Internationally acclaimed Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg will become the first vocal curator of UKARIA Chamberfest when she leads the Adelaide Hills venue’s 2026 festival with a program reflecting on the many roles music plays in society:

The five-concert festival runs from October 2 to 4 at UKARIA Cultural Centre, with Stagg shaping a weekend that blends vocal masterworks, chamber repertoire and contemporary works alongside a roster of Australian and international artists.

“Being the first vocal curator of Chamberfest is an honour which resonates deeply with me,” Stagg says.

“When I was invited, I found myself asking: what makes a singer – whose instrument is born in their throat – distinct from previous instrumental curators? The most obvious answer is of course our relationship to language and text, lyrics and poetry.”

Stagg’s programming explores music’s broader social role: as storyteller, philosopher, “bias-breaker and community builder”, and as a force capable of deepening empathy.

Siobhan Stagg. Photo © Simon Pauly

The festival opens on Friday 2 October with Origins, a wide-ranging meditation on creation stories across a millennium. Works span Hildegard von Bingen, Mozart, Fauré, Haydn, Brett Dean, Sibelius and Medtner, with Stagg joined by pianist Jonathan Ware.

Saturday afternoon’s Dead Poets Society focuses on storytelling through song, led by Stagg, Austrian mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert, pianist-soprano Rachel Fenlon, Ware and French string quartet Quatuor Agate. Schubert songs sit beside the Australian premiere of Dinuk Wijeratne’s The Disappearance of Lisa Gherardini, inspired by the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa, and Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées in a version for string quartet.

Natsuko Yoshimoto. Photo supplied

Saturday evening marks the centenary of Hungarian composer György Kurtág with Kurtág 100 – Kafka Fragments, featuring the composer’s demanding 1985-86 cycle Kafka Fragments, Op. 24. Queensland Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto joins Stagg, Fenlon and Rennert for the one-hour program.

Sunday afternoon’s The Mighty and Mundane juxtaposes Bach, Poulenc and Chausson with newer Australian voices. Highlights include Snapshots of Love and Life, a song cycle by composer Anne Cawrse and writer-pianist Anna Goldsworthy, plus works by Andrew Ford, David Hirschfelder and the late John Rodgers.

UKARIA Cultural Centre. Photo supplied

The closing gala, Full Flight – One Destination, expands the Chamberfest forces into a chamber orchestra under conductor Leonard Weiss. The program includes Berg songs, Korngold’s Second String Quartet, Mahler songs, Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder in an arrangement by James Ledger, and the trio from Der Rosenkavalier, also arranged by Ledger.

Stagg, who has appeared on leading European stages, says the weekend had been shaped in response to a turbulent contemporary climate.

“With the state of the world, I think we need live music more than ever, as a healthy interruption to the algorithmic biases in our daily online worlds,” she says, adding that “this Chamberfest weekend promises moments of absolute beauty, rapture and revelation.”

Chamberfest takes place from 2-4 October at UKARIA Cultural Centre, Mount Barker South Australia. Tickets to Chamberfest 2026 are on sale now.