Chaos, exploration and the search for belonging are the organising ideas behind the 2027 Coriole Music Festival, which returns to McLaren Vale 15-16 May with two world premieres and a closing performance of Beethoven’s Septet.

Presented at Coriole Vineyards, the festival brings together Australian and international musicians for three concerts curated by violinist and Artistic Director Kate Suthers.

Coriole Music Festival Artistic Director Kate Suthers. Portrait © Jamois

The theme of chaos and exploration emerged from a broader plan to shape three festivals around the ideas of beginnings, middles and endings. Suthers saw the middle as a particularly rich territory to explore.

“I find a lot of inspiration in literature, and for ‘middles’ I was drawn to chaos and exploration as two themes that commonly exemplified the turning points of plots, central to common human experience,” she says.

The program also marks a shift in musical texture. While the 2026 festival was largely focused on strings, Suthers has chosen a more varied combination of instruments for 2027, partly in response to the theme.

“In 2027 I have chosen mixed instrumentation, a sonic nod towards chaos and complexity, and in doing so entered into an exploration of less familiar repertoire while curating this program.”

That exploration includes two new commissions by Australian composers Alice Chance and Luke Altmann. Suthers sees commissioning as an important part of her role, and a way of ensuring classical music continues to develop through new work.

“I’m very passionate about classical music being a living art form, and one of the most overt proofs of that is performing premieres,” she says. “I’m a big fan of both Alice and Luke, and believed they would find beguiling responses to the idea of chaos.”

Alice Chance. Photo © Soumya Subramanian

The composers approach the theme from different directions. In conversations with Chance, Suthers was struck by her interest in chaos in the natural world, and the possibility that what appears disordered can reveal an underlying unity.

“When I spoke to Alice she immediately started talking about chaos in nature, and how the appearance of chaos can in fact be an expression of unity, for example in response to danger,” she says.

Altmann’s commission takes a more human-centred approach, considering the reasons behind disorder and the search for belonging. The idea also connects with Suthers’ own experience of living overseas for 20 years and her understanding of the relationship between identity and place.

Their discussions led to a work combining field recordings of Coriole with a string quartet score, bringing the surrounding landscape into the musical composition. It is a way of responding not only to the festival’s theme but also to the particular location in which the work will be heard.

Kate Suthers, Belinda Gehlert, Neil Thompson and Gemma Phillips at Coriole Music Festival 2026. Photo © Jamois

The festival concludes with Beethoven’s Septet, marking 200 years since the composer’s death.

Written around the time of his First Symphony, the work is scored for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass – an unusual combination that falls outside the instrumentation of most established chamber ensembles.

For Suthers, the decision to include Beethoven was an obvious one, but the Septet also provides an opportunity to consider how the composer’s music has influenced subsequent generations.

“It would have been too glaring an omission not to include any Beethoven at Coriole next year,” she says. “But the journey to get to his Septet for the audience – and performers – is intended to frame the work as the potential genesis for so much other music.”

The work’s position at the end of the festival is significant. The musicians will have spent a week rehearsing and performing together, allowing their relationships as an ensemble to develop.

“The musicians will have been in each others’ pockets for a week, so for this piece coming at the end of the weekend, the onstage rapport should be palpable, and the mood celebratory,” Suthers says.

International artists making their festival debuts include London-based cellist Rebecca Herman and Birmingham-based clarinettist Oliver Jones. They join Australian soprano Sara Macliver, violinists Suthers and Holly Piccoli, double bassist Damien Eckersley and pianist Laurence Matheson. South Australian musicians include horn player Adrian Uren, bassoonist Mark Gaydon and cellist Gemma Phillips, with two viola players still to be announced.

The 2025 Coriole Music Festival. Photo supplied

The program comprises two concerts on Saturday and one on Sunday. Each performance will be followed by a shared meal in the Coriole courtyard, with food prepared by chef Patty Streckfuss and paired with Coriole wines. Suthers will also introduce each day’s program in a pre-concert talk.

The 2027 festival follows Suthers’ first year as Artistic Director, an experience she describes as an intense learning curve. Although her role is primarily artistic, she found herself taking on practical responsibilities that were new to her, including hiring music, preparing rehearsal schedules and coordinating the availability and stamina of a dozen musicians across a week.

“Those were some of the things that consumed my energy, and when I got to simply rehearse and perform, that was easy!” she says.

“There’s a particular type of exhaustion that is the result of caring so deeply about something, and I was floored by the week of the 2026 festival, but I can also say that it’s one of the things I’m most proud of in my career.”

The 2027 Coriole Music Festival takes place at Coriole Vineyards, McLaren Vale, on 15-16 May. For program and ticket details, visit coriolemusicfestival.com