Gillian Wills | Updates

Lyrical Landscapes: Seeing Music, Hearing Art

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:37:31 -0400

Full text can be found at https://limelightmagazine.com.au/features/lyrical-landscapes-seeing-music-hearing-art

Red Herrings for Breakfast by Annabet Ousbach - Review by Gillian Wills

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:36:39 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.academia.edu/46754608/Red_Herrings_For_Breakfast_Annabet_Ousbach

Piano Mill Easter 2021

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:36:11 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.academia.edu/46753743/Piano_Mill_Easter_2021

A New Name for the Colour Blue - Book Review by Gillian Wills

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:35:51 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.academia.edu/43930456/Book_Review_A_new_name_for_the_colour_blue

Gillian Wills collected articles on Arts Hub

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:35:11 -0400

Gillian Wills' collected articles can be perused at Arts Hub.

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Gillian Wills contributions to ABR

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:34:18 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2018/october-2018-no-405/author/2391-gillianwills

Gillian Wills reviews 'A Coveted Possession: The rise and fall of the piano in Australia' by Michael Atherton

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:32:56 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2018/october-2018-no-405/230-october-2018-no-405/5138-gillian-wills-reviews-a-coveted-possession-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-piano-in-australia-by-michael-atherton

Festival of Outback Opera - Australian Book Review

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:31:06 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/arts-update/101-arts-update/12603-festival-of-outback-opera-2024-opera-queensland-goes-to-longreach-by-gillian-wills

It's Time to Listen Really Listen to our Orchestra - InQueensland

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:30:42 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.inqld.com.au/arts-culture/arts/inreview-commentary/2024/03/13/queensland-its-time-to-listen-really-listen-to-our-orchestra

It's gold, gold, gold for Australia in Townsville - Inreview

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:30:22 -0400

Full text can be found at https://www.inqld.com.au/arts-culture/music/2024/07/30/its-gold-gold-gold-for-australia-in-townsville

String Sensations - Australian Stage Online

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:29:43 -0400

What makes a great soloist? Maybe an interpretative imagination, strong communication, technical brilliance harnessed to expressive purpose, the ability to work with a conductor and the confidence to slice through the orchestra as a soloist yet also know when to drop back. Then there’s an authoritative presence and an almost magical capacity to reel in the audience.

Read the whole article below.

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Australian Festival of Chamber Music Days 1 & 2 - Limelight

Gillian Wills — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 21:28:49 -0400

Full text can be found at https://limelight-arts.com.au/?s=gillian+wills

The Countertenor - Bach's Holy Spirit (Bach Akademie Australia)

Gillian Wills — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 07:40:50 -0400

Spine-tingling singing from Reginald Mobley in the cathedral acoustic of St Stephen's.

Cathedral of St Stephen, Brisbane

by Gillian Wills on 12 April, 2025

Bach Akademie Australia, based in Sydney and led by the celebrated violinist Madeleine Easton, is in a celebratory mood. For the first time the ensemble is spreading its wings with a national tour, which features Reginald Mobley the Grammy-nominated American countertenor as guest soloist.

A great choice, too, as the singer has a deep affinity with Baroque music and with J.S. Bach’s music in particular. His authentic interpretation of Bach’s vocal pieces in this stylish and rewarding concert amounted to a masterclass in musical story-telling. His voice has a luxurious sheen and emotive power which Mobley exploits to the full. It doesn’t matter what the narrative is, he maximises opportunities for expressive colour realised through a deluxe tone and impressive diction.

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Voxalis Opera 2025

Gillian Wills — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 23:40:01 -0400

A rare art: Voxalis and friends breathe new life into opera and song

This year Voxalis Opera aims to brings rarely performed works to life in an intriguing collaborative program with a talented list of artists.

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Back Under Southern Skies

Gillian Wills — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:59:35 -0500

Full text can be found at https://www.indailyqld.com.au/inreview/music/2024/11/21/back-under-southern-skies-schaupp-and-noonan

Opera Australia's Production of The Ring Cycle at QPAC

Gillian Wills — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:17:00 -0400

A long article about Opera Australia's magnificent Ring Cycle at QPAC December 2023 was published in Opera Now the Spring Edition in early 2024.

