Australian Chamber Orchestra
7 p.m. Sunday, April 19, 2026 | Yardley Hall
Tickets start at $25.
Season ticket packages on sale May 5, 2025.
Individual shows on sale June 16, 2025.
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The Australian Chamber Orchestra lives and breathes music, making waves around the world for its explosive performances that redefine orchestral music. With their fearless leader of 35 years, Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, the ACO celebrates 50 years of transformative music making with a program showcasing why this orchestra is one of the most distinct, inventive, and renowned ensembles on the world stage today. Featuring Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” and a new work by John Luther Adams.
Program
- Henry Purcell – Fantazia upon One Note
- George Frideric Handel – Concerto Grosso in A major, Op.6, No.11
- John Luther Adams – Horizon*
- Ralph Vaughan Williams – (arr. Adam Johnson) The Lark Ascending
- Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel – (arr. strings) String Quartet in E-flat major
* World premiere performance, commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
A new work from John Luther Adams, commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) as part of a residency in Australia, sees the orchestra literally transforming and changing shape on stage as the music asks you to see beyond the visible horizon to the true, limitless expanse before us. Richard Tognetti then evokes that sense of the sublime in Vaughan William’s “The Lark Ascending,” beloved by audiences everywhere.
The concert culminates in an arrangement for strings of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s “String Quartet in E-flat major,” with the thrilling energy and virtuosity of the ACO on full display.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra
The ACO performs more than 100 concerts each year, with programs that embrace celebrated classics alongside new commissions and groundbreaking collaborations, working with artists and musicians who share their ideology: from Emmanuel Pahud, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt, and William Barton, to Jonny Greenwood, Neil Finn, and Meow Meow; to visual artists and filmmakers such as Bill Henson, Shaun Tan, Jane Campion, and Jennifer Peedom, who cocreate unique, hybrid productions for which the ACO has become renowned.
The ACO has its own streaming platform, ACO On Demand, which hosts the orchestra’s award-winning cinematic concert films, ACO StudioCasts, alongside live concert streams. The orchestra also has an active recording program. Its recordings of Bach’s violin works won three consecutive ARIA Awards. Recent releases include “Water | Night Music,” the first Australian-produced classical vinyl for two decades, “Beethoven 1, 2, & 3 Eroica,” and ARIA award-winning albums “River” and “Indies & Idols.”
In 2022, the ACO opened a new, world-class venue at their home on Sydney harbour, ACO On The Pier, continuing their dedication to creating and presenting transformative experiences for all music lovers.