Join us at Riverbend Books on Thursday 26th September to celebrate Gillian Wills’ new book, Big Music. Gillian will be joined in conversation with freelance soprano Katie Stenzel, a frequent singer in Opera Queensland productions. Katie will be performing an introductory song.

About the Book…

Beat is given a chance to shine when she is appointed 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, fraud, 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 - indeed the book has its own soundtrack - 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 an author and arts writer who has published with Limelight, Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, The Australian, Good Reading, The Strad, CutCommon, Loudmouth, Artist Profile, Inreview, Australian Stage Online and Courier Mail. Her short stories have been published with Dillydoun Review, Antonym, Dewsdrop, Unbelievable Stories and Hare’s Paw Literary Journal. Her memoir Elvis and Me: how a world-weary musician and a broken racehorse rescued each other, Finch Pty was released in 2016 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.