Cellist Charlotte Miles is just 23 and one of Australia’s rising stars. Now based in Germany, she has already amassed more than 100 Australian and international competition prizes, including the Special Prize of the Mozart-Gesellschaft München at the 2024 ARD International Cello Competition.

Returning to the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in 2026 after wowing audiences at her AFCM debut in 2023 (reviewer Gillian Wills wrote, “Miles is so good that every note her cello sings deserves to be heard”), she’s leading the AFCM lineup for the festival’s move to Cairns.

“AFCM is always the most amazing and exhausting week and a half of the year, and next year won’t be any different,” says Miles. “This will be my third AFCM in four years, and I’m just as fascinated to see how the Festival will adapt to its new spaces in Cairns as I am excited to see all the lovely people on the Festival team.”

“Most of all, I can’t wait to meet another inevitably fabulous crew of musicians! When you spend all day, every day living, eating and making music together, you end up having the kind of great conversations that can...