Musica Viva Australia Season Brochure | 2024

Welcome to Season 2O24
A child looking through a kaleidoscope
will turn the lens quickly, impatient for the
transformation, greedy for the image that
sits at the farthest point from the original.
An adult will savour the subtlest shift, able to
keep the two images in mind long enough to
marvel at the refractions.
I went into planning for 2024 thinking about
such subtle refractions. What happens if
we make our great love, chamber music,
the focus as we turn ever so slightly the
kaleidoscopic lens aimed at it?
By pure chance, in sitting down to write
this introduction I read a blog post from
the American composer and songwriter
Gabriel Kahane, whose national tour for us
in August/September 2024, with the brilliant
and charismatic violinist Pekka Kuusisto is
a cherished component of our season. He
was writing about a concert he curated
some months back: ‘The basic conceit of the
evening is to present a series of collages,
mosaics, jump-cuts, and juxtapositions that
occur within, as well as across, multiple
works.’ Sometimes it’s thrilling to look at
familiar works sideways, Gabriel seemed to
be saying.
So, choose your image or analogy; I’m happy
with either kaleidoscope or mosaic. To bring
the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
back to Australia is a privilege, but to have
it perform great twentieth-century religious
works alongside a commissioned work
from Damian Barbeler and Judith Nangala
Crispin, is an intimate way for the choir to
engage with Australian history.
Photo by Ben Fon.
Kirill Gerstein is an astonishing performer,
and here undertakes a new work by Liza Lim
in an already distinctive program. There’s
similar bounty in the tour of Lina Tur Bonet, a
Baroque violinist visiting Australia for the first
time with her ensemble Musica Alchemica.
The songs of William Bolcom have always
been close to my heart, with their hints
of Brecht and Bernstein; here they are
assembled into a touching show by director
Con Costi, performed by Anna Dowsley with
Michael Curtain on piano.
The tour by Ensemble Q is an opportunity
to hear the world’s oldest wind instrument
alongside Australia’s best wind players in a
new commission from William Barton. And
how great to include the young prize-winning
Esmé Quartet, whose Mendelssohn you just
have to hear.
I look forward to seeing you in concert halls
throughout the country!
Paul Kildea, Artistic Director
With special thanks to the MVA Director’s Circle and
the Amadeus Society for their support of Musica Viva
Australia’s 2024 Concert Season.
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