For generations, Sir David Attenborough’s unmistakable voice has narrated the wonders of the natural world into living rooms across the globe. 

This September, Brisbane audiences will experience that familiar voice in a new way when Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra performs Academy Award-winning composer Steven Price’s score live alongside a screening of the acclaimed 2025 documentary Ocean with David Attenborough.

An immersive cinematic concert, it will celebrate the beauty of the world’s oceans while underscoring the urgent challenges they face.

David Attenborough. Photo © Keith Scholey/Silverback Films

The production arrives at a moment when live-to-film performances continue to flourish, introducing new audiences to orchestral music through the powerful combination of cinema and live performance. For Camerata, it also marks another significant collaboration with Brisbane Festival, a partnership that has steadily grown over recent years.

Artistic Associate and violinist Jason Tong says the festival has become an important fixture in the orchestra’s calendar.

“We’ve been able to have a really strong relationship with Brisbane Festival over the years,” he says. “It brings a really different audience to Camerata and a different energy to the concert hall, which we all feel.”

Camerata’s previous Brisbane Festival collaborations include concerts with Kate Miller-Heidke and Lior. Tong expects Ocean in Concert to reach an equally broad audience.

Part of that appeal lies in Attenborough himself. The veteran broadcaster, who turned 100 in May this year, remains one of the world’s most trusted and recognisable storytellers, his voice inseparable from decades of landmark BBC nature documentaries.

Jason Tong. Image © Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra

Like many Australians, Tong grew up with Attenborough’s films.

“For me it was The Life of Birds,” he says. “That was basically my childhood. We had the VHS tapes and I just loved them. Hearing his message throughout my childhood – I didn’t realise it until now – but it’s meant a lot to me.”

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Tong’s memories extend beyond Attenborough’s narration to the music that accompanied those iconic series.

“I realised the music that comes with these kinds of films is often just as iconic. It stays with you as well.”

The score is by British composer Steven Price, who won the Academy Award for Gravity and has since become one of contemporary cinema’s most sought-after composers. Although Tong had not previously encountered Price’s work firsthand, his first look at the score has left him eager to hear it fully realised.

“I’ve started looking at the score and preparing my part a little bit. I think when it all comes together as an orchestra it’s going to be really effective.”

A still from David Attenborough’s Oceans. Photo © Silverback Films

The performance also represents one of Camerata’s largest orchestral undertakings. While the ensemble typically performs with around 20 core musicians, Ocean in Concert expands dramatically to include full wind, brass and percussion sections.

“We’re bringing all the bells and whistles together for this program,” Tong says. “We’ll be quite a large orchestra – almost symphony sized.”

Film-with-live-orchestra presentations have become one of classical music’s fastest-growing formats, with audiences flocking to performances of everything from Star Wars and Harry Potter to contemporary documentaries. Tong believes the format offers more than entertainment – it changes the way audiences hear music.

“I think in its best presentation it brings a fresh perspective to the music, the composers and the musicians involved,” he says. “There’s something quite special about having an orchestra on stage while the audience experiences the visual media.”

The concerts also introduce many first-time concertgoers to orchestral performance.

“I grew up with the music of John Williams, like so many people,” Tong says. “When you think about iconic soundtracks – Star Wars, Bernard Herrmann’s music for Psycho – people often don’t realise just how important orchestral music has been throughout their lives.”

Even audiences who might never attend a Beethoven symphony quickly discover they already have a deep connection to orchestral sound.

“It highlights that classical music actually has a really large presence in people’s lives,” he says. “Even if they don’t necessarily come to Mozart or Beethoven, orchestral music has incredible diversity.”

Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra. Photo supplied

Experiencing those scores performed live adds a physical dimension impossible to recreate through speakers.

“I’m not much of an audiophile,” Tong laughs, “but I don’t know many people whose hi-fi system can match the physical experience of being in the presence of live music.”

For Brisbane Festival, Ocean in Concert also carries a timely environmental message. Attenborough’s latest documentary presents a sobering assessment of the damage caused by industrial fishing and habitat destruction while ultimately offering an optimistic vision of marine recovery through conservation.

Tong is careful not to position Camerata as an advocacy organisation, but says the orchestra has long recognised the importance of respecting the environments in which it creates music.

“Camerata has always been mindful of acknowledging our environment and the lands on which we make music,” he says. “It’s always been important for us to be respectful of that.”

Attenborough’s Ocean in Concert is performed in the Concert Hall, Queenland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, 16-17 September.

A 2026 Brisbane Festival event.