2024 Women to Watch
This year we showcase over 80 South Australian women to watch throughout the year. From business, to careers, arts to science. This year’s selected women highlight the depth and diversity of the women in our state and also the vast array of opportunities to develop a business or career in South Australia. Find our more about our inaugural Women to Watch initiative here.
Celia Craig is an Honorary Associate Royal Academy of Music since 1997, Australian Women in Music Awards ‘Excellence in Classical Award’ 2023 and Creative Arts Fellow, National Library of Australia 2024.
Celia has experienced synaesthesia (sound and colour connection) since infancy. Personally mentored by Leonard Bernstein by invitation from the London Symphony Orchestra, her resulting artistic practice is characterised by strong communication with audiences..
As a professional player at the elite level, Celia toured to five continents, regularly recorded at Abbey Road and played for the Royal Family. She was appointed Chairman of BBC Symphony Orchestra, working closely with world-renowned soloists, touring as a frequent guest artist with London Symphony Orchestra.
Celia was Principal Oboe with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra 2011-2018. Master of The Kings Music, Dame Judith Weir CBE, dedicated Celia her first Oboe Concerto.
Other projects include:
Debut recording on new label ‘Artaria’ – Australian Cultural Fund, 2017
Fellowship: ‘Exploring new Artistic Directions’- Arts South Australia, 2020
‘Metamorphosis’ (with Indigenous photographer Finn Mellor) – Arts South Australia, 2021
‘Carmen Perpetuum’ (composers Judith Weir, Anne Cawrse)- Arts South Australia, 2023
Tarrawatta Trio: ‘Evolution’ (composer Caspar Hawksley) – Australian Cultural Fund, 2023
‘Songs without Words’ (Regional Residency by Tarrawatta Trio)- Arts South Australia, 2023
‘Complete Accord’ (Creative Arts Fellowship) – National Library of Australia, 2024
Celia is a visiting lecturer at Royal Academy of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and national presenter of ‘Colours of Home’: synesthesia- inspired primary school program for Musica Viva in Schools.
// Favourite inspirational quote
“Arts aren’t a luxury. They are actually what makes life worth living … and they are a reason to keep going…” Cllr Liz Clements, Birmingham City Council, 2024
// Let’s get to know you
I’ve been immersed in music since infancy, hearing music in vivid colour since age 4 and like all other synesthetes, I thought that was normal. By age 16 I was studying for hours every day, attending the Royal Academy of Music and The Purcell School (Patron, Prince Charles) in London. I won lots of Prizes, Scholarships and Awards.
I’ve had an international level elite orchestral career: London Symphony Orchestra, Abbey Road, Royal Albert Hall, touring to St Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, New York, Boston and recently was Soloist with the Thai Philharmonic Orchestra. Synesthesia helps me decide if I’m playing in tune, but it only happens when everyone is “in flow”.
However, it’s not normal to see music in colour- it’s quite rare, only about 1 in every 2000 people, and this type of neurodiversity (linked to ADHD) can be fragile; involving mental overwhelm, while admitting it may lead to bullying. How I wish I’d known that Leonard Bernstein, when I was one of his mentees in an intense month in Japan 1990, was also a synesthete! The inspiration in common with other artists such as Duke Ellington, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Billie Eillish and Lorde: the condition leads to exceptionally focussed creative work and an overdeveloped need to share highly emotional, immersive flow experiences.
I now feel incredibly engaged with Musica Viva in Schools as my improvised oboe and jazz electric guitar show ‘Colours of Home’ has now played to about 6000 children, found about 10 synesthetes, and made them feel cool and important.
One little girl in Mount Gambier was released from her ‘locked in syndrome’ and people often cry: it’s very moving and I enjoy touring around regional, remote and metropolitan Australia for Musica Viva in Schools. Nobody in a school ever knows I used to work with Bernstein or play at Het Concertgebouw; I just turn up and we improvise and play music games with jazz guitar, in primary schools, to some riotous young audiences. It’s quite a change but the audience reaction is so worth it and I feel we are using our skills to instill real enthusiasm: in a way it’s much better than playing at Carnegie Hall to rich audiences. My guitarist colleague is composer Caspar Hawksley.
I also play with my Trio Tarrawatta (Peremangk word, named after land and people of Eden Valley Barossa, where we started, playing at the founding Homestead of South Australia with kind permission of National Trust SA and the Angas family). With Thomas Marlin, cello and Michael Ierace, piano, we have formed a Trio that both represents and inspires South Australian independent classical music. We play recitals, including private opening the new North Adelaide Baroque Hall, and we do masterclasses and education work, and we work on breaking down barriers to classical music, engaging audiences in smaller more private salon concerts where you can sit close with us and interact with the musicians during and afterwards. With Michael and Tom I have found international standard musicians who should be public figures, leading the debate for music education in SA. Our musical conversation is intimate and involved. in 2024, we have music by Miriam Hyde, and two new commissions in 2024/5, from Caspar Hawksley and Lachlan Skipworth.
