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

Our Festival Finale unites towering 20th century works and an exciting Festival commission to reveal the two-piano-plus-percussion ensemble at its most visceral and expressive.

Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances (1940), heard here in its original two-piano form, is his final musical statement – an autumnal work of rhythmic vigour, lush harmonies, and haunting reflection, culminating in a triumphant transformation of an Orthodox chant.

‘A unique chamber version of an orchestral classic – a visceral experience’

Festival composer-in-residence Fiona Hill approaches the form with a new work that stretches percussion instrumentally and performatively, generating exciting new sonic and dramaturgical languages. Her finely-honed command of timbre, combined with extensive training as a concert pianist, places her in a formidable position to engage with – and challenge – the surrounding 20th century heavyweight pieces.