Revival & Reinvention

Three pieces, from three composers, created across two centuries.

Our season opens with exhilarating energy. Beginning with Gordon Kerry’s Clarinet Quintet, originally performed to an empty Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in the 2020 lockdown, will now dazzle audiences across Sydney and Melbourne with its intricate ensemble textures and expressive lyricism.

Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw’s Harpsichord Concerto, re-imagined for piano and strings, sits alongside this, drawing on Baroque influences. Co-commissioned especially for the Ensemble, Shaw’s piece constructs a vivid contemporary sound world offering audiences a fresh take on this striking work.

At the heart of the program is Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet - one of music’s most astonishing expressions of youthful genius - brought to life on stage by Omega Ensemble’s principal musicians and the award-winning Affinity Quartet.

Together, these works reveal chamber music as a living, breathing tradition: grounded in history, yet continually renewed by each generation.

90 mins, no interval

XXX commissioned by Omega Ensemble with the generous support of XXX