Playing with a chamber outfit in Australia can be a pretty precarious profession. We spoke to some of our finest ensembles about the challenges faced and finding that special ingredient that makes them compelling for audiences today.

The June 2018 issue of Limelight Magazine features Queen of the Violin, Anne-Sophie Mutter on Tchaikovsky, Star Wars and stalking Daniil Trifonov.

Wade Gregory has taken out the $2000 first prize and will see his work toured and recorded by guitarist Matt Withers and the Acacia Quartet.

CIMF Artistic Director Roland Peelman speaks to the former-nun-turned-composer about her upcoming string quartet.

With a larger purse and a record deal, the guitarist explains how his composition prize is going from strength to strength.

Acacia Quartet and Sally Whitwell bear the bays at this year's Festival.

The Acacia Quartet's Stefan Duwe explains why the composer, banned in Hitler's Germany, should be heard more often.

A miniature EP by Joe Twist: three works about ‘dance’; only 23 minutes. As in most of Twist’s music, allusions to popular culture are abundant. Dancing With Somebody – a string quartet – celebrates the persona (with some musical quotations) of pop diva Whitney Houston. Twist sets rhythmic buoyancy against a dark struggle. A subversive structure plays out: patterns are set up, then disturbed (though not repeated!), all aided by first-rate playing from the Sydney-based Acacia Quartet. In I Dance Myself to Sleep, Twist looks to female characters from films such as Superman and Star Wars. Am I listening to contemporary music for the concert hall or cheap bar music? (I ask that with admiration: Twist squeezes a familiar genre into something weirdly beautiful). Pianist Sally Whitwell is a gorgeous co-conspirator in Twist’s ironic game. The crystalline sound of quartet and piano jars with the overly-sampled Gorilla, a film score. A couple on a weekend away meet an alluring woman and a ritualistic dance takes place. I imagined some sort of sacramental physical theatre but this has too much sampled music masquerading as live instruments. The fade-out at the end was too obvious for what was (so far) an exciting…

The one and only Sally Whitwell gives Limelight a preview of her new album for ABC Classics.

Lyle Chan's string quartet is affecting music and a unique and powerful means of relating a terrible history.

Bellingen is probably the perfect place in the world to have a classical music festival. It’s a bit inland of Coffs Harbour, just a bit off the highway. When you finally escape endless kilometres of green farmland, you see an urban-renewed pasteurisation factory, built partly of brick (now it’s an art gallery). Drive along a little further. The main street is perhaps one hundred years old; the pharmacy is marked “Apothecary”. There are two concert halls, one a disused church, the other built for use by veterans of the war. The first war. It is just about the best setting I’ve ever heard of for classical music. The festival was full of chamber music. The Acacia Quartet opened the festival, playing repertoire from their recent tour, Lyle Chan’s new String Quartet. It’s a musical memoir of his grim time fifteen years ago illegally producing drugs to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  A number of his friends died in the fight. Synergy Percussion took the second half of the opening concert, with Xenakis’ epic work Pléïades (1979). It’s an energetic work – you might even say violent – and almost impossible to play. Bellingen is probably one of the few places…

The second-string of Australian chamber music looks strong from sleepy Bellingen Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in