Maestro John Foreman reflects on his life in music and the quest to discover unsung heroes to inspire us in the Australian of the Year Awards.
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John Foreman, the resident Ready-Please-Mr-Music of Australian television, is momentarily lost for words.
Foreman is best known for orchestrating 20 years of Carols by Candlelight concerts on Channel Nine, presiding over the annual Australia Day Live concert from the Sydney Opera House, mentoring the original hopefuls of Australian Idol as the talent show's first musical director and tickling the late Bert Newton's ivories for 12 years on Good Morning Australia.
From composing the song Tina Arena belted out as the Olympic flame was lit at the 2000 Sydney Games to producing recordings for Guy Sebastian, Anthony Callea and Marcia Hines and conducting the Aussie Pops Orchestra as soprano Marina Prior emotes the high notes, Foreman has crammed a lot of music-making and showmanship into his 52 years.
Since 2023 he has combined the creative rewards of his first love with the role of chairman of the National Australia Day Council, the federal government body that oversees the Australian of the Year Awards and other celebrations of our national day.
Foreman is on the phone from Melbourne to talk about the call for nominations for the 2025 Australian of the Year, but I've diverted him to fond memories of his childhood growing up in Newcastle and a performance he gave there almost four decades ago.
It's Australia Day in the bicentenary year, 1988, and the sun is shining on a foreshore park at Lake Macquarie where a teenage Foreman is rocking an open-air stage with local band Train of Thought.
Bopping smoothly between two keyboards, the whippet-skinny piano man chimes in with backing vocals while the lead guitarist in mullet, cap and sunnies belts out original tracks to a crowd lazing on the grass. Foreman is the only one in the band wearing a collared shirt and long pants. He also sports red braces.
To me and my fellow players in an amateur youth theatre troupe that also performed at Speers Point Park on that day way back in 1988, the band Train of Thought was pretty cool.
When I tell him this there's a slight pause at the other end of the phone line - perhaps for effect or perhaps Foreman is buffering.
"Well," he splutters with a laugh, "that is a great memory. And I think this may be the first time I've ever been described as cool in my youth - even retrospectively!
"Train of Thought was a lot of fun. It was one of my first ever bands, and so it was all very exciting for me. The leader of the band was Scott Bevan. People who know Scott as a journalist and an ABC correspondent and newsreader would be surprised to think of him jumping up and down on stage in band in the '80s. But Scott was the creative force behind it and he wrote the songs.
"Before Train of Thought I was in a ska band at high school. I was in year seven at Kotara High so I didn't really know what ska music was but, hey, I was playing in a band and the other kids were in year 10. The band was called Eskargo, which we thought was hilarious with a little picture of a snail in our logo. We played in live venues in Newcastle. Those early experiences of performing were just fantastic for me."
He was not the long-haired teen rock god type, as those sensible trousers and flamboyant red braces would suggest.
"I think I still had a pretty formal haircut back then - mine was not a particularly cool look," he chuckles. "But looking back, I was lucky to have a pretty broad cross-section of musical opportunities that ranged from bands like Train of Thought and Eskago to a jazz band, the NBN children's choir, a children's orchestra and even joining in that more formal, classical world of music making at Newcastle Conservatorium of Music.
"Newcastle is a great city. I loved growing up there. For me, it was the perfect size because it was big enough to have lots of great opportunities for young musicians but it was also small enough that you felt a part of what was going on. I used to sing in the NBN children's choir. Can you believe it? The local television station had a children's choir. We did a Christmas special every year. People who don't have the experience of growing up in regional cities and towns might not realise they can have stronger cultural, musical and artistic threads running through them than you'd expect."
Making music in the community
First taught to play Chopsticks on the family piano by his university professor father Phil, Foreman can't remember a time when he wasn't out in the community making music.
"I really enjoyed joining in the musical life in Newcastle as much as I could, starting at school in choirs and bands," he recalls. "Making music in the community educated me about its power to bring people together, to help people have a good time. Whether they are dancing in a club or being swept away by the majesty of an orchestral concert, I could see how music unifies people."
First, though, he had to find the courage to put himself, and his art, out there.
"I remember what a teacher I had in year 10 told me when one of the producers from the NSW Schools Spectacular was travelling around Newcastle schools auditioning people," he says. "I didn't think there was any point in my auditioning because I thought they're not going to be interested in a jazz piano player. The show had big orchestras and rock bands and choirs and I just didn't think I'd fit in. And this teacher said 'Well, what have you got to lose if you audition and you don't get in? You've only lost 10 minutes of your lunchtime. And if you do get in, well, who knows what might come of it?'
