The Hollywood Songbook

Tickets for Musica Viva Australia's 2025 Season go on sale at City Recital Hall on Wednesday 6 November. 

The musicians of the Signum Saxophone Quartet, who won hearts across Australia on their debut tour, return with a new collaborator — Ali McGregor, the opera star turned cabaret queen. Together, they embark on a journey from Berlin to Hollywood, stopping at a shadowy nightclub, a Shakespearean tragedy, a Broadway musical, and even a Wild West rodeo, before finally arriving somewhere over the rainbow.

The first half of the 20th century was a time of radical change — socially, politically, and artistically. While history books tell one version, artists, composers, and performers offer another. As Musica Viva Australia reflects on 80 years of sharing these stories, they take us on a journey from moody monochrome to vibrant technicolour, and from introspective darkness to blazing hope. 

This music simply cannot be played more beautifully.

Süddeutsche Zeitung

...there are not enough superlatives to describe McGregor's voice, or how listening to it makes you feel right in the core of your being. Completely exhilarating.

Broadway World

• Program

  Schulhoff

  Selections from Five Pieces for String Quartet

  Traditional

  ‘I’m a Poor Wayfaring Stranger’

  Weill

  ‘One Life to Live’ from Lady in the Dark

  Weill

  ‘I’m a Stranger Here Myself’ from One Touch of Venus

  Prokofiev

  Selections from Romeo and Juliet

  Bernstein

  Three Dance Episodes from On the Town

  Berlin

  ‘Let’s Face the Music, and Dance’ from Follow the Fleet

  Eisler

  Selections from The Hollywood Songbook

  Copland

  Selections from Rodeo

  Porter

  ‘So in Love’ from Kiss Me, Kate

  Arlen

  ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz

• Artists

  Ali McGregor

  Voice

  Signum Saxophone Quartet

  Blaž Kempere

  Soprano Saxophone

  Jacopo Taddei

  Alto Saxophone

  Alan Lužar

  Tenor Saxophone

  Aram Poghosyan

  Baritone Saxophone