Michael Leslie, J. S. Bach: Goldberg Variations
The Institute of Enquiring Minds presents this recital by legendary Australian pianist Michael Leslie, who will perform Bach's beloved Goldberg Variations.
fortyfivedownstairs Chamber Music Festival 2023
Acclaimed and award-winning pianist Coady Green has once again pulled together an outstanding group of musicians and ensembles for a two-week music series featuring ten performances with highly varied programs.
Music for Reflection
With a program of works by J. S. Bach, Pärt, Edwards, Abbott, Ravenscroft, Leek, and Cossom (performed by renowned Melbourne musicians - violinist Rachael Beesley, cellist Josephine Vains, and percussionist Robert Cossom), this concert is full of nocturnal echoes and colourful imaginings.
Australian Art Song for Chamber Choir
The award-winning Divisi Chamber Choir - one of Australia's most exciting and vibrant chamber choirs - performs a program of Australian works by Meta Cohen, Robert McIntyre, Juliana Kay, and more, plus the Melbourne premiere of Joe Twist's exciting new 'Australian Song Cycle.'
In Their Words: Kouvaras, Hammond, Cawrse
Lyric Opera presents the opening event for their 2023 season – a concert of three major song cycles by three renowned Australian composers Linda Kouvaras, Jane Hammond, and Anne Cawrse, featuring three of Melbourne's exciting vocal stars - Linda Barcan singing Kouvaras' Art and Life, Bailey Montgomerie performing Hammond's Sea Voyage, and Samantha Hargreaves in Cawrse's This Too Shall Pass.
Of Birds and Monuments
This concert features Linda Kouvaras’ 'Herring Island Piano Sonata', Jane Hammond’s 'Songs of the Helmeted Honeyeater', and a special world premiere preview of excerpts from Kouvaras’ new work – the 'Buluwirri Bugaja Piano Suite' for piano, with text by Tiriki Onus and sound by Roger Alsop.
One Piano Eight Hands
Following their sell-out, virtuosic 2021 events showcasing rarely heard works with eight hands on one piano, Tristan Lee, Gintaute Gataveckaite, Coady Green, and Georgina Lewis present truly dazzling works that are rarely heard on the concert platform. Featuring works by Liszt, Levinac, Mazzoli, Rachmaninoff, Kouvaras, Brahms, and more.
Women, Life, Freedom Rebirth – Classical Works by Iranian Composers
As the revolution continues in Iran, and fury and frustration grows, young Iranian composers channel their rage in this transformative music. Performed by Khashayar “Kaya” Amri (piano) and Billie Tumarkin (voice), this program showcases works by Iranian composers whose voices rise against oppression.
Virtuoso Piano Works for the Left Hand Alone
Internationally award-winning pianist Coady Green presents a kaleidoscopic program of left-handed works by Brahms, Wagner, Yoshimatsu, Blumenfeld, Saint-Saëns, Hyde, and more.
Nostalgia
Songmakers Australia Artistic Director and pianist Andrea Katz goes back to her homeland Argentina in a soul-searching voyage to the music that shaped her youth, as Nicholas Dinopoulos sings songs and tangos by Gardel, Mores, Piazzolla, and Ziegler, threaded together with some of the most iconic Argentinian piano pieces.
Between Head and Heart: Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt
A virtuosic recital of Romantic piano masterpieces performed by pianist Tristan Lee.
Close to Home
A recital program of classical and contemporary music featuring acclaimed dramatic contralto Liane Keegan, mezzo soprano Juel Riggall, soprano Naomi Summers and pianist Issac Mouskovias.
Robbie Melville’s smallCHESTRA
Featuring Melbourne jazz veterans Ronny Ferella (drums), Tamara Murphy (bass), Robbie Melville (guitar), Gideon Brazil (tenor saxophone, alto flute) and Flora Carbo (alto saxophone/bass clarinet), and classical cellist Zoe Knighton, the smallCHESTRA creates a spectacular range of dynamic and timbral possibilities in a relatively small package, and blurs the barriers between contemporary folk, jazz and classical.
1863: The Birth of Impressionism
Songmakers Australia - soprano Merlyn Quaife AM, bass-baritone Nicholas Dinopoulos and pianist Andrea Katz - perform a program of stunning French repertoire by Debussy, Fauré, Duparc, Chausson and Poulenc.
The Herring Island Piano Sonata
The world premiere of Linda Kouvaras' new work, the Herring Island Sonata for Piano and Narrator, performed by pianist Coady Green and narrator Tiriki Onus.
Art and Life, Domestic and Sublime
Pianist Coady Green and mezzo-soprano Linda Barcan perform two major song cycles by Melbourne-based composers Linda Kouvaras and Katy Abbott.
Viola, Viola
Fellow violists Wenhong Huo and William Vyvyan Murray present an exciting program of viola duets.
Old Friends | New Beginnings
Luke Severn and Elyane Laussade will make their triumphant return to performing as a duo with a concert of some of their favourite works for cello and piano.
Jane Hammond’s ‘Songs of the Helmeted Honeyeater’ and Ross Edwards’ ‘Full Moon Dances’
LIVE AT VENUE OR LIVESTREAM AT HOME
The world premiere of Jane Hammond's homage to the Helmeted Honeyeater; and a new arrangement of Ross Edwards’ vibrant saxophone concerto
Fantastique! The Life and Loves of Hector Berlioz
LIVE AT VENUE OR LIVESTREAM AT HOME
Created using journal entries, letters and articles from Berlioz’s life, combined with a selection of his songs, and transcriptions of his orchestral works
Kavisha Mazzella with Irine Vela
LIVE AT VENUE OR LIVESTREAM AT HOME
Kavisha Mazzella returns briefly to Melbourne for an intimate concert at fortyfivedownstairs with guitarist Irine Vela
Franz Liszt: The Complete Hungarian Rhapsodies for Piano Four Hands
The first complete Australian performance of this dazzlingly virtuosic set of pieces, known for their fiendish technical demands
Trouble in a Monochromatic Town
A lush and gritty program inspired by a palette of shifting drones, acid house, electronics, Dada and silk scarves
Shostakovich and Schumann
Kyla Matsuura-Miller, Madeleine Jevons, Molly Collier O’Boyle & Harry Ward are joined by virtuoso pianist Tamara Smolyar for one of Shostakovich’s best known chamber works, the G minor Piano Quintet.
Solicitude
What a way to welcome live performance back to the venue! A stunning program, performed by Coady Green and Justin Kenealy, featuring new commissions, Australian premieres and a sneak preview of a special new work.