Available in print only.

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Promoting your novel: Gillian Wills at Eumundi Writers Festival

Gillian Wills — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Many of you are authors or aspiring authors and will have heard about the need to promote your book. This is what I’ve been working hard at. I work on it so extensively I’ve been asked to chair a panel on Promotion at this year’s Eumundi Writers Festival.

Incidentally, last year’s Festival was a delight. Friendly, inclusive, celebratory and with a great line-up of speakers who were effective communicators.

Berkelouw Books Eumundi manages the provision of new books and the sales and Eumundi’s main drag has a nest of collegial cafes serving tasty food. There’s also the Eumundi market which is extensive.

If you’d like to book tickets to my Promotion session, you can do so here.

I will also be in conversation with Laura Jean McKay about the mind-bending joys and pitfalls of environmental writing and animal characters, at the festival. To book tickets to this session, you can learn more here.

Don’t forget to check out the whole EWF program. There’s something for everyone.

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Gillian Wills at the Barrington Book Club online

Gillian Wills — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I was the guest of the Barrington Book Club online which was daunting because I had to post a video of myself explaining why I wrote Elvis, my writing routines, give advice to writers, and discuss which authors have influenced me. Once I got used to seeing a film clip of myself it became easier each day. Initially, I struggled.

Which do you prefer? Speaking off the cuff or preparing detailed notes?

My preference is to improvise to speak ad lib. The moment I’ve worked it all out I freeze and make mistakes.

If you are about to publish a debut novel or non-fiction book, practice doing making film clips of yourself now. Distributors like these, because it helps them sell your work to bookshops.

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Opera Queensland’s Festival of Outback Opera: reviews by Gillian Wills

Gillian Wills — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Apart from writing many reviews for Sting’s The Last Ship, Opera Queensland’s Rusalka, Camerata’s, Revolution Remixed, Musica Viva’s Dorik Quartet and Lloyd van’t Hoff I travelled with Opera Queensland for their magical Festival of Outback Opera in Winton and Longreach from the 19-25 May.

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Gillian Wills launches Elvis and Me in second edition, published by Hawkeye Publishing Pty Ltd

Gillian Wills — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The second edition of my memoir Elvis and Me: how a musician and a broken racehorse rescued each other, Hawkeye Publishing is released on the 1 August.

I’ve added material to provide context which explains why I could so impulsively adopt a bedraggled, temperamental, unpredictable horse without ever having owned or looked after a horse before. I had nowhere to keep him and no idea about how to rehabilitate racehorses. Initially he scared me.

Here’s a link to Goodreads where the new edition is published. You can mark it as Want to Read, if you like, and if you’re feeling generous after you’ve read it, give it stars and a few words of critique. Doesn’t take much, but these interactions with the book online boost sales and its popularity. I’ve recently had some excellent Advanced Readers Reviews which are heartening. Thank you to Jo Skinner, Casey Nott, Louise Martin-Chew, Natasha Johnson and Anne Freeman for your kind words.

Below are all the events, launches and library talks I’ve organised. Each needs promotion on the socials, the radio, through the distribution of fliers and through word of mouth. I would love it if you would share the word!

If you intend to be at one of these events, let me know. I look forward to seeing you there.

Elvis and Me happenings

Booktique, Albury, Wodonga, 5 August: information here
Books@Stones 13 August: bookings here
Stoneman’s Bookroom, Castlemaine, 15 August: information here
Readings, Hawthorn, Melbourne 18 August: information and bookings here
Rosetta Books 21 August: bookings here
Victoria Point Library 22 August: bookings here
Oakey Library 7 September: bookings here
Toowoomba City Library 7 September: bookings here
Wynnum Library 13 September: information here
U3A Nillimbuk 16 September: information here

There are more to come, but no links as yet!

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