Here’s HELEN MUSA’S latest “Arts in the City” column.

ANTHONY Hunt will replace Simon Hewett to conduct the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s midwinter “Messiah” with Tobias Cole, Chloe Lankshear, Andrew Goodwin and Adrian Tamburini as soloists. Hunt, who makes his CSO debut on the podium, is head of music and chorus master at the State Opera of SA and will conduct two performances of Handel’s most famous work at Llewellyn Hall, July 8 and 9. 

BRITISH artist and operatic composer BP Moore has released two contemporary classical songs under the title “Monaro” in response to Nigel Featherstone’s new novel, “My Heart is a Little Wild Thing”. 

GEORGIA Pike-Rowney has been appointed lecturer and curator of the Friends of the Classics Museum. Pike holds degrees in classics and music from the ANU and is an expert in the material culture of ancient music as well as arts education from classical antiquity to the present day. She is also well-known in the Canberra musical theatre scene and as a public advocate for the therapeutic potential of singing. 

TWO of the country’s biggest drag artists Art Simone and Etcetera Etcetera, will be here with the ultimate “Priscilla” drag extravaganza. The Playhouse, July 8.

CANBERRA-born classical guitarist Rupert Boyd and his wife, the American cellist Laura Metcalf, will tour Australia exactly three years after their last trip here from New York. Boyd says the trip is mostly a chance to catch up with family and friends, but the duo will perform music from their new album, “Songs of Love and Despair”. Wesley Music Centre, 3pm, July 10.

LEGENDARY country singer Fanny Lumsden, 2020 winner of an ARIA for Best Country Album, and her band The Pack bring their “Fallow + Variations” show to The Street Theatre, 7.30pm on July 9.