues, friends and family, and of course, our enthusiastic and dedicated audiences. We do hope we can manage to survive another 30 years. With your help Photo by Hannan Images

we will continue to enjoy seeing our young Aussie and Kiwi talent on the great stages of the world.

Isla Baring OAM

Chairman, The Tait Memorial Trust

Photo by Angus Forbes

Special Tait logo design by June Mendoza AO OBE. Original logo design by Ann Seddon

TAIT 30TH ANNIVERSARY

I am proud and honoured to have been part of the Tait Trust and that I am able to congratulate Isla Baring on its 30 th Anniversary for her stupendous work in helping young Australian and NZ musicians and dancers in the UK, especially in these difficult times.

Her mother, Lady Tait, was a very dear friend going back some seventy years. I knew her as Viola Wilson, a beautiful soprano singing with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Co. at the Theatre Royal in the 1940s in Sydney.

She became the founding Patron of the Trust in 1992 and was soon

after joined by my wife Dame Joan.

Isla’s father, the last of the five Tait brothers who as managing director of J.C. Williamson benevolently ruled (musical) theatre life in Australia for many years, had the wonderful idea of forming a SutherlandWilliamson operatic company to honour Dame Joan’s great career. He asked me to help him form the company in 1965 which became one of our greatest achievements. We spent hours together discussing (and not always agreeing) operas and performers and eventually engaged a

splendid company which performed in four capital cities within

Australia for 14 weeks – eight times a week with seven different operas. So the Tait family and then the Tait Trust and especially Isla have been a really important and happy part of Joan’s and my life.

The Tait Trust arranged a Gala at Australia House to celebrate Joan’s 70th birthday with the finest of Australia’s singers with the guest of honour HRH Prince Charles. Conducting this concert and also the 20 th Tait Trust Anniversary concert are some of my happiest memories.

The Trust has arranged countless concerts and raised a great deal of money to help young musicians and dancers. They helped me to raise substantial funds to create a Richard Bonynge Award for a young ballet dancer at the Royal Ballet School which we hope will continue for many years to come.

I am sad not to be with you tonight, but Australia and my family call. I will be

with you in spirit to wish you all a happy evening on the occasion of your 30 th Anniversary celebration.

Dear Isla, I send you much love.

Richard Bonynge AC CBE

Photo by Hannan Images

Tait Turns Thirty at Australia House In the presence of The Acting High Commissioner of Australia Her Excellency, Mrs Lynette Wood

Artistic Director: Ross Alley

Musical Director: Chad Vindin

Dance Artistic Director: Leanne Benjamin AM OBE Special Guest Appearances by Piers Lane AO, piano Rachael Ward, dance Rosemary Tuck, piano Samantha Crawford, soprano (WA) Tait Awardee 2017, Julian Baring Award Claudia Tarrant-Matthews, violin (NZ) Tait Awardee 2019, Royal Academy of Music Sky Ingram, soprano (SA) Tait Awardee 2011, National Opera Studio Magdalenna Krstevska, clarinet (VIC) Tait Awardee 2022, Royal College of Music James Blackford, euphonium (QLD) Tait Awardee 2022 Royal Northern College of Music Tait White Loewenthal Award Emily Sun, violin (NSW) Tait Awardee 2016, Royal Over-Seas League

Tara Minton, jazz harp/voice (VIC) Tait Awardee 2018/2019 Guildhall School of Music & Drama White Loewenthal Award John Williamson, double-bass (GB) Guest artist Samantha Furney, dance (NSW) Tait Awardee 2022, Rambert School Sarah Prestwidge, soprano (NSW) Tait Awardee 2021 Royal Northern College of Music White Loewenthal Award Opera Foundation for young Australians, 2022 Lady Galleghan Award

Jeremy Kleeman, baritone (VIC) Tait Awardee 2020, Royal College of Music Australian International Opera Awards

