Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti’s 2026 program is deeply rooted in place, from site-specific bell works at Parliament House and the National Carillon to chamber and choral premieres.
Anna-Louise Cole sings Wagner Lieder and Strauss’s Four Last Songs, the Australian String Quartet surveys British music from Purcell to Britten and Rebecca Clarke, and Switzerland’s Ensemble Contrechamps delivers a meditative performance of Jürg Frey’s Récit des sensations fragiles at Snow Concert Hall. Luminescence Chamber Singers unveils a program built around a bespoke vocal-processing system, while The Rite of Spring closes the festival in Stravinsky’s own arrangement for two pianos and percussion

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Popular music and street songs have evolved dramatically across eras and cultures. In Gassenhauer, we traverse continents and centuries to bring you a program of pop tunes in art-music settings, performed by the electrifying Ensemble Liaison.

Gassenhauer translates loosely from German as a popular street song or ‘hit’. In the 1700s that included a Viennese earworm from Joseph Weigl’s opera L’amor Marinaro, which Beethoven famously reimagined in his Trio Op. 11.

‘Pop and classical music in thrilling and witty conversation’

Ensemble Liaison continues their journey through time with Manuel de Falla’s Popular Songs and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, first unveiled in the landmark 1924 concert An Experiment in Modern Music. Gershwin’s jazz-inflected masterpiece has since become a cultural icon, appearing in films and television from Manhattan and Fantasia to The Great Gatsby, The Simpsons, Family Guy and even Gremlins 2. The program also features Nat Bartsch’s pristine arrangement of Kate Ceberano’s Bedroom Eyes, the highest-selling Australian single of 1989.