The Australian Festival of Chamber Music 2024 is back in Townsville-Gurambilbarra from 26 July – 4 August with over 30 events and concerts to explore.

View the complete Australian Festival of Chamber Music 2024 Program at the following link – https://www.afcm.com.au/afcm-2024/2024-program/

Rejoice! Our wonderful Festival beckons and for this, my third as Artistic Director, I am thrilled to once again be presenting you with my artistic concoctions. Our 2023 Festival was a joy to see unfold before my eyes, and the joy in our audiences’ faces will live with me in perpetuity. Although no two Festivals can be the same, I hope that the 2024 Festival will build on this further! In 2024 we will present plenty of new faces and some old favourites whom I am sure you will all be thrilled to welcome back. I think particularly of our former Artistic Director, the man for whom I can credit my entire connection to Australia, Piers Lane. I know that his appearance will be met with whoops of delight. We will also be saying adieu to our beloved Goldner String Quartet who so movingly announced their retirement during our Festival Coda in August 2023. The 2024 programme is very much a “Goldner-fest”, and I hope we will all drink to them during their Champagne Concert Conversations and bid them a wonderful farewell. Our resident musicologist Stephen Johnson was such a hit in 2023 that I have invited him to come back. His musical wisdom and insight is truly Festival enhancing. Learning what goes on behind the notes is so valuable to really gain insight into what you hear our musicians perform. I am so thrilled to have him back. Among other things, he will guide us through the Ravel Piano Trio and the Brahms Horn Trio as well as give us insight into what it is in music that really makes us feel something when we listen to it. Fascinating! One of my favourite AFCM inventions, Guilty Pleasures, is back again, so you will be sure to hear many unusual pieces that drive our musicians’ soft centres into delight. We will also feature Wonderful World with cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca accompanied by AYO Momentum featuring breathtaking imagery of our precious blue dot and beautiful music that is equally as special. Watch out for Musical Transfigurations in which we will experience two incredible tone poems, Mahler Symphony No 1 “Titan” and a unique performance of Schoenberg Verklärte Nachte. There are so many highlights in my mind during this programme, so have a look for yourself and see
which ones tickle your fancy.
I hope that you will share in this year’s delights and love it as much as I have enjoyed (and stressed out) in its conception!
See you all in the blink of an eye…

Jack Liebeck, Artistic Director