Programme Tarantella

Liszt

S. 162

Dvořák

Op 55-4

Piers Lane AO, piano

Songs my mother taught me Samantha Crawford Chad Vindin, piano

Fantasie Variations on the Last Rose of Summer

Wallace WV Op. 74

Rosemary Tuck, piano Claudia Tarrant-Matthews, violin

Musetta's waltz, La bohème

Puccini

Sky Ingram, soprano Chad Vindin, piano

American in Paris

Gershwin

Magdalenna Krstevska, clarinet Chad Vindin, piano

La vie en rose Emily Sun, violin

Chad Vindin, piano

Piaf & Guglielmi

Programme Napoli

Bellstedt

James Blackford, euphonium Chad Vindin, piano

Blackbird with dance choreography

Lennon/McCartney

Tara Minton*, harp/voice

arr. Minton

John Williamson, double bass

S. Furney chor.

Samantha Furney, dance

Putting on the Ritz

Irving Berlin

Rachael Ward, dance

arr. Gregory Porter

I could have danced all night, My Fair Lady

Lerner & Loewe

Sarah Prestwidge, soprano Chad Vindin, piano

Some enchanted evening, South Pacific

Rodgers & Hammerstein

Jeremy Kleeman Chad Vindin, piano *Sponsored by Lorraine Buckland

London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a worldwide reputation as an engaging, searching and highly versatile performer, at home equally in solo, chamber and concerto repertoire. Five times soloist at the BBC Proms, Piers Lane’s wide-ranging concerto repertoire exceeds one hundred works and has led to engagements with many of the world’s great orchestras, working recently with conductors like Sir Andrew Davis, Vassily Sinaisky, Gerard Schwartz and Brett Dean.

Festival appearances have included Aldeburgh, Bard, Bath

Mostly Mozart, Bergen, Cheltenham, Como Autumn Music, Prague Spring, Rockport, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Schloss vor Husum, Seattle and the Chopin festivals in Warsaw, Duszniki-Zdrój, Mallorca and Paris.

Highlights of 2022 include two Wigmore Hall solo recitals, a performance of the mighty Busoni Concerto at the Bard

Festival New York, an Australian tour with the Maltese tenor Josef Calleja, appearances for series and festivals in Australia, the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. In 2015 Piers Lane was appointed Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition and is responsible for initiatives like the 2021 Online Piano Competition, the Piano Lovers’ Competition for amateur Australian pianists and Composing the Future, a competition to help Australian composers during covid times.

In the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished services to the arts. In 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he was a professor from 1989 to 2007. Piers holds Honorary Doctorates from two Australian Universities: Griffith and James Cook.

He received the 2022 Sir Bernard Heinze

Award for 'service to music in Australia' from Melbourne Symphony and Melbourne University.

The Australian pianist Rosemary Tuck was born in Sydney.

She studied with John Winther, Walter Hautzig & Andrzej Esterhazy. Rosemary represented Australia in a series of recitals in America under the auspices of the AustralianAmerican Bicentennial Foundation, including a recital at Carnegie Hall. She has performed at the Sydney Opera House, the South Bank Centre in London, the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the Aarhus Musikhuset in Denmark in the presence of Queen Margrethe II, which was televised nationally.

In 2001, she gave the first official performance in the William Vincent Wallace Millennium Plaza in Waterford, Ireland. Her many acclaimed recordings of Wallace's music includes a Critics Chioce in Gramophone Magazine. Festival appearances include the Aarhus, Wexford, Vendsyssel and Liszt en Provence. Since 2004 she has worked closely with Richard Bonynge AC CBE, as both soloist with orchestra and collaborative pianist.

Together they are recording Czerny's works for piano and orchestra with the English Chamber Orchestra for Naxos, all of which have appeared in the UK Specialist Classical Charts. The latest disc, which includes Czerny's Second Grand Concerto,

was chosen as one of Musicweb

International's Recordings of the Year. A fifth Czerny CD will be released in 2023.

