Whether he was worried about his beloved Aston Villa’s chances in this weekend’s League Cup final clash with Manchester Utd, or maybe it was a case of first night flutters, but Nigel Kennedy’s latest collaboration with the Sydney Symphony took a little while to warm up.

As always keen to bend genres and break down the stuffiness of classical music concert etiquette, the 53-year-old English “cat with a Strad” is touring with a program of works by two disparate musical geniuses in Johann Sebastian Bach and Duke Ellington.

Switching throughout the evening …

Saturday, 20 February 2010: Kevin Moses-trained Deltona has led all of the way to win the Listed Parramatta Cup (2000m) at Rosehill today adding to the exceptional week of jockey and new father Tim Clark.
Deltona went into the race off a narrow defeat at the hands of Wayne Wilkes-trained Tagus at Rosehill on February 6 over 1800m.
While Tagus was searching for a third straight win, Deltona met the Patinack Farm/Gerry Harvey-owned gelding a kilo better off at the weights.
Urged straight to the lead by jockey Tim Clark, Deltona fended off …

What happens to a child when you remove her from home to be raised elsewhere? It’s a question answered too often by tragedy in our national history and with which we’re still grappling, two years after Prime Minister stood in Parliament and said ‘sorry’ to the stolen generations.

In 2008, the year of Rudd’s apology, two significant works focused on an archetypal example of Australia’s early ‘civilising’ experiment – the story of Matthina, an Indigenous girl and daughter of the Tasmanian Lowreene tribe’s chief, who was chosen in 1835 by the …

Five Sydney men will be sentenced today over a plot to commit attacks in Australia.
A New South Wales Supreme Court jury last October found the five guilty of the conspiracy which involved stockpiling explosive chemicals and firearms.
Prosecutors said the men are devout Muslims driven by extremist beliefs to plot violence in retaliation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The men are aged 25 to 44.
Justice Anthony Whealy will sentence the men today at a purpose-built court in Parramatta.

Police are investigating whether a dispute between rival bikie gangs may have been behind a fire at a tattoo parlour owned by a former member of the rock group Rose Tattoo.

The blaze at House of Pain, in Annandale, was spotted shortly before 12.30am yesterday and neighbours in adjoining units had to be evacuated.
The parlour is owned by Steve King, who played with Rose Tattoo from 2000.
Mr King was believed to have been a member of the Nomads gang, but may have switched his allegiance and joined the Hells Angels shortly …