Australia’s leading chamber musicians will join international masters in Far North Queensland in July 2026 for the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s first full program in its new home of Cairns-Gimuy.

AFCM Artistic Director Jack Liebeck has programmed a nine-day festival running from 24 July to 1 August, promising world-class performances set against the backdrop of the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest.

Tickets go on sale to AFCM Friends on 2 February, with general public sales opening on 2 March.

Charlotte Miles. Photo © Brian Cassey

The 2026 program brings together leading international artists including Berlin Philharmonic Principal Horn Stefan Dohr, French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca, Irish tenor Robin Tritschler and German pianist Alexander Krichel.

They are joined by Australian pianist and former AFCM Artistic Director Piers Lane, alongside the acclaimed Sitkovetsky Piano Trio in what will be its Festival debut.

Australian musicians are strongly represented across the program, with performers drawn from every corner of the country. Among them are Perth violinist Emmalena Huning, Melbourne oboist Emmanuel Cassimatis, Sydney flautist Joshua Batty and cellist Julian Smiles, guitarist Karin Schaupp, violist Stefanie Farrands and clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff.

Melbourne-born cellist Charlotte Miles, now based in Germany, returns to AFCM after a standout appearance in 2025.

AFCM Artistic Director Jack Liebeck. Photo © Andrew Rankin

A major highlight of the program is the completion of an unfinished work by Czech composer Gideon Klein, who died in Auschwitz in 1945. Australian composer Lee Bradshaw has completed the piece, titled January 27, 1945, offering what the Festival describes as a poignant act of remembrance. New music also features in a commissioned work by Australian composer Alex Turley for flute and string quartet.

The 2026 Festival also includes the popular Ray Golding Sunset Series, Concert Conversations, and two special events: a chamber concert aboard a luxury yacht off the Cairns coast, and an intimate performance by the Sitkovetsky Trio, rounding out what organisers describe as a bold new chapter for Australia’s largest chamber music festival.

The Sitkovetsky Trio. Photo supplied

AFCM 2026 season reflects the Festival’s commitment to both artistic excellence and discovery,” says Liebeck. “We’re thrilled to welcome back Piers Lane and members of the former Goldner String Quartet, alongside first timers to AFCM s. We’re also proud to showcase new works from our Pathways Emerging Composer in Residence, Sam Wu, who is writing two new pieces for the Festival.”

Among the Evening Concerts series is Cairns at 150, marking the city’s anniversary through music spanning several centuries, and Wonderful World, curated by La Marca, pairing chamber music with cinematic imagery of the natural world in a meditation on humanity and the environment.

The AFCM Illuminates series includes The Sherlock Holmes of the Violin World, in which renowned violin expert Florian Leonhard takes audiences inside the hidden world of historic instruments, and Einstein the Musician, with Professor Brian Foster exploring the profound relationship between music and science.

Also in the Illuminates series, The Beating Heart sees Professor Robin Choudhury take audiences inside one of the body’s most vital organs, exploring how the heart functions, why it fails, and how medical innovation is transforming the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Opening and closing nights frame the Festival’s Cairns debut with celebratory programs. Cairns Crescendo launches the Festival with music from Mozart to the world premiere of Sam Wu’s new work, while the Governor’s Gala presents a narrated reimagining of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The closing concert, So Long, Farewell, for now…, features music by Dvořák, Ravel and Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Now regarded as a cornerstone of Queensland’s cultural calendar, the Festival is expected to contribute around $3 million to the state’s economy and strengthen Cairns’ position as a cultural destination as well as a holiday hotspot.

For more the complete Australian Festival of Chamber Music program and more information, visit this link.

Limelight is thrilled to be a media partner on this event. Tune in later this week when we invite our readers to take a musical break from winter and join us in Cairns-Gimuy as we launch a tour to the 2026 event providing an in-depth curated experience at this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music.