Join us on Thursday 24 October for the launch of Gillian Wills' Big Music with a live performance by tenor Nick Kirkup, a Young Artist with Opera Queensland

Given a chance to shine, Beat is promoted to dean of Turalong Music School. But her role is not what it seems. Fine-tuning this institution is like playing a cracked violin with broken strings.

She’s determined to revive the school’s reputation despite gender bias, staff conflict, betrayal, a famous composer’s ghost and a predatory university. Beat loves the wild mashes of sound: trumpets, electric guitars, flutes and saxophones which blaze all day and night, but she’s barely able to keep the school together let alone her home life on her beloved hobby farm.

Keen to unify her squabbling colleagues from opposite musical traditions, she puts a fresh spin on programming to show audiences something new: a combined Beethoven and rock festival.

Music or politics? What will be her magnum opus?

About the Author

Gillian Wills is a graduate from the Royal Academy of Music and an author and arts writer who publishes with Inreview, ABR, Australian Stage Online and Limelight, Griffith Review and The Australian. Her memoir Elvis and Me: how a world-weary musician and a broken racehorse rescued each other, (2016) was published in Australia, America, Canada, the UK and NZ. Prior to relocating to Queensland from Victoria, Gillian was Dean of Music at the Victorian College of Arts.

Event details: Thursday 24 October, 6.15pm for 6.30-7:30pm
Venue: Books@Stones - 360 Logan Rd, Stones Corner

This is a free event but bookings are required.