The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) has announced its 2025 program with a promise to enthral audiences with a lineup of concerts and tours celebrating historically informed performance (HIP).

The year begins with ARCO taking centre stage at the Peninsula Summer Music Festival in Flinders, Victoria, for three performances.

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra. Photo © Robert Catto

In the first, the emerging artists of ARCO’s Young Mannheim Symphonists will present classical gems for violin, viola, and double bass, accompanied by pianist Donald Nicolson (Saturday 4 January at St John’s Anglican Church, Flinders).

Later that day, at Flinders Civic Hall, ARCO will present Love & Life, in which soprano Jacqueline Porter will join ARCO’s principal strings (led by Rachael Beesley) and clarinettist Nicole van Bruggen in a program of Romantic masterpieces.

On Sunday, 5 January, in The Sunrise, ARCO will play a showcase of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Australian composer Nicole Murphy.

ARCO will continue to break new ground in 2025, this time with a monumental performance of Mendelssohn’s 19th-century arrangement of Bach’s...