2024 Season
Astra enters a new era in 2024 with a changed pattern of concerts and directorship. John McCaughey is joined by composer and artistic director Andrew Byrne as co-director of Astra. Their joint season of concerts draws on complementary skills and experiences - the tradition of McCaughey's contemporary and choral programming reaching to wider forms and repertories through Byrne, whose knowledge spans international trends and diverse musical genres.
The result is the 2024 season - an expansion to nine concerts encompassing choir, instrumental ensembles, experimental and world-music performances.
A panoply of performers extends from the Choir to musicians of diverse traditions around the globe. Astra continues to commission and perform new Australian work, alongside the latest from international environments – Romania, England, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, and Belgium. Think local act global!
Threads through the '24 season
The Astra Choir
The Astra Choir is the focus of three events:
Between Mall and Chapel (19 May)
Singing that moves through two locations for the Sleepless Footscray Festival. Nine centuries, from the mediaeval celebrity Hildegard of Bingen to new works from composers in Melbourne, Footscray and Geelong.
Prison Job (6 October)
Texts and music of the interior and exterior in a new commissioned work by electronic composer Steve Stelios Adam – choir with surround sound, further complemented by poetry and music from Monteverdi, Donald Martino and Warren Burt.
Choral Forests (8 December)
Elaborations of Nature and the stories of its internal spirits are reflected in choral textures from Martin Friedel and Max Reger to contemporary Romanians.
Music-making of diverse traditions
The classical rubs shoulders with the experimental, music of different ethnic traditions with early-music and electro-acoustic colours.
The Storytellers (2 November)
Iranian performers Vahideh Eisaei and Elnaz Sheshgelani with Issie Hart in a celebration of Persian storytelling through music, poetry, and shadow puppetry
Nothing is Real (9 November)
A program of movement, light and sound – the Beatles tripping over John Luther Adams and Alvin Lucier. With percussionist Alexander Meagher and pianist Liam Wooding.
String of Strings (10 November)
Kora. Koto. Gamba. Three worlds of string.