Mindy Meng Wang is a versatile Chinese/Australian composer and performer, masterfully trained on the traditional Chinese instrument, the guzheng. Born and classically trained in China, Mindy studied Western Musicology in the UK before migrating to Australia. Excelling in experimental music and improvisation, she is pioneering a new sonic direction for the guzheng.

Paul Grabowsky is a pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, with a reputation as one of Australia’s most distinguished jazz artists and renowned collaborator. He is currently a Professor at Monash University, and director of the Monash University Academy of Performing Arts and the Monash Art Ensemble.

Their performance in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall offers an intimate listening experience, exploring life and shared emotions. Mindy and Paul started collaborating in early 2021 and immediately found a special connection in music. Using the uncommon combination of guzheng and piano, the pairs melodies dance effortlessly to produce a hauntingly beautiful sound.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Ethereal electro-folk band, Dandelion Wine combine folk and medieval instruments, haunting female vocals, electronic beats and textured guitars to create enveloping soundscapes. Their trademark tapestry of weaving ancient and modern has seen them perform in dynamic spaces from Tokyo clubs to German castles.

Their performance in the Primrose Potter Salon presents a selection of anachronistically beautiful work, melding live and recorded elements seamlessly. Blending old world and contemporary, their melodies range from enchantingly delicate to dark and powerful.

Performing works from their latest album Le Coeur and new works from the forthcoming album Hereafter with a focus on nine course lute and medieval influences, Dandelion Wine will take audiences on an intimate and otherworldly journey.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Girma Yifrashewa is a worthy new torchbearer of African pianism. His highly personalised approach to the piano likens him to Ethiopian composer Emahoy Tsege Mariam, while his use of Ethiopian pentatonic scale within the Western Art Music format places his compositions in conversation with more academically minded work.

Girma’s performance in the Primrose Potter Salon at Melbourne Recital Centre pays tribute to the exceptional musicianship of Ethiopia through his own compositions alongside works of great classical composers Chopin, Debussy and Gottschallk.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Antelodic is an instrumental chamber jazz trio featuring the unusual instrumentation of guitar with two saxophones. The woodwinds often perform the role of rhythm section, allowing the guitar to become the melodic voice. The trio have developed a highly nuanced approach to their creative practice that allows them to experiment in the moment while maintaining a unified ensemble sound.

Their performance in the Primrose Potter Salon at Melbourne Recital Centre presented music from their two albums ‘Quiet Sufficient’ and ‘To Iceland! To Iceland!’ alongside a premiere of Declan Postlethwaite’s Lagom, a composition commissioned by University of Melbourne and Melbourne Recital Centre.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

The Parlour focuses on the sung storytelling of Art Song and ballad, often spinning a cabaret-like narrative to bring the program together as a collection. Since their inception, unearthing the intentions behind Art Song compositions and exposing the people and events that inspired them has been part of the journey.

Interested in investigating the people hidden in footnotes of music history, The Parlour seeks to tell the stories of those who are too often ignored and forgotten. Women were both creators and enablers of art, and their stories forge a window into the intimate machinations of creative life whether that be first-hand or through observation.

Their performance in Primrose Potter Salon addresses the stark gender imbalance in art by celebrating the compositions of Australian women and telling many forgotten stories of women in what will be a uniquely moving experience.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Rafael Karlen is an award-winning composer and saxophonist. Known for his colourful harmony and engaging melodic lines, he has built a reputation as a dynamic and exciting chamber jazz player. In this special performance, he is joined by celebrated pianist and composer Andrea Keller and the dazzling Partridge String Quartet.

Seamlessly drawing together elements from jazz and Western art music, their performance in Primrose Potter Salon showcases skillful composition and tasteful improvisation. The inventive and lyrical playing of the pair, together with colourful string quartet textures intersects to create sonic beauty.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

The Consort of Melbourne is a vocal ensemble that champions both historic and contemporary repertoire. They bring 1000 years of vocal harmony to life with an intimacy and verve that leaves audiences spellbound.

