For a town of less than 4000 people, Port Fairy packs an arts punch way above its weight.
Located some 300 kms west of Melbourne, the former whaling and sealing port draws music lovers nationwide to its two major festivals, the Port Fairy Folk Festival and the classical and contemporary music-focused Port Fairy Spring Festival.
The latter is a brainchild of the late British-Australian composer Michael Easton and the pianist Len Vorster and has been staged annually since 1990 under a series of musician-artistic directors including Marco van Pagee, Erich Fackert, Stephen McIntyre, Anna Goldsworthy and Iain Grandage.
Its current artistic directors are violinist Monica Curro and pianist Stefan Cassomenos, who this year have turned their eyes to the skies – and beyond. This year’s Port Fairy Spring Festival, under the Carl Sagan-ish banner COSMOS, is inspired by our fascination with the universe and diverse understandings of its wonders.
After the previous festival’s focus on the natural world (Habitat), it felt like the right time to explore what lies beyond that – and there’s no shortage of musical material with which to do so, says Cassomenos.
“When...
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