“Mammoth” program for Melbourne Recital Centre in 2025

Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) has released a mammoth program of musical events for 2025.

Rufus Wainwright, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, vocal ensemble the Tallis Scholars, Australian vocalists Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp, prodigy violinist Daniel Lozakovich, and veteran classic pianist Sir Stephen Hough lead the South Melbourne venue’s slate of global headline acts. 

MRC’s CEO Sandra Willis said, “we proudly amplify Australia’s diverse music ecology to connect people and inspire positive change.”

“No matter who you are when you walk through our doors, you will always emerge renewed.”

MRC’s program of classical music runs the gamut from Mozart to Zimbabwean a capella singing and a retrospective of the music of Jane Austen’s lifetime, to an Australian examination of women’s sexuality, while its Mostly Mozart series will continue with four new events.

MRC also announced that audio-visual artist Robin Fox will be their 2025 artist-in-residence. 

Another highlight during 2025 will be the MRC’s calendar of concerts for children and its Mini Music Lovers series.

The MRC season runs from February through November 2025.

Tickets are on sale through the Melbourne Recital Centre website.

CLASSICAL

Indigenous spoken word artist Tamala Shelton and Tibetan/Australian musician Tenzin Choegyal will open the 2025 season with a world premiere performance of a poetic/immersive sound experience, Cradle of Life.

Latvian string duo Kristine and Margarita Balanas (The Balanas Sisters) will make their MRC debut with a line-up featuring Australian composer Anne Cawrse’s Sanctuary.

Three of Melbourne’s leading cellists Rohan de Korte, Zoe Knighton and Rosanne Hunt will continue the MRC’s great composer’s cello suite with a trio of performances of works by Bach.

The year’s line-up of Baroque music begins with musical ensemble La Compana who will be joined by Australian soprano Jacqueline Porter.

The famous Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of Gottfried von der Goltz, will present Bach’s Symphony in G Minor and a selection by Mozart.

Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov will join vocalist Matthias Goerne to perform one of Schubert’s final works, Winterreise.

Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist artist Claire Chase will perform an alternative cultural perspective of women’s power, Sex Magic by Australian composer Liza Lim.

Pemberley Revisited will see musical director Rachael Beesley, pianist Aura Go and Lizzy Bennet’s Band perform music from the era of classic author Jane Austen.

Twenty-three-year-old violin prodigy, Sweden’s Daniel Lozakovich, will make his MRC debut performing a suite of works by Bach.

Period ensemble Gensis Baroque will return after a sold-out debut season at MRC in 2024, accompanied by popular Australian soprano Sara Macliver.

Classical pianist and composer Sir Stephen Hough will perform a standalone performance of Liszt’s beloved Sonata for Piano in B Minor.

All-female a capella quartet Nobuntu will make their Australian debut at MRC with a line-up ranging from traditional Zimbabwean music to Gospel and Afro-Jazz.

German a capella group Sjaella return following their acclaimed MRC debut in 2023, bringing new interpretations of contemporary and Baroque music.

Our Duty to Care marks the third instalment of Robert McIntyre’s climate-inspired concert series. Changing Wilds Ensemble will perform works by composers Ólafur Arnalds, Robert McIntyre, Laura Abraham, Anne Cawrse and MRC’s resident artist Nat Bartsch.

Australian Baroque trio Latitude 37 will open for acclaimed violin soloist Clara-Jumi Kang, who will make her Melbourne debut with Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2.

Melbourne-based string quartet Quartz will perform the fifth movement of Australian composer Richard Meale’s String Quartet No.2 and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden.

Vocal ensemble the Tallis Scholars will present a sweeping concert of Renaissance and contemporary sacred music ranging from works by Hildegard von Bingen to Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor will perform an intimate set of classical favourites including works by Mussorgsky and Chopin.

Internationally-acclaimed Melbourne-based string ensemble Affinity Quartet will present three 18th century works by Debussy, Werner and Mozart.

Cellist Daniel Muller-Schott and pianist Konstantin Shamray will join forces to perform Bach’s Cello Suite No.3 and Brahm’s Sonata for Cello and Piano No.2.

CONTEMPORARY

Rufus Wainwright will return to Melbourne for two solo concerts at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.

Incoming MRC artist-in-residence Robin Fox will present a new audio-visual work Triptych.

Children’s choir Schola Cantorum from London’s Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School will give a matinee performance.

Contemporary pianist Hania Rani will present works from her new album Ghosts.

Legendary artists Katie Noonen and Karin Schaupp will reunite to present a catalogue of works by their favourite Australian and New Zealand musicians.

Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Russell will present a concert of Americana roots music.

Australian singer RY X returns for his first Melbourne concert in more than a decade. •