In 2025, Southern Cross Soloists (SXS) celebrates 30 years since its founding in 1995 with a program devised by co-Artistic Directors Ashley Smith and Margaret Blades, and by flautist Tim Munro who is responsible for programming the 21st annual SXS Chamber Music Festival at Tamborine Mountain.

Among the must-see names joining SXS for this celebratory year are Brisbane composer Ray Lin, jazz pianist Joe Chindamo, the Los Angeles-based film composer Leah Curtis, superstar sopranos Alexandra Flood and Nina Korbe, pianist Aura Go and Voxalis Opera.

With the big 3-0 in mind, Limelight spoke to Ashley Smith about SXS’s past, present and future.

SXS Co-Artistic Director Ashley Smith. Photo © Stephen Henry

Turning 30 is one of those times when people take stock of their lives and direction. So it is for Southern Cross Soloists, says Smith. 

“Any birth with a zero in it is important for an arts organisation,” Smith tells Limelight. “Be it 10, 20 or 30, it’s a tribute to the fact that you still exist, that the idea still holds. But you have to change with what’s going on in the industry and looking back, we’re a completely different ensemble to the one we were back in 1995.”

Originally formed as the Queensland Wind Soloists and later the Winds of the Southern Cross II, Southern Cross Soloists formed in 1995 when four wind players from the Queensland Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras – Paul Dean, Peter Luff, Leesa Dean and Sarah Meagher joined forces with soprano Margaret Schindler and pianist Kevin Power to create a new and eclectic chamber ensemble.

Over three decades, a number of leading Australian players have added their names to the roster, including oboist Tania Frazer, cellists Patrick Murphy, Blair Harris and Meta Weiss, violist James Wannan, flautists Emma Sholl, Lina Andanovska and Jonathan Henderson, pianist Alex Raineri and French horn players Ysolt Clark and Alex Miller.

Smith, a clarinettist, joined SXS in 2015. “Over the years, SXS embraced more instruments and the organisation has become much more than just the concerts it delivers,” he says. “SXS is an umbrella to a series of projects in First Nations, programming, regional concert touring, digital projects, commissioning new works. It’s diversified in ways you couldn’t have imagined 30 years ago.”

The constant in all of this has been the SXS audience, Smith says. “A lot of people who followed us in those early days are still with us, which is really special. Even though the shape of our concerts have changed quite dramatically, we’ve managed to bring the audience along with us, moving from quite traditional programming to embracing interdisciplinary, intercultural programming and much more diversity within each concert.”

It comes down to trust, Smith believes. “The job of the Artistic Director is as much developing the audience and bringing the audience with you as it is programming concerts. It’s a really special part of the job and it takes trust on both sides. If your audience trusts your artistic vision, they will go to some surprising places with you. At the same time, we’ve come to trust that the people who come to see us are there for more than just a concert. They’re there to be part of the journey.”

Southern Cross Soloists in the QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. Photo © Darren Thomas

In 2025, that journey begins with SXS’s 16th QPAC Concert Series, a Viennese birthday gala – Celebrate! Alongside waltzes and arias by Johann Strauss II and works by Mozart, SXS will also be playing one of chamber music’s ultimate party pieces, Beethoven’s Septet Op. 20. The concert features soprano Alexandra Flood, who returns from the Vienna Volksoper to add coloratura sparkle. The set opens with a new work from Leah Curtis, a collaborative work composed with SXS Didgeridoo Artist in Residence, Chris Williams, for didgeridoo and ensemble as part of the SXS Didgeridoo Commissioning Project 2022 – 2032.

“Viennese music from that period is actually among my favourite,” says Smith. “It’s been in and out of fashion over the decades, and André Rieu has put his particular stamp on it – to the point where Strauss is almost a dirty word with some musicians. It’s like it’s populist or something, just too easy or too obvious. But it was popular for a reason then and it still stands up now as some of the most extraordinary music ever composed.”

“The chamber transcription we’ll be playing is by Arnold Schoenberg, probably one of the most divisive and important figures in 20th century music,” Smith adds. “He understood the quality in Strauss’s music, and how substantial it really is.”

Nina Korbe. Photo © Stephen Henry

On June 1 at the QPAC Concert Hall, soprano Nina Korbe (SXS Margaret Schindler Vocal Scholar alumni, 2023) will join SXS to sing her favourite Bellini arias in the appropriately titled Pearls (the Pearl Anniversary is 30 years, in case you’re not up to speed with the old wedding anniversary gift guide). It’s part of a diverse program that includes Ross Edwards’ Maninyas Violin Concerto, Gershwin’s Summertime, Bernstein’s Somewhere (from West Side Story) and a new work from jazz pianist and composer Joe Chindamo and didgeridoo star Chris Williams. It will be among the latest of the 140 new works SXS have commissioned to date.

In May at Brisbane’s Old Museum, SXS will join with the Brisbane-based opera company Voxalis Opera in Refracted, a one-night-only performance featuring Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, reimagined for string quartet and voice, alongside chamber and vocal works by Arvo Pärt, including Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel and My Heart’s in the Highlands.

A major component of SXS’s 2025 will be its multi award-nominated SXS 21st Chamber Music Festival, a three-day event held in August 2025 at Tamborine Mountain, approximately an hour from Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Program details will be released in early 2025, says Smith.

Chris Williams and SXS in Divine Alchemy, 2023. Photo supplied

Later in the year, in Wonder (12 October), SXS will premiere another Chris Williams collaboration for didgeridoo and ensemble, this one with recently awarded Brisbane composer Ray Lin. “I’m most excited about reuniting with my long-term collaborator, pianist Aura Go,” says Smith. “Aura and I studied together for several years in Australia and overseas and after a 10-year hiatus, we’ll be taking to the stage again to play some of our most loved repertoire.”

Another highlight is the third edition of SXS’s Sunset Soirée Recital Series, which tours to regional Queensland and will focus on telling Queensland Stories in 2025. From poets Judith Wright and Zora Cross to international superstars the Bee Gees, the SXS players will celebrate the connection of music and the spoken word.

Cynics may pooh-pooh the Bee Gees, says Smith, “but I’m actually a big admirer of their songs and I think it’s part of our job as musicians to make sure we’re delivering to all the spectrum.”

“We want to make our concerts more available and appealing to a demographic that might find it tricky for all sorts of reasons to approach a ‘straight’ classical music concert,” he adds.

“In 2025, I want to change the shape of things because the value of live music performance has never been higher. Just sitting inside a concert, with no pressure and nothing else to think about other than music for one and a half hours … the value in that is way more than what’s reflected in a ticket price.”

Southern Cross Soloists, QPAC Concert Hall. Photo © Darren Thomas

Looking back over SXS’s 30 years, Smith is proud of what the ensemble has achieved for itself and for the wider community.“Brisbane has changed so much over 30 years and I think we’ve played our little part in making it the exciting place it is today. The Queensland government has gone out of its way to support small and medium arts companies really well, to the point where I think it’s a model for other states and cities.”

“The arts aren’t just a nice add-on that you may or may not be able to afford – they’re vital to the economy. At the end of the day, we’re moving into a period in which the creative economy is going to grow and grow and the ability to think and do things creatively is going to become very valuable. It’s probably one thing AI can’t do.”

More important still, says Smith, “music helps communities connect”.

“Music, fundamentally, is connection, and that can never really be taken away from us. I really believe that. I think it’s a blessing to be part of an industry where the product we’re selling is human-to-human connection – and I can only see it growing and growing from here on.”

For more information on Southern Cross Soloists in 2025, visit the company website.