The Brisbane Baroque founder speaks out over suggestions the new music festival is unwanted and plagiarised.

Leo Schofield AM is to direct a new festival in celebration of the voice, which he describes as “sharp, highly focused, broad-reaching and unlike any other festival out there.” However, not everyone is singing the praises of the planned event, which is due to run for 11 days from July 28.

Announced by NSW Tourism Minister Stuart Ayers yesterday, the festival, called Sydney Sings, will feature a range of events including jazz performances, choral concerts and recitals by some of Australia’s top vocal artists. It will be funded by the State’s Tourism body, Destination NSW. However, the Sydney Morning Herald has suggested that “yet another taxpayer funded festival,” was an unnecessary addition to Sydney’s “crowded arts calendar.”  

Schofield shot down those assertions, saying, “You can never have too many [Festivals] as long as they’re good. People like them enormously. I can’t go into any detail just yet, but Sydney Sings has very few elements that you can find in any other Australian festival.”

Schofield is one of Australian arts’ most indefatigable and outspoken luminaries. The 80-year-old...