This was my first encounter with the young Sydney group Ensemble Apex and I knew straight away it was going to be a different kind of concert experience when the program notes invited me to get my phone out, take photos and videos and post them on social media. That and the fact that it was being staged in the Powerhouse Museum where patrons could be forgiven for wandering off and checking out the Apollo moon landing exhibits upstairs. No one did.

Sam Weller and Ensemble Apex. Photo © Anthony Geernaert

Charismatic Artistic and Musical Director Sam Weller and his band of cutting edge young musicians were impressive both musically and visually, performing beneath the Apollo show’s massive global photographic moonscape. Weller had come up with an adventurous and intriguing collection of works by composers who might normally make strange bedfellows. The common thread, he said, was that they all had a “groove”.

The evening was set up by an attractive piece by dynamic Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima. Violoncelles Vibrez! is one of his most popular works and features two cellists, in this case two talented lads from Adelaide, James...