Music4Can Assist Southern Highlands: Fundraiser for Cancer Care

Join Can Assist, Simon Tedeschi, Molly Stewart, Olive Cullen, and MC Dean Carey for a fabulous night of music and fundraising to ensure that cancer care is accessible to all in the Southern Highlands.

Experience the poetic brilliance of internationally renowned Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi. Simon performs solo and alongside the youthful and exquisite voices of emerging artists Olive Cullen and Molly Stewart.

As featured artists for the 2025 Music4Medicine concert at Wollongong Town Hall, they performed to a packed auditorium. With a program of mesmerising piano solos and songs rich with beauty and storytelling, they united the community in an atmosphere of giving and receiving to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières.

Don't miss the opportunity to be transported by this incredible trio at the Music4Can Assist Fundraising Concert.

ABOUT CAN ASSIST

What do we do?

We help ease the burden of cancer for country families in the Southern Highlands

How do we assist?

A vast network of local volunteers provides financial assistance and support services to ensure that cancer patients have the means to travel to their cancer treatments and appointments, as well as the support needed with their medication costs and care.

Why do we assist?

To lessen the inequities distance creates in cancer care and treatment for rural communities.

When purchasing a ticket, please consider an additional tax-deductible donation directly to Can Assist. All proceeds from the concert go to Can Assist to support program delivery.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

About Simon Tedeschi

Acclaimed by respected critics and peers as “True greatness” (Sydney Morning Herald), Simon Tedeschi performed his first Mozart piano concerto in the Sydney Opera House at age nine. Since then, he has gone on to win major awards in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom and performed throughout the world as a soloist and chamber musician. Simon is renowned for his rich collaborations across art forms. He published his first book, Fugitive, in 2023. Recently, he has collaborated with Inspire Music, mentoring and generously performing with emerging artists from our program.

About Molly Stewart & Olive Cullen

Now based in Sydney and Melbourne respectively, both girls call the Illawarra home and their formative years in singing and performance were spent in Wollongong. This year, Molly will graduate on the Dean's list with a BAMus (Musical Theatre) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, while Olive graduates with a BAMus (Opera Performance) from Melbourne University. While having a genre focus, Molly and Olive are comfortable exploring a range of singing styles. For this program, they have selected songs from musical theatre to art songs that speak to the child within. It is a program full of joy, wit, and bittersweetness, at once entertaining and reflective of intergenerational relationships.

About Dean Carey

Dean is an actor, author, educator, and founder of Actors Centre Australia, as well as a local of the Southern Highlands. There could be no better person to MC a night of music that brings our next generation of artists centre stage, shares stories through music and helps those in rural NSW access cancer care.

About Music4 Medicine

An annual event, run by Inspire Music, Music4Medicine has been described as 'transporting the packed auditorium into something rarefied and powerful.’ (2022, Francis Gould, Illawarra Mercury). In a 2025 ClassikON review, it was written:

Music for Medicine was not just an enjoyable evening – it was a poignant reminder that artistry and generosity are not separate pursuits, but rather complement each other. In this respect, the concert’s message shines beyond the concert hall: good music, at its most effective, ‘inspires’ us to imagine and strive for a hopeful future.