Claire Spencer
Claire Spencer. Photo © Mark Gambino

Claire Spencer

The Chief Executive Officer of Arts Centre Melbourne reflects on singing in church as a child, favourite concerts, and music that has kept her sane during lockdown, from Bach’s Goldberg Variations to Hamilton.

I always panic a bit when I am asked about my music preferences and passions. I am not a musician you see, can’t play a note (unless you label poor recorder playing in the 1970s “playing”). But I have loved music all my life. It’s always been there in the background – a theme tune for a year or a life event, an obsessively played album, the tape recordings from the radio shows that played the charts on...