The Australian Haydn Ensemble (AHE) has announced a 2026 season shaped by sunlight, storms, birdsong and the quiet transformations of the natural world – a program Artistic Director Skye McIntosh says draws on “the colours, fine details and expansive emotional power” of the environment around us.

Invoking the famous opening of William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence (“To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower …”) McIntosh frames the season as an invitation to look closely, listen deeply and rediscover beauty in miniature.

“In 2026 we have an array of beautiful music to enjoy, with works by Haydn (of course!), Mozart, Beethoven and some exciting and rare works by little-known Bohemian composers,” she says. “We take inspiration from the natural world… from darkness to light, from beginning to fading. Their responses reveal themselves in the lilting breeze of a minuet, the dramatic storm of a symphonic movement, or the quiet unfolding of a melodic line.”

The Australian Haydn Ensemble. Photo © Helen White

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