Rachael Ward is an accomplished international stage and screen performer. Recent screen credits include the role of Lauren in ABC / Amazon Freevee’s TV series Troppo, and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

Musical credits include Go-To-Hell Kitty in the Australian National Tour of the international hit musical Chicago, Margarita in Opera Australia’s Evita, Bombalurina in Cats at the Théâtre Mogador Paris, U/S Lina Lamont in the Australian tour and Tokyo season of Singin’ In the Rain, Mona cover Roxie Hart in Chicago, Blue Girl in Shout! The Mod Musical, GFO’s Wizard of Oz, the

Production

Company’s Hello, Dolly! and Jesus Christ Superstar, Ulla in The Producers at the Brisbane Powerhouse, and most recently U/S Milo in An American In Paris.

Ross Alley, a New Zealander, graduated from Victoria University of Wellington following which he became sole pianist for the Royal NZ School of Dance and was Musical Director for many shows in the capital city. Moving to Melbourne in 1979 he worked for the Australian Ballet School and Company before arriving in London where, for his first ten years, he was a pianist at the Royal Ballet School and Music Tutor to its Teacher Training Course. In 1990 he was appointed as a music lecturer for

Birkbeck College, University of London which also led to a wide range of other lecturing experience, becoming a frequent speaker at the Royal Opera House

giving over 70 talks on opera & ballet music. Over the years

he has given numerous pre-performance talks and informative lectures at the English National Opera, Wigmore Hall, Wagner Society, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the Gustav Mahler Society, NADFAS, Kenwood, Artstur and the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Ross also organises his own private lecture series on opera which take place each day of the week in various venues around London, the longest of which has been running for

over 30 years.

Chad Vindin Winner of the prestigious accompanist prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition, the Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Accompanist Prize at the Royal Academy of Music, and the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards Accompanist’s Prize at the Wigmore Hall, Chad is one of the rising young stars of the international accompaniment world. Born in Australia, Chad first studied at the Sydney Conservatorium

of Music before moving to London. He now maintains a full workload as a staff pianist and vocal coach at both the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music and performs regularly across the UK and internationally. He is a founding member of the Sydney Chamber Opera Company and performed with OperaUpClose in their Olivier Award winning production of La Bohème. His studies were generously supported by the Thornton Foundation, and he is grateful to have received further support from the Leverhulme Trust, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust (Australia), and the Reizenstein scholarship.

International artist, Liane Keegan is Australia born. She received scholarships from the Tait Memorial Trust, Opera Foundation Australia, Shell Royal Covent Garden Scholarship, and a Bayreuth Bursary from the Wagner Society of Great Britain.

Liane’s extensive career has comprised leading roles in Australia and Europe. Her roles include Mary The Flying Dutchman, Erda,

First Norn & Waltraute Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Azucena Il Trovatore, Ulrica Un ballo in Maschera, Klytämnestra Elektra, Mistress Quickly Falstaff, Anna Les Troyens, Emilia Otello, Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro and Siegrune Die Walküre. She is to sing Erda in the 2023 Opera Australia Ring.

More recently Liane launched her critically acclaimed one woman show Judy Australia 1964 based on Judy Garland’s career and life.

Samantha Crawford is a British Australian soprano. She studied with Yvonne Kenny AM at the Guildhall School of Music and graduated from the Opera Course with Distinction.

Samantha made her operatic debut at the Aldeburgh & Edinburgh Festivals as Mrs. Coyle in Britten’s Owen Wingrave conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. She has gone on to perform at Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, ENO, Scottish Opera and Schlosstheater Schönbrunn. Samantha’s recent roles include Ortlinde Die Walküre

at Teatro Real, Elisabeth Tannhäuser at Saffron Hall, and Santuzza Cavalleria Rusticana for West Green Opera in 2023.

In concert, Samantha has performed across the UK and Europe, with recent repertoire including Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder.

This season Samantha recorded her debut album, dream.risk.sing: elevating women’s voices, with

pianist Lana Bode. The album will

release on Delphian Records in 2023.

Claudia Tarrant-Matthews is originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, and completed her postgraduate study in violin performance at the Royal Academy of Music in 2022, under the tutelage of Professor György Pauk. Claudia has recently joined the second violin section of the London Philharmonic Orchestra as their newest addition, after a year of freelancing with the orchestra.

