Musica Viva Australia
Musica Viva Australia — the country’s national chamber music presenter
Musica Viva Australia is the world’s largest dedicated chamber music presenter and Australia’s most consistent national touring arts organisation. Founded in 1945 as the Musica Viva Society of Australia by a group of Sydney-based amateur chamber musicians, the organisation has run continuously since and now presents approximately 1,500 concerts a year — the great majority of them in Australia, with international ensembles touring through every state and territory annually. Musica Viva is unusual among Australia’s major performing arts organisations in not having its own performing ensemble — the organisation is a national presenter that brings the world’s leading chamber ensembles to Australian audiences.
What they’re known for
The Musica Viva International Concert Season is the organisation’s principal calendar item — typically eight international ensembles per year, each touring a six-to-ten-city Australian circuit including the major capital cities and the regional venues that have built their concert programmes around the Musica Viva annual visit. Recent international ensembles have included the Quatuor Ébène, the Belcea Quartet, Pavel Haas Quartet, the Danish String Quartet, the Calidore String Quartet, the Brentano String Quartet, and the major chamber-music collaborations (Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Mutter Virtuosi, the Borromeo Quartet, the Doric String Quartet).
The organisation also runs the Australian Chamber Music Conference each year (the country’s principal continuing-education programme for amateur and emerging professional chamber musicians), the Musica Viva Festival in Sydney each Easter (a week-long chamber music festival), and the Musica Viva In Schools programme — the country’s largest schools music education programme, reaching approximately a million Australian primary-school children each year.
Home venues
- Melbourne Recital Centre — Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. The Melbourne home, where the organisation’s Melbourne subscription series concerts are held.
- City Recital Hall, Angel Place — the Sydney home.
- Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music — the Canberra home.
- QPAC Concert Hall — Brisbane.
- UWA Octagon Theatre — Perth.
- Adelaide Town Hall — Adelaide.
- Federation Concert Hall — Hobart.
- Plus approximately twenty regional Australian venues including Civic Theatre Newcastle, Wollongong Town Hall, Empire Theatre Toowoomba, Capital Theatre Bendigo, Cairns Performing Arts Centre, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre.
The season pattern — and how to book
Musica Viva announces its annual International Concert Season in mid-September. The subscription package — a typical eight-concert national subscription, with single-city versions also available — opens immediately. Single tickets follow in late October. The organisation’s subscription programme is the most cost-effective way to access serious chamber music in Australia by a substantial margin — eight international ensembles for a price that would not cover three single-ticket concerts in equivalent international venues.
The Sydney Easter Festival programme is announced separately in October and tickets release in November. Single ticket availability for the marquee festival weekend programmes tends to sell out within four weeks of release.
Planning a trip
A Musica Viva concert is the most reliable serious-music night out in Australia because the venues are the country’s best chamber music rooms and the ensembles are international touring acts who don’t otherwise visit Australia. James’s standing recommendation for the chamber-music traveller: the regional Musica Viva concerts. Empire Theatre Toowoomba, Civic Theatre Newcastle, Cairns Performing Arts Centre — international string-quartet quality programming in regional venues at substantially lower prices than the capital-city subscription concerts, with a country-town weekend included.
Tour reach beyond the capitals
Musica Viva’s regional touring programme is the deepest of any Australian arts organisation. Every major Australian regional centre is on the touring circuit. International touring is occasional — the organisation occasionally co-promotes Australian ensembles touring internationally, but the principal direction of Musica Viva’s international engagement is bringing ensembles into Australia rather than sending Australian ensembles overseas.
Useful links
- Official: musicaviva.com.au
- Venues: Melbourne Recital Centre, City Recital Hall
- Where we cover them: Companies, Regional Touring