Musica Viva Australia
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: PAUL KILDEA
2026 Season
Lift your spirits. Delight your senses. Fly.
In 2026, Musica Viva Australia invites you to look forward to seven concerts featuring favourites and new friends.
The year begins with the incomparable Allan Clayton and Kate Golla setting out once again on A Winter’s Journey, warmed by Fred Williams’ glowing visions of Australia; a new piano trio takes flight when Aura Go, Timo-Veikko Valve and Kristian Winther discover Beethoven and Ravel; London’s Doric String Quartet meet Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff for some musical alchemy; Leila Josefowicz and John Novacek unleash the magic of music for violin and piano by Debussy and Stravinsky; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and lutenist Thomas Dunford explore music for a French king; pianist Paul Lewis puts Mozart under the microscope to discover endless new wonders; and, to close out the year, the the Grammy Award-winning Latvian Radio Choir spread their wings and soar with recorder queen Genevieve Lacey.
Join Musica Viva Australia in 2026, with a season to lift your spirits and expand your horizons. These performances are a part of a Musica Viva Australia 2026 Season Subscription.
A Winter's Journey
Sun 22 Feb, 7pm & Mon 23 Feb, 7PM
British tenor Allan Clayton and Australian pianist Kate Golla set out once again on A Winter’s Journey in the internationally-acclaimed production that reimagines Schubert’s Winterreise.
Beethoven's Ghost
Wed 6 May, 7PM
Musica Viva Australia presents Aura Go, Timo-Veikko Valve and Kristian Winther in the piano trio for which we’ve all been waiting.
Doric String Quarter & Lloyd Van't Hoff
Mon 22 Jun, 7PM
Then the Doric String Quartet invites us to join them for a while on their multi-year project performing and recording Beethoven’s complete string quartets.
Leila Josefowicz & John Novacek
Mon 20 Jul, 7PM
Then the Doric String Quartet invites us to join them for a while on their multi-year project performing and recording Beethoven’s complete string quartets.
Nicolas Altstaedt & Thomas Dunford
Sat 8 Aug, 7PM
In the intricate weave of sounds that make up a baroque ensemble, the lute is central. It’s fitting, then, that French-American lutenist Thomas Dunford is at the centre of some of the most exciting early music-making of the moment.
Paul Lewis: Mozart+
Mon 12 Oct, 7PM
The British concert pianist has received universal critical acclaim for his performances and recordings of the great piano works of Beethoven and Schubert. He now turns his laser-like focus and insightful musicianship to Mozart.
Latvian Radio Choir & Genevieve Lacey
Mon 16 Nov, 7PM
The Latvian Radio Choir spreads its wings and flies with Australia’s own recorder queen, Genevieve Lacey. Join them as they look to the skies for dancing planets and soaring birds in the music of Pēteris Vasks.
2025 Season
Welcome to a new world. Welcome home.
In 2025 Musica Viva Australia celebrates 80 years of taking music across the length and breadth of Australia with a year of tradition, collaboration and innovation.
It's a long way from 1945 Sydney, where two Central European refugees, Richard Goldner and Walter Dullo, put together an ensemble of displaced musicians to perform Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge by the light of car headlamps. There were no thoughts of international soloists; no music education or emerging artists initiatives: just a group of musicians sharing their profound love for an artform which shaped their lives. Eighty years on much has changed, but Goldner and Dullo’s original dream to build a community around their love of music still resonates.
We invite you to be part of it in 2025: welcome back Berlin-based Signum Saxophone Quartet performing with Ali McGregor; to hear Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene’s Australian debut alongside much-loved pianist Jennifer Marten-Smith; explore Mozart and Beethoven’s spirit of invention with Nicola Boud, Erin Helyard, and Simon Cobcroft; revel in the undimmed brilliance of the Takács Quartet; delight in the great piano trio repertoire as Trio Isimsiz visit Australia for the first time; and to hear the intelligence, lucidity and joy of iconoclastic pianist Piotr Anderszewski performing Bach, Schubert and Schumann.
Trio Isimisiz
Mon 13 October, 7PM
In its first Australian tour, Trio Isimsiz performs two giants of the piano trio repertoire from Schubert and Brahms alongside a striking new work from Francisco Coll.
Piotr Anderszewski
Mon 10 November, 7PM
Iconoclastic pianist Piotr Anderszewski brings his intelligence, lucidity and joy to piano repertoire from Bach, Schubert and Schumann.
