For violinist Kate Suthers, beginnings are as much about curiosity as they are about courage. So it feels apt that her first year as Artistic Director of the Coriole Music Festival takes that idea as its theme.

“In a chamber music sense, beginnings provide a clear focus to strings,” Suthers says. “In a broader human sense, they can speak to works full of youth, naivety, curiosity and simplicity.”

Coriole Music Festival Artistic Director Kate Suthers. Portrait © Jamois

That philosophy is threaded through the 2026 program, which unfolds over Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 May at Coriole Vineyards, nestled among the rolling hills and vines of McLaren Vale. Presented by the McLaren Vale Music Festival Association, the weekend promises a heady blend of world-class music, fine food and Coriole wines, long the hallmark of this much-loved South Australian festival.

Drawing on her extensive professional contacts (prior to becoming Concertmaster of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2022, she worked extensively in the UK), Suthers has assembled an enviable lineup of collaborators from Australia and abroad. Among them are Berlin-based cellist Martin Smith and London violist Richard Waters, both making their Coriole debuts.

They’ll join an impressive Australian cohort including soprano Desiree Frahn, pianist Michael Ierace, and string players Elizabeth Layton, Belinda Gehlert, Alison Heike, Gemma Phillips and Damien Eckersley.

“I wanted to bring together artists who share a sense of openness,” Suthers says. “People who are excited by discovery – by where the music might take us.”

Coriole Chamber Music Festival 2023. Photo © Jamois

Saturday: youth, travel and transformation

The festival opens on Saturday morning with Young Explorers, tracing the musical journeys of Korngold and Mahler, two composers who began their careers with startling precocity. The mood deepens with Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 6, the spark behind Caroline Shaw’s inventive Blueprint, while songs by Alma Mahler and piano miniatures by Zemlinsky round out a portrait of early Vienna.

After a three-course Coriole lunch and a relaxed panel conversation, the afternoon concert Towards America follows the migration of musical ideas across continents, pairing Dvořák’s Nocturne in B Major with Copland’s settings of Emily Dickinson’s poetry and Shaw’s Plan & Elevation.

The evening’s Roots program draws the day to a joyful close, weaving together classical and folk traditions in works by Bartók, Alice Chance, Grieg, Jessie Montgomery, Dobrinka Tabakova and the Danish String Quartet. Expect a heady mix of rhythmic energy, earthy harmonies and a touch of Nordic melancholy — the perfect prelude to a glass of wine under the stars.

Coriole Music Festival sunset, 2025. Photo supplied

Sunday: looking back, looking forward

If Saturday is about movement and discovery, Sunday brings introspection and renewal. The morning begins with Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, performed in Rudolph Leopold’s intimate septet realisation. Two new Australian works form the heart of the day: Belinda Gehlert’s Stellar, commissioned for the festival, and Anne Cawrse’s This Too Shall Pass, newly adapted for Coriole.

A nod to Puccini’s anniversary year (it is the centenary of Turandot‘s posthumous premiere) comes with the composer’s elegiac Crisantemi, before the festival closes with a surge of American minimalism – John Adams’ Shaker Loops, its pulsing energy a fitting finale for a weekend of renewal.

Now in its third decade, the Coriole Music Festival remains a singular event on Australia’s chamber calendar — one that unites music, place and community in equal measure. Under Suthers’ direction, it’s entering a new chapter defined by curiosity, generosity and a deep connection to its landscape.

“Coriole has always been about more than music,” she reflects. “It’s about conversation, about sharing ideas and experiences – over a meal, a glass of wine, a phrase of music. That’s where the magic begins.”

For bookings and more information on Coriole Music Festival 2026, visit coriolemusicfestival.com