More arts news from the pen of arts editor HELEN MUSA and her Arts in the City column.

The World of Musicals in Concert returns to Canberra with classic hits, with ballads, anthems and show tunes from Broadway and the West End. The artists are from the UK, Ireland and Australia and it’s billed as suitable for all the family. Canberra Theatre, May 5.

Meagan Loader will join the National Film and Sound Archive’s executive team as its chief curator. She’ll be in the NFSA’s Sydney office and will direct collecting activities and advance strategies for collection interpretation, programming and research. Loader’s extensive broadcasting experience includes more than a decade at the ABC.

“Leipzig, at last!” Canberra Bach Ensemble director Andrew Koll is shouting as he and the ensemble prepare to travel to Bachfest 2024 in Germany, June 7-16. But first, they’ll perform Bach’s Chorale Cantata Cycle 1724-1725 at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka, May 11-12.

Sidney Nolan’s nine-panel, 11-metre-long work, Riverbend, is usually on permanent display in the Drill Hall Gallery, but now has a temporary home in the Nolan Gallery at Canberra Museum and Gallery until July 28. Nolan painted Riverbend far from Australia in his studio near the Thames in London, England, shortly before taking up a fellowship at the Australian National University in 1965. It features glimpses of a masked Ned Kelly within a dense landscape of tall river gums. As CMAG holds a substantial collection of Kelly paintings, this offers a rare chance to view the works at the same time.

Canberra-raised musical star Queenie van de Zandt will be at the 5th Australian Musical Theatre Festival in Launceston, May 15-19. Artistic director Tyran Parke has put together 19 events over five days.

Named after the medieval French word for “beloved”, the German-based Korean chamber ensemble Esmé Quartet will be here for the first time with Musica Viva to perform Webern, Mendelssohn, Debussy and 28-year-old Australian composer Jack Frerer’s Spiral Sequences. Llewellyn Hall, May 10.