• Woodend Winter Arts Festival: An Evening with the Chris Johnstone / Mat Jodrell Quartet

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Join us for an unforgettable evening of jazz as Chris Johnstone and Mat Jodrell unite for a concert of rare chemistry and musical depth. Two leading voices in Melbourne’s vibrant jazz scene, they will present a compelling program of timeless standards alongside original compositions from Mat’s acclaimed albums Grateful and Insurgent. With the…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: The Marriage Game

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    The Highly Strung Players, an absurdist troupe founded by author Peter Rose, returns to the Woodend Winter Arts Festival with three short plays from Rose’s six-part series The Ones. In these rehearsed readings we meet two married publishers at different stages in their long, brittle relationship. An evening of witty, irreverent…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Jacqueline Ogeil performs Albero

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    The 18th-century Spanish composer Sebastián de Albero, highly regarded during his brief life (he died at the age of 33), remains little known in our time. Musically he could be regarded as a first cousin of Domenico Scarlatti, a colleague at the Spanish court, where Albero was appointed principal organist…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Ancient Letters

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Celebrating the chart-topping ABC Classic albums, Ancient Letters, and Butterflying: the music of Elena Kats-Chernin, ARIA award-winning pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska and one of Australia’s most lauded composers, Elena Kats-Chernin AO, invite you to a rare tête-a-tête in this special concert: a glimpse into this “true dream team” performing four hands at the…
    Monteverdi Vespers

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Monteverdi Vespers

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Monteverdi’s 1610 setting of Vespers is among the greatest works of the Early Baroque. A 400th anniversary performance was given at our Festival in 2010, and it now returns by popular demand. While we tend to associate Monteverdi’s choral writing with Venice, this work was written while he was working in Mantua;…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Visions of Beethoven

    Woodend Community Centre Corner of Forest and High Streets, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Our sense of Beethoven as the singular Romantic genius comes to us not only through his music, but also through the portraits of him done in his lifetime, and those which come after. Images of Beethoven based on these portraits have been reproduced ever since his lifetime and form a significant…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: 1001 Nights!

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Step into a world of magic, adventure and mystery as Scheherazade begins her incredible tales from the 1001 Nights. Inventi Ensemble brings these famous stories to life with dazzling music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, arranged especially for their six instruments. From brave heroes and clever princesses to sea voyages and secret treasures, each piece…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Two Visions of the Sonata: Liszt and Kouvaras

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Internationally award-winning pianist Coady Green places two epic works in dialogue across centuries, cultures, and worlds. Liszt’s Sonata in B minor stands as one of the great monuments of the piano repertoire – a single, unstoppable musical journey of volcanic power and transcendent beauty, where pathos and virtuosity are united in one…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Musical Offering

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Musical Offering was the lasting outcome of a visit by Bach to the court of Frederick II of Prussia, subsequently known as Frederick the Great. During the visit the king gave Bach a theme and asked him to improvise upon it. Upon his return home, Bach decided to write a series…
    Monteverdi Vespers

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Monteverdi Vespers

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    Monteverdi’s 1610 setting of Vespers is among the greatest works of the Early Baroque. A 400th anniversary performance was given at our Festival in 2010, and it now returns by popular demand. While we tend to associate Monteverdi’s choral writing with Venice, this work was written while he was working in Mantua;…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: A Breath Of Fresh Air!

    St Ambrose Catholic Church, Woodend 47 Urquhart St, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    An emotional roller-coaster of incredible music spanning five centuries performed by one of the world’s leading ambassadors of the Classical Accordion. Astor Piazzolla** – 3 Tangos (S.V.P, Tzigane, Preparense)   Ross Edwards** – Water-Spirit Song   J.S.Bach** – Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesus Christ (BWV 639)   Sofia Gubaidulina – De Profundis   J.Ph.Rameau – Le Rappel des Oiseaux,…

    Woodend Winter Arts Festival: Anna Goldsworthy on AI, culture and the self

    Woodend Community Centre Corner of Forest and High Streets, Woodend, VIC, Australia
    In the forthcoming issue of the Quarterly Essay, Anna Goldsworthy explores the implications of AI for art, culture and the self – how it forces a confrontation with what it means to be human, raising questions about human connection, learning and how we live our lives; and bringing new existential…