Fortunes, fours and futures will feature in this year's Newcastle Music Festival, which opens its 2025 season on Sunday, August 3.
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Featuring the performance of quartets by quartets, Strauss's Four Last Songs, Vivaldi's famous Four Seasons, four young performers of the future, and a talk on the instruments of Stradivari, now each worth a fortune, music lovers in Newcastle are in for a feast of musical enjoyment.
Opening the festival are Sydney-based group Hourglass Ensemble, now in their 10th year, with a program of music old and new by Brahms, Australian composer Sally Greenaway, and two contemporary American composers, Amanda Harberg and Michael Torke.
This concert is followed by the festival debut of an exciting new group: the Fernleigh Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr Ian Cook as part of the Fernleigh Orchestral and Arts Network, presenting Return to Middle Earth, a Tolkein-inspired work by Johan de Meij.
Soprano Bronwyn Douglass, who has impressed audiences and judges alike in competitions and performances, performs on August 8 in Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Bronwyn has won some of Australia's most prestigious awards and scholarships including The Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award, and The Opera Foundation for Young Australians Lady Fairfax New York Scholarship (2017).
She was the recipient of the Gold Award with the Australian Opera Awards Committee (2022) and the Elisabeth Murdoch Prize at the highly contested Herald Sun Aria competition (2024).
"We are privileged to enjoy Bronwyn singing Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss, as well as Ravel's Shéhérazade, at the start of what is destined to be an incredible career," Newcastle Music Festival artistic director Ross Fiddes says.
"Her recent performance in the Handa Opera Festival at Millthorpe in country NSW received an ecstatic review by Limelight Magazine reviewer Jansson J. Antmann."
Players from Hourglass Ensemble will be performing with Bronwyn in this world-class concert.
On Saturday afternoon, August 9, the festival will feature Four Leaf Clover with singing greats Sue Carson and Heather Price, Guy Strazz on guitar, and piano sensation Casey Golden, in the Festival of Fours.
The evening brings another great group of four, Orava Quartet, now justly recognised as one of Australia's finest string quartets, fresh from their tour of Poland. The group will generously perform three string quartets in this concert on August 9 - by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and contemporary composer Czarnecki - as well as some early music works. Concertgoers will be delighted to welcome back violist, Thomas Chawner, whose musical education began in Newcastle.
Sunday, August 10, features two must-see events in quite different styles and venues. The grandeur of Christ Church Cathedral hosts Festival Choirs in Concert, where the Festival Choir formed from community singers will perform Poulenc's Gloria with soloist, local soprano Anna Sandstrom. Registration is now open for the region's sopranos, tenors, altos and bass voices to join the Festival Choir.
Also appearing will be the Festival Chamber Choir, a select group of singers conducted by Christopher Allan. Peter Guy returns from Europe to take part in this concert as conductor, pianist and organist, playing four-handed piano with the brilliant Erin Sweetman.
In the evening, the festival will relocate to The Barn at historic home Stanley Park, on the shores of Fullerton Cove, for the popular annual Opera Cocktails, with three superb singers and Claire Race on piano, performing beloved operatic arias.
One of last year's singers, Eden Shifroni, has been awarded a two-year scholarship in London: this year you will meet more emerging operatic stars in Olivia Payne, Ailing Huang and James Pinneri. Your ticket includes refreshments and a light supper.
A change of pace on August 11 is a talk by Toby Faber about the famed instrument maker Antonio Stradivari, presented by ArtsNational Newcastle at the Hunter Theatre (Hunter School of the Performing Arts).
Dungeon Big Band perform Soundtracks on August 14, evoking all your favourite film memories with jazz renditions of the famous musical scores of films and television: think Batman and The Incredibles.
The final weekend of the festival brings international soloists to town: pianist Clemens Leske and violinist Madeleine Easton, plus a foursome of future star performers.
On August 15, Leske will perform two monumental works of the piano repertoire, Bach's Goldberg Variations and Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie. Few pianists can take on such a demanding program.
Soloists of the future are featured on August 16 at Rising Stars, with four brilliant young local musicians selected for their prize-winning performances in local music competitions: violinist Zac Choi, pianists Mia Chao and Grace Hill, and singer Brianna Lynch. Erin Sweetman on piano.
The final highlight of this year's festival is virtuoso violinist Madeleine Easton's two performances. Madeleine returned from a successful career in Europe to form Bach Akademie Australia. She appears as a soloist for the festival, firstly in an evening recital on August 16 with Clemens Leske as associate on piano, and then in the Festival Finale on August 17, performing the much-loved work, Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the region's premier string ensemble, Christ Church Camerata, conducted by Dr David Banney.
This year's Newcastle Music Festival has something for everyone, and we can't wait to share these wonderful concerts with you. Book now at newcastlemusicfestival.org.au.
