Welcome to the 8th Bendigo Chamber Music Festival!
With record attendance again last year we wanted to build on this momentum and present another fabulous program of top national and international artists, showcasing cornerstone works of the chamber music repertoire alongside extraordinary discoveries. Our Europe-based Young Classical Artists Trust performers this year are pianist Callum McLachlan and violinist Charlotte Spruit, both with stellar CVs and both exclusive to BCMF! Out artist core team of Sophie, Natsuko, Tobi and Daniel are of course with us again, and very welcome returns to Anna Goldsworthy, Alexandra Osborne, Peter Luff plus Damien Eckersley this time as a full festival artist.
For some time now we have been keen to perform Schubert’s celebrated Octet, amongst other great wind repertoire, so we invited terrific colleagues Dean and Jackie Newcomb, as well as their ASO colleague, principal viola Justin Julian. And it is a special honour to welcome vocal royalty Emma Matthews to Bendigo, rounding out our established artist rollcall – what a team!
Our nurturing of future talent continues this year as we are thrilled to present ANAM’s Fiasco Quartet, fresh from their first prize success at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s prestigious Great Romantics Competition. And we’re so excited about a new partnership for our much-loved Community Concert: the regional community trailblazers Resonance String Orchestra will be joined by festival artists in Grieg’s famous Holberg Suite, and our Saturday morning master class will also feature more young up-and-coming Bendigo musicians.
The festival program is, as always, a rich mix of favourites from Beethoven to Bernstein, Debussy to Dvorak, and Schumann to Strauss, as well as the epic Schubert octet and brilliant rarities by Florence Price, Rebecca Clarke, and Ignaz Moscheles. We also could not resist programming two of the most famous soprano opera arias by Bellini and Verdi, and closing with Mozart’s joyous cantata Exsultate Jubilate.
With the support of the City of Greater Bendigo and our many valued partners, we look forward to welcoming you to Bendigo for five days of joyous music, beautiful venues and great company.