Their performance in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall presents the Australian premiere of a ground-breaking new piece by award-winning composer Wally Gunn and librettist Maria Zajkowski.

I heart Artemis is a concert-length reimagining of Greek mythology told through a series of scenes and tableaus rendered in glorious six-part vocal harmony. Athena and Artemis meet, fall in love, and live a brief eternity of passion; but their paradise can’t last. On earth, men wage war, indulge their lusts, and exploit the land. Athena and Artemis watch in horror as the world falls apart and must unite to defend what cannot defend itself.

I heart Artemis is a story about a mythological love and a very real crisis, which asks the most pressing questions about humanity’s future.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Ossicle Duo are pioneers of exploratory art music, blending technical refinement and liveliness to produce performances with palpable energy. Their practice preferences collaboration, supporting and promoting new experimental sonic realms.

With a program of groundbreaking premieres by composers from Australia and New Zealand, the duo starts with Liam Flenady’s ‘The Five Seasons’, a thrilling and disorientating musical dystopia, forecasting a world in ecological crisis.

Finishing with Jaslyn Robertson’s ‘Cut It’, the duo plunges the into a granular electroacoustic noise world, drawing on her own experiences of censorship in the arts as a non-male composer.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Au Revoir Hands fuse cello and buchla easel synth, exploring the worlds of experimental ambient and contemporary neo-classical music. Cello and analogue synth lines meet fragments of noise, broken and reframed beats, underpinned by samples of viola da gamba, harp and strings.

The duo’s performance presents original works from their album ‘Hemispheres’, exploring concepts of navigation and voyage. An immersive sound world sitting at the intersections of neo-classical, soundscape and electronics.

‘Created across our northern and southern hemispheres, the album furnishes a program that embraces themes of nautical voyages, ocean channel crossings, time, tide, and celestial navigation.’ Au Revoir Hands on ‘Hemispheres’

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

InConcert Music presents scintillating south Indian rhythms, ragas and compositions of illustrious and contemporary composers. Led by seasoned musician Sridhar Chari, known for his rich tonal quality, dynamic instrumentation and compelling artistry.

Blending improvisation with historic pieces, the group perform such works as Varnam, a foundational piece of Carnatic music in Raga Nattakurinji, Maharaja Swati Tirunal’s jubilant Tillana and Patnam Subramania Iyer’s Garuda Gamana composed for Lord Venkatesa in Raga Nagaswarali.

With vivid exchanges and dynamic improvisation, their performance provides a soulful exposition of traditional Ragas and Rhythms.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

With a shared curiosity for the subtle beauty of things, experimental folk jazz duo MEATSHELL cultivates unconventional sound worlds, transcending traditional song forms by emphasising the power of storytelling through sound.

Sincere melodies and euphoric grooves are boldly juxtaposed with moments of mystery, beauty, desperation and screaming chaos, providing an intimate, raw and unapologetically honest listening experience.

In this recording, hear repertoire from their sophomore album ‘Since Subito’, a body of work which sonically explores the concepts and principles underpinning the cubist art movement. The music embodies juxtaposing perspectives of a single idea, resulting in a holistic and deeply personal performance.

Their performance will take audiences on an expansive journey through the abstract and the quirky.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.

Quercus is a new Melbourne-based horn trio, showcasing the distinctive combination of horn, violin and piano. Interested in championing contemporary and Australian works, their diverse and dynamic experience melds to create something truly special.

This performance focuses on Australian composers who cross continents, with strong roots both here and abroad. Beginning with a piece from Melbournian Don Banks written for the 1962 Edinburgh Festival, the jazz-influenced, loosely serialist horn-trio captures light moods.

Roger Smalley’s Horn Trio is a little-known gem of the literature. A masterful rendering of the myriad colours and emotional possibilities wrought from these instrumental forces.

This recording is supported by The Peggy and Leslie Cranbourne Foundation.