Claudia performs regularly in London in a wide variety of ensembles, including with her string quartet; Calathea Quartet.

They have recently been announced as Britten Pears Young Artists 2023, and will be embarking on a tour of New Zealand in 2023 supported by Chamber Music New Zealand.

Australian clarinetist Magdalenna Krstevska has performed as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral clarinetist in renowned music halls across the UK, Australia, Europe, and China.

Her accolades include the Australian National Young Virtuoso of the Year and the RCM Clarinet Prize. After completing a Master of

Performance with Distinction at the RCM, Magdalenna was the Mills Williams Junior Fellow in 2021/22.

A strong advocate for diversity in classical music, she is the founder of the Corelia Project, an initiative that addresses unequal gender representation through spotlighting and performing music by women composers.

James

Blackford

is

a

leading

Australian

performer. He is a Besson Artist,

euphonium

Australian Music

Foundation alumnus, and previous winner of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) concerto competition.

A recipient of numerous arts funding awards, in 2021 James commissioned four Australian works recorded and released on the album Blackford & Collins; New Australian Music for

Brass. He is principal euphonium with the Royal Australian Air Force Band and has performed with many of Australia, England, and Norway’s leading brass bands.

2023 will see James complete his Master of Music at the RNCM, in January performing Martin Ellerby’s euphonium concerto at the RNCM Festival of Brass. James thanks the Tait Memorial Trust for awarding him a prestigious Tait White Loewenthal Award which has allowed him to complete his studies at RNCM.

Sky Ingram studied at the National Opera Studio and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She has worked in the UK with companies including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Opera North, Garsington Opera, English Touring Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, as well as New York, Spain, Norway, Germany, France and Australia.

Sky has won several music scholarships and competitions

including an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary, Wingate Scholarship, 5MBS Young Performer of the Year, and ROSL Overseas Trophy, a Tait Memorial Trust award, and was a South Australian Young Achiever of the Year. Recent Roles: Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Rusalka Rusalka, Katya Katya Kabanova, Avis The Wreckers, Foreign Princess Rusalka, La Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro, Dido Dido and Aeneas, Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Musetta La Bohème, Lea Glare, Venus Orpheus.

Tara Minton is an Australian born harpist, vocalist and composer.

She is proudly endorsed by Camac Harps and holds a Master's degree in jazz performance from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Tara has worked with Björk, Tom Walker, ESKA, Stan Sulzmann, Geoff Gascoyne, The Ronnie Scott's All Stars and the Australian World Orchestra for the BBC Proms.

She was a finalist in the 2021 World Harp Competition and is a proud Tait awardee. She leads her own original project as a harpist/ vocalist and is a workshop leader and vocalist for The Blues and Roots Ensemble music charity.

Tara was a recipient of a White Loewenthal Award and thanks the

Tait and Eugénie White most sincerely for the generous support over several years.

Born and raised in Saltburn, north-east England, John Williamson has spent time In Leeds, Washington DC and now London. His musicality and versatility have led to a diverse portfolio including

jazz, funk, big bands, pit orchestras, pop, and avant-garde repertoire.

Among many more, John has played alongside Jason Brown, Trevor Mires, Alex Garnett, Gene Calderazzo, Jo Harrop, John Turville, Pete Horsfall, Rachael Cohen, Sam Braysher.

Samantha Furney Born in Mudgee, NSW and brought up in Boomerang Beach, NSW where I began to study dance before moving to Newcastle to continue my training. I danced with the National College of Dance and the Sydney Dance Youth

company.

I moved to the UK in January of 2022 at 16 after being accepted to Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance where I recently began my second year of training which is generously supported by a Tait Memorial Trust, Leanne Benjamin Award.

Sarah Prestwidge is an aboriginal Australian Soprano, with a Bachelor of Music from Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a Master of Music (Opera) from the Royal Northern College of Music, where she was awarded a full ABRSM Scholarship.

Recent roles include, Susanna Le Nozze Di Figaro, Zerbinetta

Ariadne auf Naxos, Controller Flight, Queen of the Night The Magic Flute, and Adele Die Fledermaus.

