Brett Sheehy to end his collaboration with the Melbourne Festival after a four year tenure as Artistic Director

One thing you can’t accuse the 2012 Melbourne Festival of is being sedentary or safe. For Artistic Director Brett Sheehy, this will be his fourth and final festival – and he has used the opportunity to go out with a bang. A pioneer of both new and local work, Sheehy has included 18 world premieres and 34 Australian premieres across 17 days from the October 11-27, with a hard-to-beat line-up displaying a rich diversity of music.  The festival will exhibit the newest ventures in the arts, including genre-bending displays of performance poetry, installation art, stage shows, soundscapes, opera and multimedia-assisted performances. With ‘identity’ and ‘place’ being central themes for this year, there is an eclectic set of venues and cultural fusions across the arts laying the foundations for this year’s unpredictable musical line-up.

“I have sought to showcase the newest works from some of the finest artists I’ve been honoured to work with over the past ten years… I wanted to continue Australian audiences’ relationships with these visionary women and men…”

As a promoter of contemporary opera, Sheehy has chosen to open...