Check out the unmissable schedule for Season One: Horizon from January to March 2023.
Melbourne Recital Centre has announced its January to March program, Season One: Horizon, inspired by long summer days, warm nights and the stunning Australian landscape. With the perfect lineup of innovative and experimental artists, from famed composers to celebrated singer-songwriters to electronic pioneers, you can kick 2023 off with a slew of international and local acts that you should not miss.
Marshall McGuire, the Director of Programming at Melbourne Recital Centre, speaks about the upcoming program. “Melbourne Recital Centre is back with renewed energy, cementing our role as a venue with the broadest range of music to be heard in Melbourne this year.”
International guests will include Yann Tiersen, Michael Rothner, Jordi Savall, Angel Olsen, Nakhane, The Chills, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Susanne Kirchmayr (Electric Indigo), Robert Henke, Siobhan Stagg and Paul Lewis, and local acts such as Kav Temperley, Arcadia Winds, Laura Jean, Mindy Meng Wang & Paul Grabowsky, and Duo Eclettico.
Let’s dive into some of the artists appearing to ensure you are well and truly prepared for a creatively inspiring start to the new year.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Angel Olsen
Angel’s critically acclaimed 2022 album Big Time (released with a stunning short visual counterpart directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch) makes her Melbourne Recital Centre debut a very exciting prospect. Her genre-skipping indie rock finds the perfect setting in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.
Wednesday 1 & Friday 3 March 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
Michael Rother & Friends
Find a more influential icon than Kraftwerk’s Michael Rother, who, with some friends, will celebrate 50 years of NEU! as part of the Horizon program. Who better than one of the pioneers of West Germany’s Krautrock movement to delve into the genre and period that undoubtedly shaped some of your favourite artists today.
Friday 31 March 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
Yann Tiersen
Tuesday 21 March 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
Whether its the gentle, awe-inspiring piano that made him famous, the Interpol-esque brooding guitars of his later records, the soft and childish xylophone or the bells, a bass clarinet and some inter-terrestrial moaning – Tiersen’s elements don’t fit into any one genre. Unlike a traditional composer, Tiersen says he doesn’t have a sense of direction or structure. “I just put stuff together and see if it works.”
Grab tickets here.
Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI
Two programs focusing on renaissance music are on offer – ‘Fantasies, Battles & Dances, the golden age of European Consort music’ and ‘The Venetian influences in Musical Europe’. Spanish conductor, composer and viol player Jordi Savall’s last performance at Melbourne Recital Centre in 2019 sold out very quickly, so we recommend getting in early for the next visit.
Thursday 23 & Friday 24 February 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
The Chills + Parsnip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjW3MT8D9RY
Saturday 18 February 2023 8pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
Dunedin innovators The Chills with celebrated frontman Martin Phillipps traverse lush psychedelia, whimsy and gloom, punk rock and bright jangly pop, supporting their seventh studio album, Scatterbrain. They’ll be joined by Melbourne’s effervescent four-piece Parsnip; the local ‘60s psych-appreciators offer a cavalcade of jangle pop with a lo-fi, retro rock aesthetic.
Grab tickets to that one here.
Kav Temperley
Thursday 23 February 2023 7pm at Primrose Potter Salon
Celebrating the release of his sophomore solo album, Machines Of Love & Grace, one of Australia’s most iconic front men Kav Temperley of Eskimo Joe has all bases covered with his solo record, featuring deep strings, plucky piano and glittering guitar captured in the carefully considered instrumentation and arrangement with politically-conscious lyricism delivered in that famed timbre.
Grab tickets here.
Nakhane
Wednesday 15 March 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
One of the most interesting, diverse and talked-about artists, Nakhane is a published author, award-winning actor, musician and singer famed for their haunting, heart-trembling, fuck-them-all records, picked out in creamy synth chords, melancholy strings and the occasional mbira twang.
Buy tickets here.
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
Sixteen, that’s right, sixteen-time Grammy Award-winner Béla Fleck brings his genre-bending banjo to Melbourne along with singer-songwriter Abigail Washburn whom herself re-radicalised the clawhammer banjo by mixing it with far east culture. Their joint performance will feature songs from their Grammy-winning self-titled debut, with works from Echo in the Valley.
Tuesday 14 March 2023 7:30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
Susanne Kirchmayr (Electric Indigo) and Robert Henke (Monolake)
Two people who have helped shape electronic music culture, Susanne Kirchmayr and Robert Henke, return with a joint performance from Monolake and Electric Indigo. Settle in for an electronic masterclass during this one-night-only spectacular.
Thursday 23 March 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Acclaimed composer, artist, and producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith celebrates her most ambitious work to date with 2022’s Let’s Turn It Into Sound. Fans of avant-pop will not want to miss the very first time this unique sonic vision will be heard live.
Monday 23 January 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
International Classics 2023 Series (fka Great Performers)
Classical pianist Paul Lewis performs two Schubert sonatas on February 3 and 7, the culmination of a two-year exploration of the composer’s work. With no shortage of critical and public acclaim, Lewis offers a performance that may claim to be the best that the classical genre can offer right now. Grab tickets here.
Renowned Australian Soprano Siobhan Stagg and pianist Timothy Young will perform together as part of this series, and a third performance will also feature masterful Ukrainian-Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk.
Last but certainly not least, violinist Anthony Marwood – famed for his contemporary reimaginings of classical music – is partnering with Melbourne pianist Stefan Cassomenos for a performance combining the works of Robert Schumann, Leoš Janáček and Igor Stravinsky, with the Australian premiere of Thomas Adès’ Märchentänze. Buy tickets to that performance here.
Laura Jean
Eora/Sydney songwriter Laura Jean will launch her acclaimed new album Amateurs, backed by a full band and string section, bringing this stunning piece of work to life in a way that has not yet been heard, and should certainly not be missed.
Friday 10 February 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse
Award-winning duo Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse merge natural acoustic instruments and the rhythms of the Noongar language via their contemporary take on children’s songs and lullabies backed with strings of The String Contingent and Russel Holmes on piano. This connection between one of the world’s oldest languages and our youngest generations will be something very special.
Tuesday 14 March 2023 6pm at Primrose Potter Salon, buy tickets here.
Mindy Meng Wang & Paul Grabowsky
Chinese/Australian composer and performer Mindy Meng Wang is masterfully trained in the traditional Chinese instrument, the guzheng. See her experimental and improvised sounds live with Paul Grabowsky, one of Australia’s most distinguished jazz artists, in a collaboration that explores life and shared emotions using the strange combination of guzheng and piano.
Friday 27 January 2023 7.30pm at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, buy tickets here.
Duo Eclettico
The award-winning Duo Eclettico will reimagine masterpieces from J.S. Bach, J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach and Princess Anna Amalia on the saxophone and piano in Primrose Potter Salon. Reinventing both virtuosity and lyricism, Duo Eclettico offers the world premiere of these unique arrangements for saxophone and piano for a truly unique listening experience.
Wednesday 15 March 2023 6pm at Primrose Potter Salon, buy tickets here.
The program will also see the return of Cowboy Junkies, Madeleine Peyroux and more, proving that Season One: Horizon will indeed have something for everyone.
To choose the best events for you and gather a little more information on the Season One: Horizon program (including more announcements), visit melbournerecital.com.au today.
This article was made in partnership with Melbourne Recital Centre.