Sarah is grateful to the Wagner Society NSW, the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, the Tait Memorial Trust (White/Loewenthal Award), Pacific Opera, Short Black Opera and The Opera Foundation for young Australians.

Jeremy Kleeman Winner of the 2019 Australian International Opera Award & Tait Memorial Trust Scholarship, baritone Jeremy Kleeman is a graduate of the Royal College of Music’s Opera School.

Recent performances include the title role in Le nozze di Figaro for both Opera Queensland and West Australian Opera, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tilford Bach Festival with London Handel Players and Elgar’s Apostles with London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2023, Jeremy’s season includes Captain Corcoran HMS Pinafore and Sergeant of Police Pirates of Penzance for State Opera of Australia’s ‘Gilbert and Sullivan Festival’ and Guglielmo Così fan tutte with Opera Queensland.

Emily Sun’s compelling and captivating interpretations have earned her international renown. She is the 2023 Adelaide Symphony

Orchestra Artist-in-Association, and returns for

concertos with Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra alongside conductors Vasily Petrenko, Jaime Martin and Mark Wigglesworth. Emily’s debut album, Nocturnes, was released on ABC Classics/Universal to critical acclaim, staying at No. 1 on the Classical Charts for 4 weeks.

She has performed at Wigmore Hall, Sydney Opera House and Royal Albert Hall. Emily is a

Violin Professor at the

Royal College of Music, and was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal from the RCM presented by King Charles III.

Honouring the Tait Brothers

The Tait Memorial Trust was formed in 1992 by Isla Baring and her Trustees to honour the enormous contribution that Isla’s father, Sir Frank Tait, and his four older brothers had made to the Arts in Australia. In Melbourne, Australia, three years before the turn of the last century, a family of five sons of John Turnbull Tait, a sheep farmer in Lerwick, Shetland who had emigrated to Australia in 1860, entered into the entertainment world to become the dominating influence in the theatrical scene for the next seventy years. One of their earlier ventures, in 1905, was to make the world’s first full-length feature film - a 4000-foot film on the capture of the notorious Ned Kelly Gang. The film was a sensation and played in every Australian capital city until the films wore out – only fragments remain.

J&N Tait Concert Management was formed in 1906. From concert management the Tait brothers amalgamated with JC Williamson in 1920 to form the largest theatrical empire in the world, offering a constant flow of ballet, drama, grand opera and musical comedy. The Taits presented world famous celebrities such as Melba, Chaliapin, Flagstad, Pavlova, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Paderewski, Harry Lauder, Oistrakh, Margot Fonteyn, Menuhin, Marcel Marceau, Gracie Fields, Kreisler, Heifetz, Danny Kaye, Victor Borge, Katherine Hepburn, and Sir Robert Helpmann; the musicals My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, South Pacific, The Pajama Game and many others. They brought out the Shakespeare (Stratford) and Old Vic Companies, and toured the Borovansky Ballet, not to mention all the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Frank Tait helped form the Australian Ballet, and was Chairman of the Board until his death.

In 1957, he was made a Knight Bachelor by the Queen in recognition of the major contribution he and his brothers had made in their dedication to Australian theatre. It was Sir Frank’s ambition to present Dame Joan Sutherland to the Australian public after her international acclaim. The Sutherland Williamson Opera Company was formed in 1963. As Artistic Director Richard Bonynge engaged a team of world-renowned principals and internationally successful Australian artists. One of the principals was Luciano Pavarotti, a young tenor from Modena; the chorus was Australian. There was no government subsidy and the fate of Williamson’s future rested on the success of the venture.

Sir Frank lived to see his ambition fulfilled. The triumphant Melbourne opening heralded the return of Dame Joan to her homeland: it was a season never to be forgotten. He died at the age of 81 after the Melbourne season finished and while the company were in Adelaide. It was the end of an era in the history of Australian theatre.

In Richard Bonynge’s words:

“Sir Frank Tait has done the greatest service to Australian Theatre and to the arts of anyone we know.”

