Who is Carolyn Chard AM?
An arts administrator who loves the arts in every form including music, opera, dance, fashion, literature and design. A grateful recipient of a Queens Birthday Order of Australia honour (2018) and of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music (2023). Mother to an incredibly wonderful daughter and Gigi to her divine daughter.
What would you do differently from what you do now?
We all make choices everyday about how we live, work, spend time and move about the world. I think the choice I made to be in the arts was the right one for me. After four decades working in this space wanting to do differently would seem like regret. There’s a beautiful Rumi quote that says ‘let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray’.
Who inspires you and why?
The artists and artworkers who all come together to create something magical in the theatre, to find that moment where all the detail and every individual contribution finds a magical synergy that, in live performance, is always fleeting and unique. Singers, artists, musicians, conductors, directors, designers, stage managers, crew, who all devote their time, talent and passion to their craft and without each one, nothing would work.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
Enable everyone to actively engage in the arts. For society to value, appreciate and recognise the daily need to be soaked in art. Teach music in schools. Provide free tickets to performances. Pedestal artists in the same way as we value our great sporting heroes. Enable happiness in the world through the arts and hope that this forces a less chaotic world where peace, harmony and balance is restored.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
Anywhere with great culture, architecture and shopping. Somewhere that forces a disruption to your daily routine. Places that make you excited to travel the world. Recently I was in Singapore meeting family on their way back from Europe, and before that Bali for two special family birthdays.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
Perth is a welcoming city with some of the best beaches both in the city and down south around Yallingup. Summer life offers great festival experiences so visits to Perth Festival and Fringe Festival would be on the list. Kaarta Koomba (Kings Park) shows off the city and the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) is one of the world’s largest inner-city parks.
What are you currently reading?
I’m reading The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne, a memoir which includes family stories (father Dominick Dunne, aunt Joan Didion, uncle John Dunne, all writers). I’m starting Love Stories by Trent Dalton. And I love my granddaughter reading her favourite stories to me.
What are you currently listening to?
Always a wide range. Dance music, the kind you feel in your body on a dancefloor. Beautiful music that speaks to your soul. Parsifal overture. Adagietto, Death in Venice (Mahler Symphony N°5). Nick Cave’s Into My Arms. Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana.
Happiness is?
Happiness is often found around art and music and connection. There’s a quote from Tatiana Nikolayeva, a pianist, who said ‘the art of music can help human beings to cope with the tragic losses in life, and bring happiness into their life. Life is limited but art is eternal. Music enriches human life and makes people better’. There’s another quote from Cate Blanchett who is said ‘the arts are what we stay alive for, what we work all week for, what we dream about, what connects us and indeed what some would say makes us human’.
What does the future hold for you?
The immediate future is the presentation of a clever and moving Circa and Opera Queensland production of Orpheus and Eurydice directed by Yaron Lifschitz and conducted by Chris van Tuinen which we will present in the gorgeous 120-year-old theatre, His Majesty’s Theatre.
Carolyn Chard AM is the executive director of West Australian Opera, which is currently presenting Orpheus & Eurydice at His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth, and is in preparation for Opera in the Quarry, this November, at the Quarry Amphitheatre.
Image: Carolyn Chard AM – photo by Alana Blowfield