With an emphasis on improvisation, the Australian Art Orchestra explores the meeting points between disciplines and cultures, and imagines new musical forms to reflect the energy and diversity of 21st century Australia.
First Rhythms recontextualises clapsticks, First Nations rhythms, and visual art within a contemporary performance setting, guided by the Indigenous understanding that everything is alive and carries a pulse—such as the earth’s natural rhythm.
Ane Ta Abia - Aaron Choulai, Australian Art Orchestra and the Tatana Village Choir. Experience a stunning choral concert bringing together musicians and singers from Australia and Papua New Guinea.
‘Wuigada – Gagada (To Sing – Loud)’ is a collaboration with iconic Australian and First Nations singer-songwriter, Kutcha Edwards. Reimagined for the AAO, this performance celebrates the songs of country, history, pain and joy expressed in Kutcha Edward’s repertoire, and creates space for experimentation by some of Australia’s most creative voices of jazz and improvisation.
Based on Aaron Choulai’s critically acclaimed 2020 release, and reimagined for the Australian Art Orchestra, Raw Denshi explores new pathways of experimentation in Hip-hop and improvisation, bringing together two of Tokyo’s most prominent and influential MC’s and the AAO.
A messed up karaoke performance of Australian and Canadian pop hits from the 80s and 90s. The karaoke machine begins to glitch, the singer holds on for dear life, and the Orchestra manages to hold it all together.
Mythical, innovative and deeply groovy, Umi No Uzu is the latest work by Tokyo-based composer/pianist/beatmaker, Aaron Choulai.
Four Plus One are performances that utilise Sono-Kinetic Conducting, a lexicon of hand gestures and baton movements developed for the Australian Art Orchestra by Artistic Director Aaron Choulai.
SUAD presents three new commissioned works, pushing the boundaries of musical innovation and celebrating the originality, creativity, and diversity of Australian improvisers. In an innovative collaboration, each performance will unfold at Melbourne's iconic outdoor container bar, Section 8.
A program of newly written works celebrating the Coburg Town Hall Organ, exploring the sonic and spatial potentials of the Coburg Town Hall – from inside the organ itself, to the upper balcony.
Featuring two prominent figures in Japanese Hip-hop, The Australian Art Orchestra in collaboration with the Tokyo based collective Namboku Records, presents a warehouse party in the heart of Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
A bilateral collaboration between the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to commission and present four new works by Australian and UK composers performed in both countries.
Six powerful women reimagine folkloric stories of goddesses from their many shared heritages, echoing tales of creation, regeneration and transformation, and evokes a time when music and language, art and life, were intertwined.
A song cycle composed by Yuin woman, Brenda Gifford. Originally commissioned for the 2020 Canberra International Music Festival, adapted with electronic soundscapes and the voice of the composer speaking in Language.
An intertwining of personal narratives that features Vietnamese/Australian multi-instrumentalist Dung Nguyen and fuses the sounds of Vietnamese folk music with contemporary jazz.
A call to open ears: eluding genre, traversing continents and fusing ancient and contemporary. At its heart are Yolgnu manikay (song cycles), a 40,000+ year-old oral tradition from South East Arnhem Land.
Ground-breaking music that lands like a gut punch. An inspired sonic journey that draws the listener close to the beauty of the moment in these fast changing times featuring Zimbabwean/Australian spoken word artist, Tariro Mavondo.
A video series that puts the spotlight on selected members from our pool of incredible collaborators in celebration of the Australian Art Orchestra’s 25th anniversary.
Sound artist Rebecca Bracewell explores her hearing aids creatively through her project Instruments that Listen, in dialogue with artists from Chamber Made and the Australian Art Orchestra.
A series of new works curated by The SUBSTATION, Room40 and AAO artistic director Peter Knight with a spoken reflection by dance artist Jo Lloyd.
A rapturous celebration of ancient Sri Lankan culture, featuring the Baliphonics ensemble, that brings age-old rituals to life through traditional dance, chanting and music.
Composer Erik Griswold and the Australian Art Orchestra team up with all-star musicians and performers of Sichuan to create a wild and beautiful intercultural celebration.
A collaboration with virtuosic Tasmanian metal pioneer Striborg featuring members of the AAO.
Over 5 hours, emerging out of dawn on the centenary of Armistice Day, Aftermath creates a slowly shifting sonic landscape which offers a space for reflection on the true nature of war, loss and conflict.
An opera for autonomous android by iconoclastic Japanese composer and pianist, Keiichiro Shibuya.
Composed by Mindy Meng Wang, Cocoon traces her upbringing in Lanzhou, China (along the famous Silk Road) – beginning with the gentle traditions of the guzheng – to the avant-garde music scene in London, and her arrival in Australia in 2014.
A work for pipe organ and ensemble by one of the towering figures of twentieth century music, Alvin Lucier.
An exploration of 90’s screen culture featuring celebrated Canadian composer and turntablist, Nicole Lizée.
A post-minimal program composed for chamber jazz orchestra by Artistic Director Peter Knight and inspired by iconic authors Gerald Murnane and Italo Calvino.
Exit Ceremonies celebrates the darkness with a pair of lush, pulsating new works for pipe organ and mixed ensemble.
A work that responds to Louis Armstrong’s incredible music and fascinating life story. A reimagining of some of his best-loved and most significant works, as well as new pieces that pay tribute to his bold, adventurous and pioneering spirit.
At the 2013 Melbourne Festival, Mexican artist Pedro Reyes worked with the Australian Art Orchestra to transform objects designed to harm into an artwork that unites people together through music.
A historic collaboration with Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani, one of the greatest exponents of South Indian Carnatic music, that explores new music built on the Carnatic tradition with Western interpretations.
A visionary exploration of the musical traditions of Australia’s first people by the Australian Art Orchestra in collaboration with the Young Wagilak Group.
In this powerful collaboration, Ruby and Archie join forces with members of the Australian Art Orchestra to perform songs they have written about their experiences as members of the Stolen Generation.
An stunning musical work paying homage to Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker by the eminent Australian composer and saxophonist Sandy Evans featuring Yusef Komunyakaa’s epic poem Testimony.
A cornerstone program by the AAO featuring commissions that responses to movements from J.S. Bach’s masterpiece Passion According to St Matthew.
To Kill A Magic We Got Used To reimagines Stravinsky’s L'Histoire du soldat for the digital age in a daring new work by Aaron Choulai and Roman MC, performed by the Australian Art Orchestra.