The Story of the Kelly Gang

By Angus Forbes In Melbourne in the year 1905 a gang of five brothers, all of them in the theatre or the music world, embarked on a mission to produce, for the first-ever time, a film as long as a play. The average length of films at that time was 10 minutes. The Great Train Robbery, made by Edwin Porter in the US in 1903, boasted a whole thirteen minutes. It was time to expand the possibilities

of

this

newfangled

French

contraption - this cinématograph.

The Tait brothers had been guided and mentored by the eldest, Charlie, who deployed

them to work as ushers, bookers, stage managers; any job where the performing arts were

involved.

Through

hard

graft

and

persistence John, Nevin, Ted and Frank Tait had saved their coppers and become entrepreneurs in their own right. Charlie, meantime, had attained a directorship at Allan’s music store in the heart of the city. He was 34 years old. Frank, the youngest, was 22.

Arnold Denham’s stage play The Kelly Gang had long been doing good box-office around Australia; but travelling with wagonloads of props, costumes, scenery flats and a dozen or so hungry and thirsty actors – from one town to another had left its producers with scant reward.

That was the moment when John and Nevin acquired the rights to the piece. With Charlie and Ted they fashioned a script that nowadays

would be called a screenplay. None of this has

survived, but Frank (using the pseudonym ‘Stetson’) wrote a beautifully printed 20-page Synopsis that served also as a souvenir of what would later be recognized as a signal event in the history of the cinema: the premiere ‘by the Biograph’ of the longest film the world had ever seen: J&N Tait’s The Story of the Kelly Gang, at The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne on Boxing Night 1906.

So much of what still happens in movie-making these days was enacted by the Taits over the course of realizing the Kelly film: family members and friends appearing in and helping to make the film; actors fighting with the director and storming off the picture; romances blossoming everywhere; the weather dictating if you can film or not; myriad incidents, felicitous or otherwise, taking place in real time and in dizzying profusion; argy-bargy about who has the ultimate say about anything. Add in the fragility of the whole enterprise; the hordes to be fed, finances to be facilitated on a daily – if not hourly – basis and the logistics involved in keeping crews in the right place at the right time

and you have a quasi-military operation on your hands. Charles Tait directed this unwieldy monster into a glowing triumph.

The world’s first longer-than-an-hour film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, recouped its £1000 budget in its first week of exhibition; a coup not equalled in the annals of cinema until Steven Spielberg released Jurassic Park in 1993. It is testament to Australian openness and daring that the Taits stole a march on every other nation by inventing the art format that has kept people the world over entranced and amused for over a century and counting – the feature film.

Angus Forbes 2022

Tait Awards 2022/23 Award Name

Donor

Award recipient

Artform

State/NZ Award

RCM - Royal College of Music

RNCM - Royal Northern College of Music

SbS - Southbank Sinfonia GSMD - Guildhall School of Music & Drama

NOS - National Opera Studio RBS - Royal Ballet School

Priv - Private Studies

ENBS - English National Ballet School

SuL - Stimme, Leib & Seele

EBS - Elmhurst Ballet School

RAM - Royal Academy of Music RCS - Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Ram - Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance

