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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Jo Skinner: interview with author of A World of Silence

Gillian Wills — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I spoke to extraordinary GP, author and runner Jo Skinner, about her most recent novel A World of Silence.

Why did you write A World of Silence?

It was a very organic book that I wrote over a couple of years. Initially, it was more about female friendships and the how being open and honest with each other can be incredibly supportive, but the issue of family and intimate partner violence crept into later drafts and became an integral part of the evolving story. As a GP I see many women in relationships where they experience coercive control which has only recently been deemed a criminal offence in Queensland – May 2025. I wanted to give these women a voice and fiction is more palatable medium to use.

Briefly, what is the storyline?

Kate, Tori, and Shelley were friends at university, and they all have dark secrets in their past they want to leave behind. Kate is a psychologist juggling work, family and her ailing relationship to Ryan. She is nostalgic about her first love, Daryl and imagines what might have been.

Tori is a single mother who runs a successful second-hand furniture and clothing store. She is determined her son, Leo will never meet his father.

When Shelley, now married to Kate’s first love, moves into the suburb, uncomfortable truths emerge. Will the three women confront their past? What are the consequences of speaking out? Of keeping silent?

Is there a message you’d like your reader to receive after reading the book?

Our female friendships are incredibly powerful if we make ourselves vulnerable and stand up for each other. Treasure these friendships and nurture them.

What is your approach to writing a novel? Are you systemised with the plot laid out before you begin to write?

I would love to be able to plan my novels out and be systematic about my writing. I am very organised in other areas of my life, but my novels are invariably very organic. I do try to plan them out to start with, but they sprout in all sorts of unexpected directions when I start writing. It involves lots of editing and makes the process quite complicated but also a lot more fun.

How long did it take for you to write this?

It was very organic. It took a couple of years and then two weeks after I finished a messy first draft, Hannah Clarke and her children were murdered two streets away from the practice where I work. It felt like the wrong time to publish a book about coercive control, so I shelved it and wrote another book – The Truth about My Daughter, which was published first.

As a busy GP when do you write? Are you an early riser or do you dedicate a day every week as writing time?

I’m an early morning person. I get up a few mornings a week and put in a couple of hours before work. I also work part time and use my time off to write.

What writers inspire you?

I love books by Kirstin Hannah, Karen Viggers, Heather Rose, Edwina Shaw. There are so many more but often I really enjoy one book by an author then then am not as keen on other books. I love nearly all of Ian McKewan’s work too – his recent book, What We Can Know is fantastic.

You run a popular imposter syndrome class. Have you been afflicted by this?

Definitely. It is so common, and I get so much out of running these workshops as the women (it is mainly women who attend) make themselves vulnerable and share personal details about their own struggles and we all leave feeling lighter and better about ourselves. Knowing others have the same challenges really helps us to be kinder to ourselves.

What encouragement would you give to unpublished writers?

Redefine success. You can’t control getting published or winning a competition, but you can control finishing a manuscript and submitting work. Enjoy every part of the process.

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Have you ever heard of Ransome?

Gillian Wills — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Writers don’t get much positive feedback. But I was thrilled to be told that my article about Ransome where I lived published in the Brisbane Times had been a big hit. The first sentence is about how nobody knows where Ransome is. How lucky: it was also published in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and in WA. With 20 photos.

The piece was so popular the media team made a film of people responding to the question.

‘Have you ever heard of the Brisbane suburb Ransome?’

If interested, you can read the story here.

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Backlash against Timothée Chalamet: 'Nobody cares about opera and balley anymore'

Gillian Wills — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m inclined to putting my foot in my mouth!

When I was Dean of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts there were three visitors from The Royal Northern College of Music. I had once visited the RNCM on a British Council Tour and had lunch with the RNCM’s Director. Very much integral to the British establishment I found him rude and patronising about Australians which made me bristle.

Back to my bad moment. I was having a fun chat with the visitors one of whom was the Head of Keyboard. I told her I thought that the Director – won’t name him – was bad mannered.

‘Yes. You’re right. I’m married to him.’

I could go on, but I want to recap on the Hollywood actor Timothée Chalamet’s unfortunate mouthy incident when the words, ‘Nobody cares about opera and ballet anymore,’ popped out of his mouth.

Wow! Hasn’t he copped a mammoth backlash over that loose tongue gloop. I admit I’ve enjoyed the payback coming from opera and ballet companies all over the world in firm defence of their artforms. Those involved in the arts must get even more vocal in proclaiming the value of music, dance, literature and the arts. I reckon this much maligned actor has done the sector a favour.

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Voxalis: Camilo Lopez talks about founding the boutique opera company

Gillian Wills — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Talking of opera, I enjoyed chatting to Camilo Lopez one of the founding directors of the boutique opera company Voxalis when I was commissioned to write an article about this company’s 2026 season.

I was so impressed when he told me this:

“I struggled to plan the season with so many harsh things happening,” he says. “As much as I love opera it can feel disconnected from the world. I went on a mission to find beautiful music which reflects some of the hardcore themes currently impacting people’s lives.”

Bravely, because Voxalis is small – only a 5-year-old company where resources are tight – he’s programmed three short operas which have significant relevance and resonance with today’s world.

The first of these is Poulenc’s The Human Voice, a monodrama about a heartbreaking conversation a man has had with his former lover. Liam Jackson is the lead. (As pictured above.)

Secondly, Iain Bell’s Comfort Starving is an Aussie premiere about a teenager suffering from body dysmorphia.

And the third, Jake Heggie’s Facing Forward, Looking Back, is an intense song cycle about a mother and daughter’s complex relationship.

You can read the article here.

In terms of the interest and commitment to opera in Brisbane, there are the following companies:

Opera Queensland
Voxalis
Underground Opera
Springboard Opera
Brisbane Lyric Opera

It’s clear that love of opera is alive and well in Brisbane.

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