Born in Naples, composer Cesare Bixio became one of Italy’s most popular songwriters during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He composed his first song, “Suonno e Fantasia,” at the age of 13. Some of his best-known compositions are “Mamma,” “Vivere,” “Parlami d'amore,” “Mariù,” and “La mia canzone al vento.” In 1920 he founded the first Italian music publishing house in Milan, Bixio Publishing Group. The company specialized particularly in soundtracks for films at a time when talking films were replacing silent ones. Bixio composed the music for the first Italian sound film, “La Canzone dell’Amore,” in 1930. He became one of Italy’s most respected soundtrack composers.

A French composer of the Romantic era, Bizet is best known for Carmen, one of the most often performed and popular works in the opera repertoire. His realistic approach influenced the verismo school of opera.

A brilliant student at the Conservatoire, Bizet won many prizes including the Prix de Rome which brought with it a five-year state pension and two years to be spent at the French Academy in Rome.

When his Rome grant expired, Bizet discovered that Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were also ignored and he was unable to make a living from writing music and resorted to teaching and arranging and transcribing others’ work.

His Symphony in C Major of 1855 was lost and not discovered until 1935 but compares favourably to works written by Mozart and Mendelssohn at the same age. After his death, except for Carmen, his work was largely neglected. After its premiere in March of 1875 Bizet was convinced it was a failure and died suddenly a few months later.

Bizet’s output was considerable but very few of his compositions - opera, orchestral works and songs and works for piano - were performed. His manuscripts were given away or lost, and published versions of his works were frequently revised and adapted. After long being neglected, his work began to be performed in the 20th century and he was acclaimed as a brilliant composer and his death a loss to French musical theatre.

Mats Bjorklund is a talented Swedish singer/songwriter and studio musician.

During the 1960s he played in records with the Swedish band The Spotniks, one of the world’s leading guitar groups. He played with Bony M, a German pop group, and worked with other well-known disco artists and groups in West Germany in the 1970s. In the 1980s he played with Italian pop star Umberto Tozzi and the Al Bano & Romino Poser duo, winner of the 1984 San Remo Festival, and in several of their disco albums, as well as with Donna Summers, an American pop singer and composer of international fame in the disco era.

Bjorklund moved to Australia in 1988 where he performs as a solo artist, singing and playing guitar in venues around Melbourne. On his returns to Sweden he has appeared in Uppsala at the highly regarded music venue “Katalin”. He is a member of bands and groups in both countries: in Sweden Major Nine, Bjorklund & Schultz, Sunnysides orkester and Uppsala Högar and in Australia Masters of Disguise and The Red Herrings folk music group. He is currently guitarist in the Nordic folk music group “Nordanlåt” based in Melbourne and has appeared at folk music festivals including the Nordic Festival in Warburton, the Maldon Folk Music Festival and the Newstead Folk Music Festival. At the Australian Songwriters Awards in 2017 his composition “A dragon fly” qualified in the top 30 in the folk category.

In 2019 he performed at the Oak Tree Tavern with his newly formed MatsB Band during the Basin Music Festival in Melbourne and is presently performing under the artist name MatsB which is appropriate for the international market.

Black United Front, also known as The Black United Front of Nova Scotia or simply BUF, was a Black nationalist organization primarily based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Preceded by the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP), the BUF organization was founded by William Pearly Oliver and Burnley "Rocky" Jones, among others. It arose out of a meeting held on November 30, 1968, in Halifax to discuss the creation of an organization to act as an advocate and resource agency for the black community in Nova Scotia. An interim committee was established to secure funding. On August 15, 1969, the federal government announced its financial support, leading to the creation of the Black United Front (BUF). It was loosely based on the 10-point program of the Black Panther Party.

BUF did a lot to benefit the Black Nova Scotian community. The organization held discussions about employment, housing, and educational opportunities. The group also formed its community police force to keep hard drugs out of Halifax communities, prevent police brutality in communities of colour, and build a park for young children called the Tot-Lot. Additionally, they provided legal aid in the form of free legal advice and discounted or even free legal services to the Black community. The Black United Front reportedly "Shook up whites in Canada." It was one of the first advocates for a Black Cultural Centre (established in 1983) that promoted black culture and history via cable television programmes, black cultural expos, and black history month. It also conducted several demographic profiles of black communities to obtain little-known statistics on black populations. In late 1983, a funding crisis occurred when the provincial government withdrew its financial support due to what it considered to be funding irregularities. On October 10, 1984, funding was restored after an acceptable interim organization was created to restructure the organization. The reconstituted organization continued to promote earlier BUF objectives and paid greater attention to education and literacy, affirmative action, and the provision of legal services. By early 1996, however, negative media profiles, continuous underfunding, and a lack of accountability and government commitment led to the disbandment of the organization.