Again to Harrison for his hard work on his new film, "Beneath Hill 60" directed by Jeremy Sims and currently being shot on location in Townsville. Not only for the beautiful character he is creating for his role as tiffen but also for keeping up with his other committments including school and fulfilling his auditioning responsibilities with the scripts coming in for him to consider from overseas. Beneath Hill 60 is looking very good.

On the 25th July, congratulations to Sarah Thorpe who took out a first place in Vocal Solo and second place in musical theatre at the Balaklava Eistedford. Sarah shows significant potential at a very young age to enjoy a wonderful career as a singer and performer, given the right opportunity.

On 25th July Harrison's feature "Blessed" directed by Anna Kokkinos and starring Francis O'Connor, Miranda Otta and Debbora Lee Furness premiered at the Melbourne Film Festival. Very powerful work. Congratulations to Harrison for his heart wrenching performance and to the whole team for producing a very powerful telling of relations between mothers and childred at a troubled level. Francis O'Connor's performance is particularly notable.

On the 19th July as director of the Credit Union Christmas pageant, Brian participated in the announcement of the Credit Union Pageant Royalty. This was a big day for the pageant. Until this year there had only been a Pageant Queen. Now a new tradition has been set. There will now be 5 princesses, 5 princes, a queen and a King making up the Royal house of Australis with the motto, in communio. All the media turned out to photograph and film and interview the new pageant royalty. Check out the Pageant website for more detail, www.cupageant.com.au

On 24th July Brian also participated in judging the schools mini float competition. There were nearly 400 entries and the decision was not easy. Results will be announced soon on the pageant website.

Sydney Film Festival took place with Harrison's Film "Accidents happen" getting a second place. The audience received it very well. Still awaiting a release date for general viewing.

27th June: Brian Gilbertson appeared with Kaylene Graham at the Novita Charity Gala at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The setting was Diamonds and Stars celebrating 50 years of support for children with disability. Once again a successful fund raising night even though it was mainly to thank the charity's supporters over the years. Brian opened the evening with "As time goes by" and later returned with "the Way we Were" with images of children who have benefited from the charities work on the screens. as a final performance he was joined by Kaylene to sing "Life is Beautiful" from their latest CD, "Zero Degrees of Separation." There was not a dry eye in the house after this one.

19th June: Congratulations to Stephanie Antanopoulus for a beautiful performance of Billy Elliot's "Electricity" at the Variety Club fundraiser at the Adelaide Convention Centre. It stole the show. Stephanie's voice is improving quite rapidly and she demonstrates a wonderful stage presence and performance honesty.
The Ball was opened by Brian Gilbertson with Dianne Dixon performing a powerful set of songs from Phantom of the Opera setting the musicals scene for the evening. 1450 guests attended and the evening raised significant funds for the children who benefit from Variety.

Stand up and take a bow, Stephanie Antonopoulos.
I judged an Eisteddfod final on the 3rd August at Balaklava - a regional Eisteddfod which attracted both regional and metropolitan performers.
The final day of judging, the Vocal Scholarship prize took place around a concert of section winners and scholarship finalists. I was to judge from 3 finalists but also had the pleasure of hearing the balance of the performers.
It was a wonderful afternoon and all performers performed beautifully. The stand out was Stephanie Antanopoulos - a young 12 year old who dressed as a boy and sang "Electricity" from "Billy Elliot" the musical.
I had just seen the musical in Sydney and was impressed by the young Billy who performed in that show. In terms of the singing of this song, Stephanie, with some minor assistance on one or two phrases, could easily have been Billy in the professional show. Well done!
Congratulations to the winner of the scholarship (a different part of the competition to Stephanie's performance), Victoria Anderson who performed a classical colorature piece with a young and fresh delivery, then swung into a musical piece with a characterisation to match. Her potential for the future is strong. Well done!

Turandot was a huge hit! Standing ovations in full houses every night. Congratulations to all concerned. Lada Birlucov gave us a brilliant turandot and the Calaph will become a permanent fixture in Julian Gavan's career. The Ping Pang Pong was delivered with great humour and precision and perhaps the best I have seen. Well done Adam Goodburn (former student) for your part in the trio. One to impress was Theresa La Rocca with her rendition of Liu, sung with great pathos and warmth.
Rehearsals for Turandot are well under way. Brian plays the Emporer singing from some 30 meters upstage on a 10 meter high dress. He can only use his head for animation as his arms and the rest of his body are inside the enormous gold dress. Turandot appears from the centre of this dress in a stunning gown and mounted on a stand which brings her head about 4 meters from the stage floor. Very impressive.
Turandot is sung by Lada Birlucov from the Czech Republic. She is a slight woman with an enormous sound and wonderful use of the body to gain maximum effect. She has performed the role many times before. Julian Gavin sings the Caliph. Julian is Australian based in London. His career will be a stellar career. He brings a young and fresh sound to this his debut as the Caliph. It is a very exciting voice. This production is conducted by Italian Maestro Aldo Salvagno whose tempi take a very romantic approach. The orchestra is the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra whose has developed an international reputation for excellence, particularly since its Ring Cycle under Maestro Jeffrey tate in 1999. Turandot opens on Saturday 12th July.
Congratulations to Sophie and brother Ben Riggs who are in the Opera choir as child performers and their dad Michael is working as a super. Keeping it all in the family.

