Melbourne Chamber Orchestra (MCO) has launched its 2027 season. Titled Between Us, next year’s program is a celebration of collaboration, which is at the heart of each of its five orchestral programs. Chamber music “has always been about relationships”, says Artistic Director and violinist Sophie Rowell.

“Every performance is a conversation, shaped by listening, generosity and shared imagination.”

“This season celebrates those conversations between us: between musicians and audiences, soloists and ensembles, composers across generations, and artistic partners whose collaborations reveal new ways of hearing.”

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Photo supplied

The first of MCO’s 2027 collaborations arrives in March, when it joins forces with the Australian String Quartet for MCO + ASQ. Showcasing the longstanding ties between the ensemble, the program features Matthew Hindson’s The Rave and the Nightingale and an arrangement of Anne Cawrse’s Anon from A Room of Her Own among works by Beethoven, Elgar and Purcell.

Then, the orchestra teams up with Johannes Grosso for a May program centred around Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin, BWV1060, alongside pieces by Arthur Benjamin, CPE Bach,...