"At that stage I was so consumed with the fear of failure and I didn't want to put myself in a position where I might audition for something and not get in. And he taught me a very powerful lesson, which is that there's no harm in giving something a go. That lesson has certainly stayed with me. It has helped me make decisions along the way - to just have a go."
The teachers who inspired him
Among those who have supported him or given him opportunities throughout his career, Foreman regards the teachers as his unsung champions. Moving with his family to Sydney when he was 16, he finished his schooling at Conservatorium High School, the secondary arm of the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, and the only specialist music high school in NSW. Two years studying jazz at the conservatorium followed.
"That period opened up an amazing world for me where I was able to study classical piano with Nikolai Evrov, who had moved from Europe, and learn from people like Don Burrows, George Goller, Mike Nock and all the great jazz musicians of Sydney. New worlds of musical opportunity opened up for me there.
"All of the music teachers I was lucky enough to have over the years - the private tutors and the teachers at school - inspired me in so many ways, instilling in me that practice makes if not perfect, at least better. That was a very important lesson to learn early on - the persistence that's required as a young person to practice a musical instrument. Plus that just-give-it-a-go mindset."
Tickling Bert Newton's ivories
As his wise year 10 teacher had predicted, Foreman landed that spot in the NSW Schools Spectacular. He'd go on to be Young Talent Time's "discovery of the week" in 1987 and win the inaugural Nescafe Big Break award which paid for production of a CD, No Jivin, that was nominated for an ARIA.
A live club show with Bert and Patti Newton then led, at the age of 19, to his gig as Bert's resident piano man on Good Morning Australia at Network Ten, which also tapped him to be musical director of Australian Idol, where he helped shape the pop star dreams of Guy Sebastian, Shannon Noll, Anthony Callea and Casey Donovan, among others.
"There's been a tremendous amount of luck along the way," he says. "I have always been aware of that because being a musician can be a tough road and precarious but I've been able to move from one job to the next. When the opportunity to work with Bert came along, of course I jumped at that.
"It was the same with the National Australia Day Council. It came about because of my work on the Australia Day Live concert in Sydney since 2015. I've loved pulling together a big national television show that celebrates the diversity of Australian life and gives us all a sense of unity on our national day."
Leading Australia's national day
When Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman, rang to ask if he was interested in following ex-Hockeyroo Danni Roche as council chair, Foreman admits his initial reaction was to "make sure that he'd dialled the right person".
"We all probably have self doubt in those sorts of moments. But I'm always up for a challenge and always up for something new. And I have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know our country better and especially to see the incredible work being done by so many people through the Australian of the Year Awards.
"One of the joys so far has been hearing the incredible stories of these generous people doing so much for this country - sometimes quietly and without any attention and sometimes, quite rightly, with the attention and admiration of many people.
"This year's Australians of the Year, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, have been an absolute inspiration. As scientists, they have received attention and applause all over the world. And the example they've set is powerful because, as well as the very human story of Professor Scolyer putting his life on the line so that more advanced cancer treatments might be discovered and developed, the two of them together have shone a light on the sophistication of medical science in Australia.
"That they were nominated by someone in the community says so much about Australia, and that's the beauty of the awards."
Singing the praises of musicians
Nominations for the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards close at midnight on July 31.
In 65 years, musicians or singers have earned the top gong only six times: Lee Kernaghan (2008); Yothu Yindi's Mandawuy Yunupingu (1992); John Farnham (1987); orchestra conductor and musician Sir Bernard Heinze (1974); The Seekers (1967); and Dame Joan Sutherland (1961).
Presumably John Foreman wants to see more music-makers nominated for 2025?
"I have to be careful to remember which hat I'm wearing," he laughs. "Let's just say I encourage people from all walks of life to nominate someone who inspires them."
That's a very diplomatic, very chairman-of-the-National-Australia-Day-Council answer, I tease.
"When we're involved in the decision-making process as a group, we do have to put our own biases aside and look at who is the person who inspires Australia. Musicians can be very inspiring people, for sure. I think what Australians are looking for is inspiration - in whatever form. If there's a great singer or storyteller or musician who inspires you - or a scientist or a volunteer or a sports person or just someone in your community who you think deserves attention - now's the time to nominate them.
"That simple act could have a huge impact, not just for the person nominated but, just as importantly, for the country."
Who inspires you?
Help find the 2025 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero by nominating someone you admire. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. Nominating is easy and can be done online at australianoftheyear.org.au. Nominations close at midnight on July 31
- ACM, the publisher of this masthead, is proud to be media partner of the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards.