A Musical Awakening

The Australian Chamber Orchestra is celebrating fifty years in 2025 and is one of the most acclaimed chamber orchestras in the world, renowned for their inspired programming, unrivalled virtuosity, energy and individuality. Under the direction of Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, they take audiences on the adventure to create truly transformative experiences. 

The music of Beethoven, Pēteris Vasks and Max Richter centres this exploration of music’s ability to nurture, heal and nourish.

Music is visceral and vital. In A Musical Awakening, we invite you to take a breath and lean into this program designed to nourish your soul. Directed by ACO Principal Cello Timo-Veikko Valve, the Orchestra will be joined by friend and recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey, whose mastery of this most elemental of instruments is unsurpassed.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra will explore the different ways music can heal, culminating in Beethoven’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving, composed after his recovery from a life-threatening illness. Beethoven was forever facing down adversity with music, and this heartfelt masterpiece is filled with quiet joy and a deep gratitude for life and the chance to live it.

Max Richter wrote his intimate On the Nature of Daylight after witnessing the suffering of the Iraq war, and its beauty has resonated with filmmakers and fans as an antidote to tragedy. The ACO premiere a new work from Pulitzer-prize winning composer David Lang and enter Pēteris Vasks’ tranquil sound world with the lush warmth of Musica Serena. From a millennium earlier, abbess Hildegard’s sublime songs speak directly to the human soul, holy reflections that broke musical barriers then and remain potent today. Melody Eötvös’ Meraki embodies its title, a Greek word which means to create with soul or love. And that is what music is all about.

This concert is for everyone and anyone who wants to experience healing, renewal, invigoration and enlightenment.

• Program

  Hildegard von Bingen / Erkki Veltheim

  Ave Generosa / Illuminations

  Max Richter

  On the Nature of Daylight

  Melody Eötvös

  Meraki*

  David Lang

  flute and echo (World Premiere)**

  Pēteris Vasks

  Musica Serena

  Claudio Monteverdi / Barbara Strozzi / Antonio Vivaldi / Erkki Veltheim

  Imaginary Cities: A Baroque Fantasy

  Ludwig van Beethoven

  (arr. Timo-Veikko Valve) String Quartet in A minor, Op.132: III. Molto adagio “Holy Song of Thanksgiving”

  *Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra
  **Commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, generously supported by Ulrike Klein AO

• Artists

  Timo-Veikko Valve 

  Director and Cello

  Genevieve Lacey 

  Recorders

  Australian Chamber Orchestra