ACT Australians of the Year announced.

I think Samuel would be a good nomination for youngie of the year. If old Frank did so much he should have won Australian of the Year…not being demoted to ACT nomination as oldie of the year. I’m gobsmacked that Stanhope didn’t nominate himself as Australian of the Year. So humble!

Good citizen awards for sports people are an insult to everyone in the community who actually make a real contribution to people’s day to day lives. (And don’t get me started on the AIS tax sinkhole)

George Gregan for Australian of the Year 😉

These awards should’ve been given to local sporting heroes.

CT story on this is here

Yes Frank Fenner was responsible for the elimination of Smallpox. His text on that research has also become recemmended reading for any biological weapon producers on the planet.

Where is Samuel?

Well, you asked!

From the ANU website:

For the past 30 years, Geoffrey Lancaster has been at the forefront of the historically informed performance practice movement both in Australia and internationally. As fortepianist, pianist, harpsichordist and conductor, he is much in demand in concert halls and recording studios throughout the world.

Geoffrey Lancaster is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of La Cetra Barockorchester Basel. He has appeared as conductor or soloist with all of the Symphony Australia orchestras and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and shares a particularly close relationship with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Orchestra. Geoffrey has been frequent guest Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Chamber Players since 1987. He is also artistic director and fortepianist with Ensemble of the Classic Era, and tours regularly with Musica Viva Australia.

As a recording artist, Geoffrey has an ongoing association with the label ABC Classics. His 30 CDs have won many prestigious awards including a Gramophone award for Best Recording, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Best Classical Recording, and a Soundscapes Editor’s Choice. He has also recorded for Tall Poppies, Sony Classical, and Supraphon. Geoffrey is currently recording the Complete Keyboard Sonatas of Joseph Haydn for the ABC Classics label.

Geoffrey Lancaster was the first Australian to win a major international keyboard competition, receiving First Prize at the 23rd Festival van Vlaanderen International Mozart Fortepiano Competition, Brugge.

Lancaster studied with Larry Sitsky at the Australian National University, and with Stanley Hoogland at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He holds a doctorate from Sydney University, and has undertaken extensive postdoctoral research in the major Early Music research centres of Europe.

An inspiring teacher and public intellectual, Geoffrey Lancaster undertakes regular residencies at significant European conservatoria including the Royal Conservatory in The Hague; the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam; Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music; the Hochschule fur Musik Freiburg; and the Hochschule fur Musik in Basel. He also facilitates as guest Professor on a regular basis for the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.

In 1996, he was Associate Professor at the Royal College of Music, London. Since 1999 he has been a visiting Professor of fortepiano at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

In 1993, Lancaster was awarded an four-year Australian Artists Creative Fellowship by the Commonwealth of Australia for his outstanding artistic contribution to the nation. In 2000 he was awarded the HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship.

Lancaster’s regular performance engagements include appearances as soloist with the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble 415 of Geneva, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

In recent seasons Lancaster has made successful concert tours of Germany, Belgium, Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan and China. He has performed to critical acclaim as soloist at the Alte Oper Frankfurt; the Auditorio y Centro de Congresos Victor Villegas in Murcia, Spain; Hatchlands Park in Surrey; and in the Kölner Philharmonie. In 2005 he debuts as soloist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, in Rotterdam and Utrecht.

School of Music faculty member since 2002.

I should say that Sir Frank, with guys like Sir Lennox Hewitt (for all that i despide his canberra hating daughter and the recently late Michael Thwaites (to name but a few) are titans of this nation and anything giving these people more attention in the here and now is to be applauded, even in they don’t have room on the mantlepiece.

Wonderful, never heard of any of them. Is Fenner Hall named after the guy with all the letters behind his name? Correct me if I am wrong but I don’t think the ACT has ever won an award at this level. Wonder why ?

The Wikipedia entry on Frank Fenner is here.

They list his significant honours to date as:

* The Japan Prize (Preventive Medicine), 1988
* Copley medal of the Royal Society, 1995
* Albert Einstein World Award for Science, 2000
* Clunies Ross Lifetime Contribution National Science and Technology Award, 2002
* Both the Frank Fenner building which houses the ANU Medical
* School and Faculty of Science, and a residential college Fenner Hall are named in honour of Frank Fenner.
* WHO Medal
* ANZAAS Medal
* ANZAC Peace Prize
* Matthew Flinders Medal
* Britannica Australia Award for Medicine
* 2002 Prime Ministers Prize for Science

A list which neglects his initials CMG MBE AC

Correct me if I’m wrong but that would be Cross of St Michael and St George, Member of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of Australia.

I wonder if Sir Frank, the man who eradicated smallpox, has room on his mantlepiece for ACT Senior Australian of the Year.

On a related note I like that Fenner Hall has it’s own embittered wikipedia page.