First published in the December 2017 issue of Limelight.

Well, it’s been a dramatic year, hasn’t it? As if it wasn’t enough coping with the Tweeting Twit in the Whitehouse and Rocket Man in North Korea, we have to come to terms with the fact that Barnaby Joyce has been a New Zealander all this time. Through all this turmoil my response has been to travel the country performing and creating musical diversions from the endless news-cycle negativity.

One of the best concerts this year was something I was a bit nervous about. We’ve done a number of Last Night of the Proms-style concerts with the Sydney Symphony, and usually the Concert Hall at the Opera House is stuffed with well-lubricated UK expats dolled up in Union Jacks making for a fun and raucous event. This year for the first time the orchestra decided to add an extra concert into its Meet The Music series, which plays entirely for school kids. We also decided to give the Philharmonia choir the night off and use the kids as the big chorus to sing the obligatory Land of Hope and Glory.

I was nervous about a bunch of stone cold sober 21st-century Aussie school children...