In the same opera chorus are some of Brian's adult students, including one principal Adam Goodburn. It is pleasing for Brian to see how they have developed and continue to grow.

Congrats to Harrison Gilbertson who is in the middle of filming "Accidents Happen" on set in Sydney.

Congratulations to Dan Krannitch and Leader Cheater on their new CD which is now produced and ready for companies to view. It is hot!
Ten great tracks and produced by Kramer.
Congrats to Simon Cicere and Jade Remedy. Saw them at electric light on Friday. Simon (in great form) and Jade have a new sound and concept which I liked and the audience was right into it.
Harrison Gilbertson has started rehearsals in Sydney having scored the lead role as Billy in "Accidents Happen" with Geena Davis, directed by Andrew Lancaster. Great production team and they are really looking after Harrison. Film will probably come out mid to late 2009.

Congratulations to Dan Krannitch and Leader Cheater on their inclusion in the Big Day Out!!.
Cricket is a favourite pastime of Australians during the summer months from December to February each year. This year the Indian Cricket Team visited Australian for a series of Test matches against Australia.
Brian has performed anthems at many international sporting events over the years and set the precedent for the singing of visiting nations' anthems in Australia in about 1996 when he performed the Sri Lankan anthem at the Australian Sri Lankan Test Match in Adelaide South Australia.
This year Brian was asked to prepare the Indian national Anthem by the Australian Cricket Board and prepared the anthem with the help of Rajni who taught him the Hindi pronunciation.
Whilst observing the anthem ceremonies in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Brian could not help but notice that all Indian anthem singers were Indians. Sure enough, two days before the Adelaide Test match, QPM received an email requesting that Brian sing the Australian anthem and not the Indian anthem. Someone must have told them that Brian was not Indian!
The weather was beautiful, the scene at Adelaide oval was wonderful as always and the anthem went beautifully. Peter Walsh from ABC radio said 'A big voice for a big occasion' and they were still talking about it during the balance of the day.

Brian has commenced recording his new CD this time duets with Kaylene Graham.

Carols by The Creek at Mitcham was a great success on Sunday 2nd December. We try to make this Brian's last performance of the year because by this time he is ready for a break. Having produced the new look Carols by the Creek for the first time 11 years ago, this is one of a couple of events Brian loves to return to each year.
This year he included EtypeJazz as the main act and Rock Chick and Science Geek as the children's entertainers. They were just great!
Jazz singer Liz Tobias (formerly Chehade) also joined Brian to lead the Carols in her first appearnace at the Creek. The Australian Girls choir were in great voice as were the audience. Of course the man with the white beard made an appearance on the roof and the light show drew gasps from the 4000 in the crowd. This means that Christmas is just around the corner and Brian will have some time off.

This has been an enormous year and little has been done on the site other than to keep up with singing tips and respond to emails with requests for specific singing ideas. Last night was a great night in Tanunda for Brian. The Kaffee Abend in the showgrounds is a favourite of Brian's.
A full house is 1000, but on a very hot evening (Friday the 16th November) well over 1000 were crammed into the hall and it was a great time. Despite Brian's work load over recent weeks, he managed to find the energy to sing and MC the night and the audience loved every minute with standing ovations interspersed throughout the evening.
Jennifer Kneale who recently returned from Europe where she gave many concerts over the last two years was in fantastic form. She truly has the voice of an Angel. Everyone had a ball and it was great to see Brian working with Anne ApThomas again. Having worked together in so many places around the world over the years, they compliment each other and the nuances of their music making did not go unnoticed by the audience. Anne plays with a deft touch and clearly she had a wonderful rapport with Jenny whom she accopmpanied for the very first time.

November 10th came around very quickly this year. It was a big success with no mishaps and much to celebrate. With over 360,000 attending on the day and 140,000 watching live on local TV, we were all pleased with the outcomes. It was an honour once again to direct the Credit Union Christmas Pageant.
Being the 75th year of the pageant, the extra celebrations certainly took it out of all of us who were heavily involved. We have all been somewhat zombieyfied by the experience and I think I am only now (18th) just starting to feel more like myself again.
It has been hailed by the Minister for Tourism in South Australia as the best Pageant ever and at the very least I do believe it is the best one I have been involved with. The opening with 75 tap dancers and choristers looked stunning. Hats off to the work put in by choreographer Lynn Ferrauto and the tappers not only in the lead up to the event but also to maintain their focus throughout the 3.3 km route. We have already started plans for 2008.

November 3rd was the Francesca Belperio wedding with a 12 piece orchestra conducted by David Sharp with Brian and Maria Sifrova Kvopka singing. It was a beautiful wedding. Brian does not find himself singing at weddings very often unless the families are well known to him. It was a wonderful reminder of the love that can be shared and althoug this was not your average wedding it was a very emotional day for all involved. Brian and Maria with the orchestra was wonderful in the beautiful setting of St. Laurence's Church.