CutCommon

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE “Play it faster, play it louder, make a viral reel, hook someone in the first three seconds before they scroll past. Being the loudest voice in the room gets rewarded.” Harpist Emily Grainger describes these expectations and pressures placed on musicians who release new music. Then she takes her album in an entirely different direction.

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE “Play it faster, play it louder, make a viral reel, hook someone in the first three seconds before they scroll past. Being the loudest voice in the room gets rewarded.” Harpist Emily Granger describes these expectations and pressures placed on musicians who release new music. Then she takes her album in an entirely different direction.

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE Every orchestra in the 21st Century faces the same challenge: how do you launch a concert season that will appeal to loyal audiences while attracting new ones? And how do you satisfy a variety of musical tastes while staying true to your own identity as an orchestra?

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE Has there ever been a more appropriate time to connect with humans? To listen to stories sung and told? To come together in a physical space, and feel the emotions that inevitably arise when we hear the music of our time? This is what the RESPECT project has to offer its artists and audience members alike. Presented by Homophonic!, the program is a celebration of story and life through recently commissioned music.

CONTENT COURTESY MELBOURNE YOUTH ORCHESTRAS The streets of the Queen Victoria Market will come alive with the sound of music when Melbourne Youth Orchestras (MYO) presents The Big Busk on Saturday 19 September 2026, transforming one of Naarm, Melbourne’s most iconic destinations into a vibrant celebration of young musical talent. From 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, more than 650 young musicians will perform across a main stage and multiple busking sites throughout the market.

CONTENT COURTESY BOROONDARA ARTS This August, as winter settles softly across Melbourne’s inner east, Hawthorn Arts Centre will glow with song, strings, and shared breath as Strings and Voicesunfolds, a luminous new concert series with atmospheric music over four of the Saturdays in the month.

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE A bit over an hour south of Hobart lies the natural, rugged wonder of the Tasman Peninsula. The landscape is at once beautiful and rough, surrounded by coastlines of fractured rock and hidden caves that allow water and light to glisten through. The region is fraught with dense forest as well as dark convict history — and, under a brighter sky, secluded beaches. It was this remote part of lutruwita/Tasmania that inspired Meredith Beardmore to craft her new solo album.

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE You don’t have to play a woodwind instrument to be part of the Adelaide Clarinet & Saxophone Festival. You only need a love of music — and locally composed music, in particular. The festival will host the premiere of a new piece from Elder Conservatorium composition student Belle Smibert, and you can hear a massed ensemble of clarinetists and saxophonists bring it to life. But if you do play clarinet or saxophone, you could perform in that particular event.

BY LILY BRYANT If you’re a fan of Australian film, chances are you’ve heard the timeless scores of Oscar-nominated composer David Hirschfelder. With credits like Strictly Ballroom, The Dressmaker, and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, his music has graced our screens for over three decades, and will be celebrated by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in their upcoming concert Metropolis: Sounds of Cinema.

BY LILY BRYANT Picture a concerto soloist out the front of an orchestra. What image comes to mind? Perhaps they’re wearing a flashy tux, or a sparkly gown. They might be playing an eye-wateringly expensive violin, or cello, or piano. They’re probably, for the most part, standing or sitting in one place. Now imagine the music — maybe some Beethoven, or Tchaikovsky, or even Shostakovich.