With Christmas on the horizon, and the New Year just around the corner, our expanded holiday issue, offering plenty to read over the summer break, is at the printer.

Our cover image features Cate Blanchett as fictional conductor Lydia Tár in the movie TÁR, for which she has received rave reviews and a Golden Globe nomination. In the accompanying cover story, A Maestro’s Reckoning, Blanchett tells Harriet Cunningham about her intensive preparation for the role, which saw her take to the podium to conduct the Dresden Philharmonic (standing in for the Berlin Philharmonic) and also play the piano. Cunningham also talks with actor Nina Hoss, who plays Tár’s Concertmaster and wife in her film debut, and Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who wrote the original music, about the movie and its depiction of the classical music world.

Times are changing in the wake of the pandemic, so what do the arts have in store for Australian audiences this year? In an extensive feature, 2023: Back in the Swing, Yvonne Frindle, Paul Ballam-Cross, Deborah Jones, Steve Dow and Jansson J. Antmann analyse what’s on offer from orchestras and choirs, small to medium ensembles, opera, dance and...