As the sun rises on New Year’s Day 2024, Artistic Directors Ben Opie (oboe) and Melissa Doecke (flute) will perform at the Peninsula Hot Springs in the first of 20 classical and contemporary musical events presented in the Peninsula Summer Music Festival.

Ben Opie and Melissa Doecke. Photo © Peninsula Summer Music Festival.

The festival showcases an eclectic line up featuring new and established Australian artists alongside international musical guests from the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA.

Following Opie and Doecke’s early morning performance of Sounds at Sunrise in the Peninsula Hot Springs, the New Year kicks off in earnest with the traditional Hair of the Dog in the gardens of St John’s Anglican Church in Flinders. The Tango Noir ensemble will celebrate new beginnings in a 1930s French salon style with an evocative afternoon of European tango and waltz.

Melbourne-born violinist Brigid Coleridge and pianist Kristian Chong pair up for two concerts at Moorooduc Estate on 2 January, performing Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 10 and a...