29 November 2005

ACT Australians of the Year announced.

| johnboy
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Comrade Stanhope has announced the ACT Australians of the Year. (Not to be confused with the bastardised Canberrans of the year of which all here in 2003 are one)

They are in the running for the Australia Day Australian of the Year announcement.

The winners are:

* Dr Geoffrey Lancaster – ACT Australian of the Year 2006
* Emeritus Professor Frank Fenner CMG MBE AC, – ACT Senior Australian of the Year 2006;
* Sharon Sobey – ACT Young Australian of the Year 2006; and
* Ross Walker – ACT Local Hero 2006.

Anyone know anything about our winners?

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Have heard Geoffrey Lancaster conduct CSO in 2004 and do a piano forte concert at Wesley in 2005. He taught piano to my housemate. Heard on his radio interview that he’s a real Canberra boy and even went to Forrest Primary! Looked him up in ‘Who’s Who, 2004’ and he has a massive entry even though he’s a quiet achiever. Great to see an international Australian artist in AOTY, one who is really deserving and hasn’t already got an AC CMG OBE…

The name just twigged…is Sharon Sobey a daughter of Bob Sobey who’s had a lot to do with the PCYC and stood for the Liberals in last year’s ACT elections?

Met Sharon Sobey recently, she was helping out the scouts from Honiara. A top gal! Her old man is a top bloke as well. Her seeing-eye-dog was pretty good for a dog as well. Stood on his tail accidentally and it didn’t bite me. The dog should be nominated for ACT Australian Dog of the Year.

Gingermick, I stand corrected.

Wikipedia explains all

Do we get to sing the theme tune of “Local Hero” to the guy who got the award?

CMG = Companion of the Order Of St Michael and St George, mate.

CMG = Companion of the Order Oo St Michael and St george, mate.

Oh…and I forgot to give my pick for Local Hero. That would be Aidan Bruford for his contribution to art and politics.

I have a feeling that Ralph was pulling your chain. That or he couldn’t spell science.

Scouts ACT has just put this piece on Sharon Sobey, ACT Young Australian of the Year:

Sharon is a special young woman, who works hard
volunteering for others, in addition to being a young person with special needs.

Sharon has had special needs since a young age, as a result of having a very bad case of childhood cancer.
She spent much of her childhood dealing with
treatments such as chemotherapy and spent large chunks of her youth confined to a wheel chair.

Sharon is blind, but is independantly mobile, now
Lina, a black Labrador, is assigned to her by the
Royal Blind Society.

Incidentally it is with the Canberra Blind Society that Sharon Volunteers doing administrative duties for an average of 12 hours per week, and teaching Braille for another two hours a week. Sharon has been doing this for over three years.

Sharon is the visually impaired representative to the “Female Tandem Bike Riding Group” helping to co-ordinate outings for others with visual
impairments.

In early 2004 Sharon, who as a young blind person, had long experience of the difficulties of making and maintaining friendships when your disability effects your mobility, set about forming a ‘young peoples vision impaired social group’, for young people in Canberra.

The group has been running successfully for the last year, organizing and running a variety of activities, events and enabling supportive networking.

Sharon grew up as a member of the Scout movement, and has made time every week for the last 5 years running active programs for Joeys, (6 and 7 year olds) as a volunteer at Lake Ginninderra Sea Scout Group.

The commitment that this person shows to others is further demonstrated by her recent graduation from CIT, with a diploma in Social Work, and she plans to continue to work with and for the community both as a career and as a volunteer.

There is much more to Sharon, and this is only a brief description.

Sharon was the recipient of the ACT Volunteer of the year award in 2005, and is now the ACT Young
Australian of the Year for 2006.

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.

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