Composer Paul Dean tells Christopher Lawrence about the “weight of history” that comes with writing a work called “Symphony” ahead of the first performances of his new commission celebrating the Australian World Orchestra’s tenth birthday – and how his first ideas wound up in the bin – while Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s new Artistic Director, the singer-actor Alan Cumming, talks to Steve Dow about how he has fared in the face of “Ms Rona”, why he connects with Adelaide, and why ageing is hilarious.

On a more serious note, Amanda Harris uses the examples of John Antill’s orchestral ballet Corroboree – neither the first work, nor the last, in which a non-Indigenous composer sought to represent Australian distinctiveness by evoking Aboriginal culture – and the Australian Aborigines’ League’s production Aboriginal Moomba – Out of the Dark from the 1951 Jubilee, to discuss the issues around representation and cultural appropriation in Australian music history.