Entertainment
3 July, 2026
It’s in your Bach yard
INTERNATIONALLY-acclaimed musicians will be in Cairns for The Australian Festival of Chamber Music from 24 July to 1 August.
The nine-day festival will feature performances by artists from Australia, Germany, France, China, Ireland and the United Kingdom, with concerts staged against the backdrop of the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest.
Opening on Friday 24 July, the festival begins with an opening night concert featuring artistic director and British violinist Jack Liebeck alongside an international ensemble of musicians.
This year’s program includes performances inspired by composers’ lives, Schubert’s Winterreise reimagined for the tropics, a Holocaust-era work completed 80 years after it was left unfinished and a multimedia tribute to the natural world.
Among the international artists appearing are Berlin Philharmonic principal Horn Stefan Dohr, pianist and former AFCM artistic director Piers Lane, French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca, Irish tenor Robin Tritschler, the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio and German pianist Alexander Krichel.
Australian performers include violinist Emmalena Huning, oboist Emmanuel Cassimatis, flautist Joshua Batty, cellist Julian Smiles, guitarist Karin Schaupp, violist Stefanie Farrands, French horn player Ben Jacks, clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, double bassist Kees Boersma, lute and theorbo player Simon Martyn Ellis and actor-narrator Bethany Simons.
Melbourne-born cellist Charlotte Miles, now based in Germany, returns after performing at last year’s festival.
New works will also feature, including Australian composer Lee Bradshaw’s completion of January 25, 1945, an unfinished work by Czech composer Gideon Klein, British composer Alex Turley’s new work for flute and string quartet, and two new commissions by AFCM Pathways Emerging Composer-in-Residence Sam Wu.
The program also celebrates Cairns through Cairns at 150, tracing the city’s history through music, while ‘Wonderful World’, curated by Christian-Pierre La Marca, combines nature cinematography with music by composers including Fauré and Philip Glass.
Mr Liebeck said the festival was about more than music.
“This festival is about connection – between artists, audiences and place. We have extraordinary musicians from around the world gathering in one of the most beautiful locations on earth to create something truly unique. There is an intimacy and energy to AFCM that simply cannot be replicated anywhere else,” he said
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music runs from 24 July to 1 August. Visit www.cnslocal.s.gy/QXJczu
