Adam Manning’s piece 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.
Revisit standout festival moments, explore artists’ creative journeys, and celebrate fresh inspiration across the region. Featuring Aaron Choulai as a guest speaker.
Three music events in one day across Melbourne CBD
3pm: Ask The Ages at Section 8 (free)
5pm: Four Plus One conducted improvisation at Block Arcade (free)
7.30pm: premiere of To Kill A Magic We Got Used To at Athenaeum Theatre II (ticketed)
AAO performs an improvised set of music under Artistic Director Aaron Choulai’s Sono-Kinetic Conducting framework in response to artworks in the exhibition, Rose Nolan: Breathing Helps. TarraWarra’s unique architecture is activated by solo performances by AAO musicians creating live improvised responses to the TarraWarra Museum’s public spaces and sculptures.
Adam Manning’s piece 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.
Australian Art Orchestra returns to the National Gallery of Victoria for an intimate performance as a part of NGV's Friday Night series. Across three sets of music, audiences will experience AAO in a small ensemble setting, conducted through a series of improvised compositions by Aaron Choulai.
Over 10 nights, AAO will give 21 performances across numerous works showcasing core repertoire and representing Australia in music at the Australian Pavilion for the Osaka World Expo. Iconic First Nations singer songwriter Kutcha Edwards, is with us to perform excerpts from our collaboration Wuigada Gagada,
Australian Art Orchestra returns to the National Gallery of Victoria for an intimate performance as a part of NGV's Friday Night series. Across three sets of music, audiences will experience AAO in a small ensemble setting, conducted through a series of improvised compositions by Aaron Choulai.
Experience a stunning choral performance bringing together musicians and singers from Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Experience a stunning choral concert bringing together musicians and singers from Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) is Australia's leading creative music ensemble. The AAO creates new works that reflect the diversity of jazz and improvised music artists and arts in the Asia-Pacific region. Pianist and composer Aaron Choulai, who has lived in Tokyo for 15 years, returns to Japan as AAO's Artistic Director to present three different original projects over 3 DAYS with special guests at Shinjuku Pit Inn.
The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) is Australia's leading creative music ensemble. The AAO creates new works that reflect the diversity of jazz and improvised music artists and arts in the Asia-Pacific region. Pianist and composer Aaron Choulai, who has lived in Tokyo for 15 years, returns to Japan as AAO's Artistic Director to present three different original projects over 3 DAYS with special guests at Shinjuku Pit Inn.
The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) is Australia's leading creative music ensemble. The AAO creates new works that reflect the diversity of jazz and improvised music artists and arts in the Asia-Pacific region. Pianist and composer Aaron Choulai, who has lived in Tokyo for 15 years, returns to Japan as AAO's Artistic Director to present three different original projects over 3 DAYS with special guests at Shinjuku Pit Inn.
In this unmissable birthday celebration, the Australian Art Orchestra commemorates both the legacy and future of the AAO with a special performance bringing together our community of wonderful artists from the past 30 years of activity.
This concert features a program of works, both new and reimagined, that have been built over three decades including: Ringing The Bell Backwards (AAO’s first performance and major work from 1994), and premieres from both Artistic Director Aaron Choulai and Associate Artist Sofia Carbonara, demonstrating new directions for the AAO in a new era.
The program will be performed by an ensemble that brings together musicians across the many iterations of the Australian Art Orchestra, including Scott Tinkler, Aviva Endean and Adrian Sherriff, as well as featured artists including past AAO Artistic Directors Paul Grabowsky AO and Peter Knight, alongside recent collaborators Kutcha Edwards and Hikaru Tanaka.
One of the country’s most vibrant and captivating soul singers, award-winning composer, vocalist and Noongar woman Bumpy premieres her new work Tooni—a raw and deeply personal exploration of survival, revival, and the urgency of sharing knowledge—featuring members of the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO).
Straight Up and Down (SUAD) presents three new commissioned works, pushing the boundaries of musical innovation and celebrating the originality, creativity, and diversity of Australian improvisers. The featured composers for this iteration are Cheryl Durongpisitkul, Yusuke Akai, and Aaron Choulai.
In an innovative collaboration, each performance will unfold at Melbourne's iconic outdoor container bar, Section 8, situated in the vibrant CBD. Section 8, a cultural nexus known for its diversity in music and community, contributes a context that adds a depth of dimension to this series, creating a unique platform for the premiere of these boundary-pushing compositions.
The second of the premieres features a new commission from saxophonist and composer Yusuke Akai on June 28, featuring a large ensemble of AAO improvisers.
Now or Never 2024
Wuigada - Gagada (To Sing - Loud) | Kutcha Edwards + Australian Art Orchestra
Four ensembles across the month of July, showcasing the diversity and quality of artists and artistic practice in Australia’s contemporary musical landscape. The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) joins NGV Friday nights to curate a visionary series of ensembles, assembled from a variety of its core members, collaborators, and artists from their broader community.
