Belinda McFarlane’s violin has taken her around the world.

Born and raised in Adelaide, she’s now living in London, having fallen in love with the city after travelling there as Leader of the Australian Youth Orchestra.

McFarlane has zoomed around Europe and beyond as a Second Violin and a member of the Discovery team at the London Symphony Orchestra. She’s also a member of Fiorini – an internationally touring piano trio of Aussie-born, London-based musicans with an ear for rarely-performed repetoire.

Belinda McFarlane. Photo © Tina K Photography

McFarlane has also been a member of the Australian World Orchestra since its inception in 2011. She’s twice toured India with it, and once across the UK.

Despite it all, she still calls Australia ‘home’, and is thrilled to be returning again for the AWO’s 2026 program across 19–20 August. Chatting to Limelight from Adelaide, she unpacks her thoughts on working with the AWO, and why music education is so important.

How does it feel to be returning to Australia?

Ah, it feels great! I can never stay away from home for too long. I come back as often as I can – and when it is to play in the AWO in the fantastic Hamer Hall and incredible Sydney Opera House it is even better!

You’ve performed with the AWO since 2011. What keeps you coming back; what do you love about it?

It has been fantastic to have been involved with AWO since the beginning.  Every year it is a joy to be reconnected with my amazing colleagues some from my youth orchestra days, some from my current career in the UK, and to also connect with the next generations of talented Australian musicians both here and abroad. 

What excites you about this year’s program?

I love Petrushka! It’s such a virtuosic work for the players in the orchestra. Having performed it with many different conductors – George Solti, Pierre Boulez, Marin Alsop and Simon Rattle, to name a few – I absolutely can’t wait to hear the AWO shine under Alexander Briger’s exciting direction. 

Zubin Mehta receives a Companion of the Order of Australia after conducting the Australian World Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, 2022. Photo © Prudence Upton

Do you have highlights from your time with AWO?

I think the tour to India with Maestro Zubin Mehta was a highlight, both musically and culturally.  As well as doing amazing concerts, we had the opportunity to connect with young Indian musicians, school children, and communities, through a series of interactive workshops. This was a very special experience, one I will never forget. 

What does your role as AWO’s Youth Education Programme Advisor entail?

Most significantly, I have organised collaborative performance workshops whilst on both tours of India. And in Australia, we connect with the Australian Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestras, Sydney Youth Orchestras and Regional Youth Orchestra of NSW. And it is always a pleasure to play alongside the young musicians and watch them grow and learn. 

You’ve shown a deep commitment to music education in both Australia and London – why is it so important to you?

Connection through music is one of society’s most important mediums. Music education, in the classroom, and in the training and imparting of experience and knowledge from professional musician to training musician is only part of it – albeit an extremely important part. But more so is the use of music as a medium to empower individual and collaborative expression amongst the widest section of our society.

This can happen in so many ways, in classrooms, workshops and hospitals.  Helping create something artistically bespoke with individuals of differing age, skills and needs; giving everyone a ‘voice’ and the skills to confidently create and connect, this is what I love. Being a facilitator in this way, is one of my greatest joys, it absolutely informs and validates all that I do as a performing musician. 

What else is in store for you in 2026?

There’s a lot! But highlights will be returning to London for concerts and tours with the London Symphony Orchestra in London, Europe, China,  Japan and Vietnam. In London, I will be curating and directing the LSO East London Academy – an orchestral project providing mentorship and performance opportunities to teenage Instrumentalists from backgrounds currently underrepresented in higher music education and the profession, playing repertoire similarly underrepresented.

There will be school and hospital visits, and recording sessions for various albums and video games, I imagine! The LSO offers quite an exteaordinarily varied schedule – one of the reasons I love it there. 

The Australian World Orchestra performs Stravinsky, Mills & Shostakovich on 19 August at Arts Centre Melbourne and 20 August at the Sydney Opera House.