Programme

Big Little Ballet

(Opening Event)

Saturday 3^rd October

10am & 1pm

Little Red

From mischievously witty director/choreographer Andries Weidemann comes the Big Little Ballet Company with their unique take on a fairy tale favourite. A near-sighted Little Red Riding Hood gets sent to her Granny’s and is duped by the Big Bad Wolf in this hilarious work for young audiences. Perfect for all the family, and littlies aged 4–12. Prams and buggies welcome. Refreshments available, with room for snacks and lunch either side.

45’

Show +

workshop

Big Little Ballet

Supported by West Australian Opera

Saturday 3^rd October

1130am &

2:30pm

The Wonderful World of Mr McGee

Mr McGee lives under a tree and gets up to all sorts of mischief. Come and see the West Australian Opera Sings teaching artists perform 4 of Pamela Allen’s beloved picture books with live ensemble, stick puppets, and hilarious choreography. Perfect for all the family, and littlies aged 2–6. Refreshments available, with room for snacks and lunch either side.

30’

Show +

Question time

Blissful with Bach

Kathryn McCusker Meditation

Saturday 3^rd October

100am &

Join Kathryn McCusker and Melinda Forsythe as they take you through a music and mindfulness experience featuring Bach preludes and guided meditation.

40’

Saturday 3^rd October

2pm

Celestial Bodies

In 1984 astrophysicist and writer, Carl Sagan, was inspired by the famous photograph of an Earth “suspended in a sunbeam” taken by Voyager 2 before it left our solar system forever. Award winning composer Emma Jayakumar presents a new song cycle inspired by this photograph of the Pale Blue Dot featuring heavenly soprano Prudence Sanders, and powerful Baritone Lachie Higgins, and the incomparable Darlington Quartet. Also including Samuel Barber’s stirring quartet in B minor (with heartbreaking adagio movement) this concert under the beautiful Kalamunda Library stained glass window, is a both a meditation and celebration of human things and our place in the universe.

40’

Show

Saturday 3^rd October

7:30pm

OMD Workshop C ANGELUS

Come and hear a workshop read through of beautiful new Choral work ANGELUS, inspired by the Catholic Angelus text, a devotion celebrating the Virgin Mary and the Incarnation. Led by Baritone Sholto Foss and singing students from WAAPA. In development for festival 2027.

OMD Workshop B Christmas Carols

Dust off your vocal cords and come and sing with your friends and community members in this non-serious, completely fun, and non-judgemental Christmas sing-a-long. Emma Jayakumar and Baritone Sholto Foss will run a vocal warm up and carol session where you can just sing the melody (or learn some harmony parts if you’re more ambitious) and get ready for the Carols by Candlelight just around the corner in December. Open for music readers, non-music readers, and shower warblers alike— all are welcome!

Consort

An intimate musical vignette of sixteenth and seventeenth century England, celebrating works for viol ensemble and voice. Held vertically and played with a bow, the viol has a flat back, deep ribs and a tuning system developed from the Lute. It’s a rare sight and sound to behold all four at once! Consort features four of Perth’s leading viol proponents: Krista Low, Hannah Herriman, Tadhg Sudlow and Andrew Tait playing replicas of historical treble, alto, bass (or gamba) viols and violone. Joining them in song are UK Baritone David Valsamidis, and the golden-voiced artistry of soprano Bonnie de la Hunty. With wine tasting from Tonon Winery and antipasto platters from Sebastian’s butchers, this concert will be a gorgeous feast for all of the senses.

Date & Time

Saturday 3^rd October at 12pm

Piano Quintet in A Major (The Trout) Written when Franz Schubert was just a tender 22 years old, the Trout Quintet was commissioned by wealthy patron and amateur cellist Sylvester Paumgartner to be arranged in the unusual combination of piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. This richness performed by the bass addition frees up the pianist to perform all sorts of lovely treble flourishes in this insanely catchy and tuneful quintet.

A wonderful way to launch to our inaugural festival.

The Coffee Cantata

Decadence, drama and delight abound in Bach’s Coffee Cantata as you’ve never seen it before! Schlendrian (Brett Peart) tries various punishments to force Lieschen (Prudence Sanders) to quit drinking coffee—withholding new clothes, blocking her from walking out, and refusing to let her go to social gatherings. Lieschen remains defiant until her father declares he will not let her find a husband. She relents on one condition: her future husband must explicitly agree in the wedding contract to let her brew coffee whenever she pleases!

Fully costumed, with a comic contemporary spin, this colourfully staged show presents Bach’s cantata depicting the rise of coffee addiction. Set in Eighteenth Century Germany and served with Coffee and Cake, this show has been widely performed to sell-out festival audiences throughout the UK.

How We Hear, Feel and Experience Sound

This absorbing workshop asks how does the individual experience sound as a meditation? A sound workshop where participants interact with the sound composition as a listener with eyes closed (or open) either lying down or sitting, or through a creative outlet of drawing or dancing. Spine tingling and immersive listening with RTR’s Lesley Kaye.

Sunday 4^th October

1pm

Soprano Emma Matthews

Winner of seven Helpmann Awards, nine Green Room Awards, and the Remy Martin Australian Opera Award (among others), the fabulous soprano Emma Matthews joins Arboria in its inaugural year to sing Samuel Barber’s moving and evocative concerto for soprano voice Knoxville Summer of 1915, lovingly arranged by Tommaso Pollio for the Chimera Quartet. Set to text from the novel A death in the family, by acclaimed American author, James Agee, Knoxville is a moving portrait of a child on the cusp of adolescence soaking up the sounds of their neighbourhood and family home. Also included in this program by Chimera Quartet (Tommaso Pollio, Melinda Forsythe, Rebecca Glorie and Geoff Bourgault) works by Shostakovich, Mendelssohn and the unmistakable tango stylings of Astor Piazzolla.

Rob Zielinski

(Closing event)

Sunday 4^th October

4pm

Robert Zielinski

Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2025 Australian Folk Music Awards and String Player of the Year at the 2025 West Australian Music Awards, Robert Zielinski will be joined by Manuela Centanni on wooden flute, Melinda Forsythe on cello and Jim Green on bouzouki for Dawn to Dusk from Kiangardarup, Robert’s award winning concept album inspired by the South West of Western Australia. An immersive experience, with Manuela’s stunning images of the Torbay Inlet and surrounding country and sounds of the West Australian bush recorded by Robert. To finish the festival on a high note, they will bring you to the west coast of Ireland with lively jigs and reels, haunting slow airs and even the possibility of a funny story!