Melanie Penicka-Smith
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Sarah Penicka-Smith
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Penicka-smith arts & event management
With 30 years' combined experience in the arts & event industries (and counting), Penicka-Smith Arts & Event Management is how we combine Mel's dynamism, eye for detail & quick thinking with Sarah's vision, creativity, & communication.
It's also how we make the art we think the world's missing.
Commissioning & producing new opera, creating & touring a pride choir, bringing high quality classical music into hospitals, working with communities to tell their own stories through art - we've done all this, and more. Together we've worked with community choirs, orchestras, & choral festivals, produced chamber & children's operas, led international choir tours, & provided consultancy services to amateur & professional organisations.
This website brings together both our partnership & our individual professional pursuits. Click the links to read more.
It's also how we make the art we think the world's missing.
Commissioning & producing new opera, creating & touring a pride choir, bringing high quality classical music into hospitals, working with communities to tell their own stories through art - we've done all this, and more. Together we've worked with community choirs, orchestras, & choral festivals, produced chamber & children's operas, led international choir tours, & provided consultancy services to amateur & professional organisations.
This website brings together both our partnership & our individual professional pursuits. Click the links to read more.
News
2026 brings big changes.
Sarah is pursuing professional development opportunities overseas in the fields of symphonic and operatic conducting and community engagement, including visits to Bilbao Opera, Oslo Philharmonic, the Fundaçion Barenboim-Said, and Göttinger Symphonieorchester. She continues her collaboration with Italian conductor Maestro Carlo Montanaro, and is also looking forward to working more with Maestro Nicholas Milton AM.
Mel will begin a position with The Cad Factory, helping to produce RIVER STORIES, a major new project that crosses several states of Australia.
Sarah is pursuing professional development opportunities overseas in the fields of symphonic and operatic conducting and community engagement, including visits to Bilbao Opera, Oslo Philharmonic, the Fundaçion Barenboim-Said, and Göttinger Symphonieorchester. She continues her collaboration with Italian conductor Maestro Carlo Montanaro, and is also looking forward to working more with Maestro Nicholas Milton AM.
Mel will begin a position with The Cad Factory, helping to produce RIVER STORIES, a major new project that crosses several states of Australia.
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Next gig:
HYMN OF PRAISE Ayako Ohtake (Soprano), Elias Wilson (Tenor), Willoughby Symphony Choir & Willoughby Symphony Orchestra Featuring music of Ella Macens, Felix Mendelssohn’s LOBGESANG, and premieres of Miloslav Pěnička (yes, Sarah’s dad) and the Willoughby Symphony Young Composer Award 2026. 2.00pm 27 September The Concourse Concert Hall, Chatswood |
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'Churchill Trust celebrates another year of bold change-makers'...
and Sarah Penicka-Smith was one of them!
and Sarah Penicka-Smith was one of them!
Sarah was thrilled to be awarded a 2024 Churchill Fellowship to investigate socially-engaged orchestral and operatic models in the USA, Spain, Poland and Germany, in order to run projects in Australia.
Her report was recently published on the Churchill Trust’s website, and includes stories and case studies from her travels, practical insights into issues like governance and funding, and some challenging and unexpected questions, such as the ethics of audience engagement.
Her report was recently published on the Churchill Trust’s website, and includes stories and case studies from her travels, practical insights into issues like governance and funding, and some challenging and unexpected questions, such as the ethics of audience engagement.