Prima Donna Podcast

Dr Katrina Rank is an award-winning choreographer and educator based in Naarm, Melbourne, Australia. Her work creates spaces where the imagination flourishes, expressive forces are harnessed and dynamic exchanges occur. A graduate of the Australian Ballet School, she performed in dance companies in Australia and abroad before returning home to undertake further studies including a Bachelor of Education and a PhD in Contemporary Arts (Deakin University 1994 and 2001). Katrina was the first Australian researcher to complete her doctorate through practice-exegesis, forging the way for many others to research via their creative practices.

Deborah Kayser performs in areas as diverse as ancient Byzantine chant, French and German Baroque song and classical contemporary music, both scored and improvised. Her work has led her to tour regularly both within Australia, and internationally to Europe and Asia. She has recorded, as soloist, on numerous CDs, and her work is frequently broadcast on ABC FM. As a member of JOUISSANCE, and long time collaborator with Bassist/Composer Nick Tsiavos, she has performed radical interpretations of Byzantine and Medieval chant. With the the contemporary music ensembles ELISION, LIBRA and CMO she has premiered works written specifically for her voice by local and overseas composers. Accompanying music: From Liza Lim: The Bardo. Footage taken of the last ELISION realisation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead installation-performance project in rural Lismore in the early 90's. Conceived by composer Liza Lim and visual artist Domenico DeClario, the highlighted performers include Deborah Kayser, Timothy O'Dwyer, Carl Rosman and Rosanne Hunt. https://youtu.be/uYWBri5fLSM?si=f5gZnSlq_N9pdohV Nick Tsiavos Ensemble: Axion Estin (an arrangement of Byzantine chant based on part of the Lord’s Prayer) From Liminal. https://youtu.be/t4h2K75wuQU?si=oA-CsE7HtWdrfqos To prostahthen mystikos: The Annunciation. From Akathistos. Jouissance Ensemble (Nick Tsiavos AD and Contra Bass) https://youtu.be/nkMtuYS0cik?si=9Kqs6shB2iZOjIAJ Photo by Marcus Thompson

Playwright, Vice-President of Women Playwrights International, actor and director. Rosemary Johns grew up as a child in a seaside town in Wales, went to a boarding school in England, spent seven intense and strange years in America and fell in love in Australia. She's a maverick

Wilma Tabacco was born in Italy, and lives in AustraliaWilma uses abstract iconography to refer to aspects of Italian cultural history, archaeological artefacts found in ancient ruins and she ‘maps’ ground plans of architectural spaces.She has presented 45 solo exhibitions since 1988, in Australia, Italy and Korea and participated in over 250 group exhibitions, including in New York, Dubai, London, Seoul, Paris, Edinburgh. http://wilmatabacco.com

​Jazz drummer and bandleader Alma Quon was born in 1911 and died in 2007. Her ensemble The Joybelles comprising women from a range of cultural backgrounds was active from the 1940s until the 1990s. In this episode Nat interveiws Alma's nephew, musician Ray Quon.