Following last year’s acclaimed performances of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) has announced it will assemble again in October for a series of concerts featuring one of the great voices of our times – that of the German countertenor Andreas Scholl.

Andraes Scholl. Photo © Marco Borggreve

In two concerts in Sydney hosted in the intimate Nielson theatre in Walsh Bay, and one in Melbourne at the Hanson Dyer Hall, audiences will experience Scholl’s extraordinary voice in tandem with an orchestra of elite Australian musicians, many working overseas, who reunite specially for this series.

In part one of each concert Scholl will sing Baroque masterpieces by Bach and Vivaldi and works by the Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt – a composer whose works the singer has explored extensively with the Vienna Morphing Orchestra in recent years.

The second part of each concert will be devoted to Mozart’s majestic Gran Partita, a showcase for some of the AWO’s finest wind musicians.

Alexander Briger conducts the Australian World Orchestra in 2021. Photo © Ken Leanfore

A veteran singer whose career dates back to the early 1990s, Scholl is a Grammy-nominated artist who has won numerous awards and prizes and performed with orchestras worldwide, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw and Boston Symphony.

He has also performed in Australia with Baroque music specialists the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and sang with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in New York in 2009, a performance in which Scholl was praised by the New York Times for his “liquid tone and emotional directness.”

Among Scholl’s more recent highlights are a tour of Pergolesi’s Stabat mater with Barrocada in Israel and Turkey, a tour with the Czech Ensemble Baroque and a duo recital with Edin Karamazov at the Beaune International Baroque and Romantic Opera Festival.

Scholl is also a noted operatic performer with credits including Oper Frankfurt, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and The Metropolitan Opera (opposite Renée Fleming).

These concerts will mark Scholl’s first appearances with the AWO and its Concertmaster for these performances, Madeleine Easton.

The Australian World Orchestra and Andeas Scholl perform at The Neilson, Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay, Sydney 23 & 24 October and at the Hanson Dyer Hall, Ian Potter Southbank Centre, Melbourne on 26 October.

Pre-sale bookings and information here.

Sign up to Limelight‘s free Special Announcement emails to access an exclusive AWO presale offer on Wednesday 15 May.