For domestic reasons I pivoted my career in London to Australia, and now again when my kids left school, I have gone solo to work on my life plan and mission; to do for classical music what Jamie Oliver did for food.
// What makes you a Woman to Watch for 2024?
Recently my personal journey has included both ADHD and ASD potential diagnoses. I’m determined, focussed and resilient (and a bit stubborn). So now I think, if I am identified as such, and my synesthesia is a neurodiversity anyway, perhaps I can do some good in society by amplifying the experience for a wider audience and spotlighting the joy and benefits of high level artistry. I used to play on all the top film scores, at Abbey Road, so I know the level of artistry that goes into films that we all love and enjoy. I’m sure now I am on the verge of doing for classical music, what Jamie Oliver did for food…
Music is for all to enjoy and immerse and participate in for our mental health- and so I continue building on themes of female creativity, landscapes of South Australia, and flow performances with colour.
// What is your goal or intention for the year ahead? And how are you going to achieve it?
My goal for 2024 is to complete and amplify the story of Miriam Hyde OAM, with my Trio Tarrawatta, through diverse means online and live and through the media.
I was awarded a 2024 Creative Arts Fellowship at National Library of Canberra. My research focuses on composer and pianist Miriam Hyde, originally from Adelaide, eventually a national icon known in Sydney for her dedicated work for children through examinations and competitions. Australia remembers her as an elderly lady- whereas in 1932-35 she was a teenage virtuoso synesthete who took London by storm! Seeing younger pictures, hearing her bubbly letters and seeing synesthesic video productions and perhaps live synesthic experiences or installations, to see pictures of the young Miriam instead of the usual venerable Old Lady pictures, and hear her own words, may well inspire new generations of South Australian female artists.
With my Trio using unpublished manuscripts at the National Library, we will rediscover Miriam Hyde through her letters, drawings, and above all her music: productions inspired by synesthesia featuring landscapes of South Australia.
// What would being a Woman to Watch mean to you?
The title would help me spotlight the importance of classical music education. I’m inspired by figures like Jamie Oliver, Brian Cox, Nicola Benedetti who are passionate about what they do (and do it at a very high elite level) and yet manage to make the subject relevant to a wider public, through the forces of charisma and passion.
In this I am personally channeling my time with Leonard Bernstein. It was in the final months of his life where he told us (a small cohort, of London Symphony Orchestra pupils at a time when he was LSO President) that he was dedicating his life to passing on the baton of music education. I would be so proud to be a Woman to Watch in 2024 because my bodies of work have these themes: women’s stories, independent creatives working without the help of large organisations, context of South Australia. It would enhance my National Library Creative Arts Fellow appointment but keep my focus into South Australia.
This might also help sell my Musica Viva primary schools show, which could be delivered to every primary school in our State (for example with help from a charity or foundation) and help to build a new generation of musically aware children in our local community. Not everyone has to be a professional or go on to study music, but we know participating in music has huge cognitive and social benefits, at every age, developing cooperation, discipline, empathy. Colours of Home and Tarrawatta Trio can be the interface between the wider public, and real musicians practicing and showcasing their skills and musical conversations. As an independent, self-funded musician, I have no PR agent or marketing budget and this would be such useful publicity. As an Arrow, the award would make me feel accepted as a real part of the community too and meet a new network of interesting SA women!
// What would you like to see for the future of South Australian women and girls?
You can’t be what you can’t see, so our women in positions of power such as politicians and our current Lord Mayor, are vital. With my Miriam Hyde Creative Fellowship I aim to be a part of amplifying stories of creative women in South Australia, to inspire our future girls. I was so proud to be on staff at Seymour College, and recognised by AWMA, for this reason. My project Songs Without Words in regional SA, deliberately took the angle of female educators. My collaborators in Tarrawatta Trio, have both been affected by charismatic and supportive women in their training. Women’s stories are often suppressed but if we can celebrate virtuosity (rather than making this too much of a polarising narrative) and stay positive in our language and presentations, girls will be inspired. Now is an important time to protect and support women’s emancipation because of what is happening in the wider world. South Australia has a proud progressive history, and we are a live part of it: continuing the story and the development of our community, working alongside our most supportive and talented male colleagues to create a brighter future together for our State.
Get in touch with Celia:
LinkedIn: Celia Craig
Website: www.celiacraig.com.au
Check out all of the incredible Women to Watch for 2024 here as their profiles are uploaded throughout the year.
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