What's on

This affectionately witty show was a London West-End sell-out in 2012, performed by Simon Ward, a rising Australian acting star on the comedy cabaret circuit as well as an accomplished singer.

Simon will be accompanied by John Martin on the piano. John is one of Australia’s most diverse, sensitive, award-winning pianists. He plays for recitals, ensembles, classical concerts through to jazz, popular music & cabaret. His warm, vibrant personality & eclectic performance skills are legendary.

The program will include a superb rendition of numerous Noël Coward songs that are well known for their wit and clever rhyming, complimented with some equally entertaining compositions by Simon Ward himself. It should appeal equally to mad dogs, Englishmen and sound-minded Australians.

"Ward's style is warm, friendly and engaging. Packed with songs we all love, 'Notes from Noël' is funny, intelligent and pertinent... delightful." Stagewon.co.uk

The program will feature favourites from the Gershwin Songbook, Rhapsody in Blue, the three Preludes and more. Simon writes:

"I have been performing for 25 years now and I have still never met anyone who did not love Gershwin's music. This is because of the supreme harmonic ingenuity and accessibility of his musical language that encompassed African-America, Cuba, Brazil and Russia.

"Tonight I have teamed up with multi-award winning jazz vocalist, Emma Pask, to show why Gershwin's music is so revered and appropriated by jazz musicians; because it is incomparable."

Title: (Death and the Maidens)
The Enigma Quartet is one of the most dynamic ensembles to emerge from the classical scene in Australia. These four young and exceptionally talented musicians are joined by Christina Leonard to perform an exciting and vibrant concert of especially composed and arranged music for the intriguing and beguiling combination of String Quartet and Saxophone.

Christina Leonard is an outstanding Australian saxophonist who is committed to expanding the repertoire of Australian music, and is deeply involved in the arrangement, commissioning and concert promotion of music in new and exciting frameworks.

Although James Morrison is best known as a trumpet player, he is a multi-instrumentalist who composed and performed the opening fanfare for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He has also had an influence on the design of trumpets and trombones.

He has had a long association with the composer and pianist Lalo Schifrin, and has recorded CDs of Schifrin's "Jazz Meets the Symnphony" with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Czech National Symphony, and his musical activity has been further widened to include vocal performing in collaboration with Deni Hines.

With a wide range of other interests, James' love of cars has led to his acting as host in TV's "Top Gear Australia". He has been appointed Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festivals of 2013 and 2015.

We are sure to have a really great evening's entertainment from this master virtuoso.

Seven violinists and one pianist present a program of more than twenty colourful pieces, including the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria, Dvorak's Humoresque, dances and other numbers by composers such as Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Fibich, Glazunov, Shostakovich, Gliere, Gershwin and Ann Carr-Boyd.

The program includes pieces from different styles with arrangements especially created for the Ensemble, and was a great success in China where all their concerts were sold out. The new Australian work, "Alexandra Suite", especially created for the Ensemble, composed by Ann Carr-Boyd, was world-premiered at the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre and was very well received.

Ian Cooper (violin), with his wonderful combination of entertainer charm and musical flair, and his Swing Trio will be joined by the dynamic Urban Gypsies Quartet, the acclaimed Latin jazz group comprising two nylon string guitars, cello and percussion. Together they will take you on a musical journey through a world of caravans and gypsy campsites, and indulge your ears in the flavours of Bohemia, Spain, Europe and South America.

Ian Cooper will serve up his trademark hot-jazz with the usual twists and turns. The Urban Gypsies Quartet have wowed audiences around the nation with their original compositions and have appeared with the Buena Vista Social Club. They'll showcase their passion for the rhythmic palette of Gypsy, Latin, Jazz guitar and world music.

Latin, Gypsy & Jazz - with seven such talented musicians on stage, there's no telling what spontaneous improvisational magic will take place at this very special event.

This leading quartet returns after having present a thoroughly superb concert here in 2012.

Brahms' Second Quartet in A minor shows an assured professional at work. It takes liberties with form and tempo, contrasting lyrical calm with dramatic twists and moments of turbulence - beauty emerging from struggle.

Mozart's Quartet K.499 is intimate music for private performance. Imagine an audience of the lucky few in an ornate rococo salon, hearing the sublime aria for the violin in the Quartet's slow movement.

Louis Andriessen, the Dutch composer of our time, is perhaps best known in Australia for his opera with Peter Greenaway, "Writing to Vermeer". In "Facing Death" (1990), the composer dares four string instruments to imitate Charlie Parker's alto saxophone. The result is bebop for strings; astringent, exhilarating and very fast.

We will signal the opening of our new season with a convivial cheese and wine reception starting at 5 pm, followed by an engrossing concert by members of the exciting Sydney Omega Ensemble, starting at 6 pm.

The Ensemble was formed in 2005 by eleven brilliant young musicians to bring a new dimension to Sydney's chamber music scene, and we look forward to the group's third appearance here.

Celebrating the 100-year anniversaries of both Britten and Lutoslawski, this concert, with nine members of the Ensemble, showcases the Flute, Bassoon and Oboe in remarkable works by Mozart, Devienne and Britten. The instruments combine to perform the wonderful Czech Nonet by Martinu, and the concert will conclude with Lutoslawski's Dance Preludes for Strings and Winds, a work inspired by folksongs of northern Poland.