Since 1929, Sidney Myer Free Concerts have been a Melbourne tradition, with the MSO presenting at the Music Bowl from 1959 onwards. In 2026, the orchestra returns for the first time in 13 years with four concerts including its 120th-anniversary celebration, pairing Beethoven’s Fifth with Holly Harrison’s Hellbent and the world premiere of Fanfare by Cybec Young Composer in Residence Andrew Aronowicz; a collaboration with Warrnambool-based Find Your Voice Collective; a performance by the Australian Youth Orchestra under Christian Reif; and 50 Years of ABC Classic, featuring music by Elena Kats-Chernin, Ella Macens, Peter Sculthorpe and Nigel Westlake, among others.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Find Your Voice Collective (FYVC) unites 250 humans from more than a dozen regional Southwest Victorian communities in one, collective voice; welcoming all ages, genders, abilities, ethnicities, sexual preferences, religions and backgrounds. FYVC gives allyship to those with a lived experience of disability through art, education, and advocacy.

Join us for songs and stories celebrating the spectrum and depth of emotion and experience. Over 12 months, the MSO and FYVC have collaborated to bring together every beautiful and diverse element of our shared humanity, with a program from ten songwriters and artists who identify with a disability, orchestral musicians, four world-leading composers, and a 150-member choir.

FYVC artists have an uncanny ability to tell profound stories in ways that make people stop and listen. This show will give space for these artists to demonstrate why diversity of experience is so important and how the deepest truths often come to us from the most unlikely places.

This very special performance features original contemporary works written by d/Deaf & Disabled artists arranged by Nat Bartsch, Georgia Scott and Stefan Cassomenos.