The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures. The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures.
Four ensembles across the month of July, showcasing the diversity and quality of artists and artistic practice in Australia’s contemporary musical landscape. The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) joins NGV Friday nights to curate a visionary series of ensembles, assembled from a variety of its core members, collaborators, and artists from their broader community.
The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures. The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures.
Four ensembles across the month of July, showcasing the diversity and quality of artists and artistic practice in Australia’s contemporary musical landscape. The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) joins NGV Friday nights to curate a visionary series of ensembles, assembled from a variety of its core members, collaborators, and artists from their broader community.
The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures. The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures.
Four ensembles across the month of July, showcasing the diversity and quality of artists and artistic practice in Australia’s contemporary musical landscape. The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) joins NGV Friday nights to curate a visionary series of ensembles, assembled from a variety of its core members, collaborators, and artists from their broader community.
The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures. The AAO’s selections traverse new directions in jazz, innovative rap, folk music and far beyond, celebrating improvisation as a musical language that unites across borders and cultures.
Straight Up and Down (SUAD) presents three new commissioned works, pushing the boundaries of musical innovation and celebrating the originality, creativity, and diversity of Australian improvisers. The featured composers for this iteration are Cheryl Durongpisitkul, Yusuke Akai, and Aaron Choulai.
In an innovative collaboration, each performance will unfold at Melbourne's iconic outdoor container bar, Section 8, situated in the vibrant CBD. Section 8, a cultural nexus known for its diversity in music and community, contributes a context that adds a depth of dimension to this series, creating a unique platform for the premiere of these boundary-pushing compositions.
The second of the premieres features a new commission from saxophonist and composer Yusuke Akai on June 28, featuring a large ensemble of AAO improvisers.
The Altona Theatre will host David Arden and improvisers from the Australian Art Orchestra, and guzheng player Mindy Meng Wang in a coming together of ancient song and storytelling traditions.
Family Jams brings the best of Melbourne's original, live music scene to kids, young people and their elders, making this a gig for all ages to come together.
Straight Up and Down (SUAD) presents three new commissioned works, pushing the boundaries of musical innovation and celebrating the originality, creativity, and diversity of Australian improvisers. The featured composers for this iteration are Cheryl Durongpisitkul, Yusuke Akai, and Aaron Choulai.
In an innovative collaboration, each performance will unfold at Melbourne's iconic outdoor container bar, Section 8, situated in the vibrant CBD. Section 8, a cultural nexus known for its diversity in music and community, contributes a context that adds a depth of dimension to this series, creating a unique platform for the premiere of these boundary-pushing compositions.
The first of the premieres features a new commission from saxophonist and composer Cheryl Durongpisitkul on March 29, featuring a large ensemble of AAO improvisers.
Commissioned for the Coburg town hall organ by The Brunswick Music Festival, AAO presents a program of new works from AAO Artistic Director Aaron Choulai and AAO 23/24 Associate Artist, Sofia Carbonara, composed for solo, duo and trio performances. SHUFFLE – PLAY explores the music of cabernet, cartoons and silent film and celebrates the sonic and spatial potentials of the Coburg Town Hall – from inside the organ itself, to the upper balcony.
Arranged 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.
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.
Lo-Fi Improv is a celebration of the intersections between improvisation, rhyme schemes, experimental music and sample culture. Alongside unique voices in Melbourne Jazz and beat music, this event features solo performances from Tokyo hip-hop luminary MC’s Kojoe and Hikaru Tanaka, as well as excerpts from the Australian Art Orchestra’s latest work, Raw Denshi. With performances from a selected line-up of Naarm based beat makers and Dj’s, Lo-Fi Improv showcases the longstanding relationships between artists of the Tokyo hip-hop scene and Melbourne Jazz, in a space that welcomes community to experience new pathways of experimentation in music.
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. Featuring pioneers of Japanese hip-hop, Kojoe and Hikaru Tanaka, Raw Denshi combines bilingual rapping and structured and free improvisation, woven together by Choulai’s distinct approach to composition.
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. Featuring pioneers of Japanese hip-hop, Kojoe and Hikaru Tanaka, Raw Denshi combines bilingual rapping and structured and free improvisation, woven together by Choulai’s distinct approach to composition.
Open / Station invites you to an afternoon of new music, performance and visual arts culminating in the Neighbourhood festival closing night party.
A suite of 4 works, collectively composed by Helen Svoboda, Peter Knight, Martin Ng, Aviva Endean, Daniel Wilfred, David Wilfred, Mandhira de Saram and Cath Roberts
Celebrating its 25th year in 2019, the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) commissioned a series of solo improvised performances – a series now being released as a triple album on its own imprint. The recordings present the distinctive, idiosyncratic personal instrumental languages that AAO consists of up close. This concert features three of those soloists, toasting the release and providing the opportunity to experience the innovations of AAO collaborators first-hand.
A cross-continental collision of culture and creativity.