Our Supporters Bequests John Crisp Peggy Haim Richard Gunter Viola, Lady Tait

Tait Melba Supporter £250+ Mrs Anne Longden Dame Norma Major DBE

TMT Friends £75+ Mr Julian Agnew Tait Grainger Patron £10,000+ Mr David Baillieu Anonymous Miss Janina Bialoguski Julian Baring Family* Mr Daniel Crowley The Estate of Lady Mackerras* Mrs Fay Curtin Ms Eugenie White* Mr James Coventry Mrs Katherine Coventry Tait Sutherland Benefactor £5,000+ Mrs Nikki Coventry M’tro Richard Bonynge AC CBE Miss Leanne Cutler Sir David & Lady Higgins* Mrs Meredith Daneman Mr John Frost AM* Mr Roger Davenport Mr Philip Hart Tait Endowment Patrons £5,000+ Ms Amanda Holder Earl Cadogan KBE DL Ms Daniella Hotchin Mrs Karen Goldie-Morrison Mr Anthony Jamison The Hon Sarah Joiner Mr Patrick Kennedy Mr & Mrs Paddy Linaker Mr Martin Kramer Mrs Anne Longden Mrs Wendy Kramer Mrs Barbara Ross Lady Rosa Lipworth Mr Michael Whalley OAM Mrs Joanna McCallum Miss Ellen Moloney Tait Bonynge Partner £3,000+ Mrs Lisa Orlov David Norman Professor Postma Lady Sainsbury CBE Mr Frederick Pyne The Thornton Foundation Mr Roger Traves QC Mrs Samantha Traves Tait Helpmann Circle £1,000+ Mrs Kathryn Wark Mr Peter Andreae Mrs Sue Whitley Mrs Jaki Bryant* Mrs Maria Woodruff Mr & Mrs Nicholas Heesom* *Adopt a Performer The Hon Sarah Joiner Mr Matthew Phillips Partners: The Thornton Foundation* Australia Day Foundation Australian High Commission TMT Frank & Viola Friends £500+ New Zealand High Commission Mr Julian Agnew Australian UK Chamber Mrs Lorraine Buckland Australia UK Season The late Mrs Jan Gowrie-Smith Britain-Australia Society Mrs Jacqueline Thompson FANZA Mr Damian Walsh KEA New Zealand Royal Over-Seas League Australian Charity Art Auction Australian Women’s Club, London The Cook Society

With thanks for this event: Lynette Wood Piers Lane AO Steven McRae Rachael Ward Rosemary Tuck Ross Alley Chad Vindin Leanne Benjamin AM OBE Liane Keegan Samantha Crawford Claudia Tarrant-Matthews Magdalenna Krstevska Emily Sun James Blackford Sky Ingram Tara Minton John Williamson Samantha Furney Sarah Prestwidge Jeremy Kleeman Bryan Brown Tait Committee Tait Trustees Tait Music Board Tait Leanne Benjamin Board Event Sponsor Australian High Commission Event Partners NSW Investment—fine wines Bird in Hand—sparkling wine Mr Roses—artist flowers VEC Acorn Trust—piano Mindberry– stage Concert Committee Isla Baring OAM Lorraine Buckland Fay Curtin Gayle McDermott Sue McGreggor Dr. Margaret Mayston AM June Mendoza AO OBE Ann Seddon Rosemary Tuck *adopt a performer

The Tait Memorial Trust Proudly supporting young performing artists from Australia and New Zealand in the UK Founded in 1992

Chairman Isla Baring OAM Founding Patrons Dame Joan Sutherland AC OM DBE, Viola, Lady Tait AM, John McCallum AO CBE, Googie Withers AO CBE Patrons Leanne Benjamin AM OBE, John Frost AM, Julian Gavin, Barry Humphries AO CBE, Piers Lane AO, June Mendoza AO OBE, Danielle de Niese, Ermes de Zan Trustees Justin Baring, Isla Baring OAM, Anne Longden, Matthew Phillips, Susie Thornton Committee Lisa Bucknell, Fay Curtin, Meredith Daneman, Wendy Kramer, Sue McGreggor Gayle McDermott, Patricia Nimmo, Margaret Rodgers, Mel Rendall, Ann Seddon, Elspeth Turner-Laing, Jacqueline Thompson, Rosemary Tuck Music Board Dr Helen Ayres, Isla Baring OAM, Jessica Cottis (Chair), Amy Dickson, Julian Gavin, Jayson Gillham, Dr Leslie Howard, Deborah Humble, Anthony Roden, Katrina Sheppeard, Chad Vindin The Leanne Benjamin Awards—Ballet Leanne Benjamin AM OBE, Artistic Director & Patron Meredith Daneman, Isla Baring OAM Honorary Member Nicola Downer AM Administrator James Hancock Registered UK Charity 1042797 Tait Memorial Trust 4/80 Elm Park Gardens London SW10 9PD Phone +44 207 351 0561 info@taitmemorialtrust.org

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Mr Roses Birdinhand Mindberry VEC Acorn Trust