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.

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.

Award-winning and prolific contemporary classical composer Brenda Gifford will premiere a new work as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and Australian Art Orchestra’s First Nations Artist Residency Program.

At the culmination of our first mentored intensive with Punctum, both mentors and mentees share their work for a live audience at Punctum ICU.

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.

Listen Up! is Ensemble Offspring's micro-festival of new music, bringing together Australia’s most inspiring musicians who share an obsession with the newest of the new. A smorgasbord of contemporary-classical and jazz virtuosi, First Nations artists and art music fiends come together over two 60-minute programs.

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.

Hand to Earth is a call to open your ears. Eluding genre, traversing continents and cultures and fusing the ancient with the contemporary, this largely improvised collaboration pushes the boundaries of musical forms.

One ensemble, three composers: The Australian Art Orchestra presents 'Market St Commissions' - a program of three new works composed for a cutting-edge 11-piece ensemble of Australia’s finest improvisers. Three prolific up and coming composers have written specifically for this line-up, accentuating the breadth of what this high-calibre ensemble can do - Jess Green (ACT), Joseph O’Connor (VIC) and Carolyn Schofield (VIC):

Hand to Earth tells of the stars, of fire and of the cooling rain.

Join Yolŋu songman Daniel Wilfred and Korean vocalist Sunny Kim in an Australian Art Orchestra musical collaboration.

The raw, elemental vocal gestures of Sunny, singing in both Korean and English, are brought together with the power of Daniel’s Yolŋu manikay – song cycles of ancestral knowledge that have been passed down for many millennia. These distinct vocal approaches meld into the electronic atmospheres of trumpeter and composer Peter Knight, accompanied by David Yipininy Wilfred on yidaki and Aviva Endean on clarinet.

Performing at the NMA for one night only, Hand to Earth is a beautiful invitation to share culture and learn from each other.

60 min performance, no intermission

The first concert of AAO’s 2022 Meeting Points Series - Djiribawal is a song cycle by Yuin woman, Brenda Gifford for the musicians of the Australian Art Orchestra. A journey through different sonic environments and a meditation on Country.

Award-winning musician, dancer, director and proud Djab Wurrung/Gunditjmara and Ngarrindjeri man Amos Roach premieres his new commission as part of MIJF and the Australian Art Orchestra’s (AAO) inaugural First Nations artist residency program.

Hand to Earth will perform at the CIMF - feat. Yolgnu Songmen Daniel Wilfred and David Wilfred, Sunny Kim, Peter Knight and Aviva Endean.

Twelve Yuwaalaraay hands create a traditional cloak of possum skins. The ceremonial garment then takes on its own life as a work of living art: as music. Hand to Earth is a celebration of First Nations artists: women’s culture from Lightning Ridge followed by Yolgnu Songmen from Arnhem Land.

Due to COVID-19 this event will be run twice:
Sunday May 2, 1:30pm
Sunday May 2, 3:30pm,

The Opening Gala at the CIMF premieres the long awaited new work of Yuin First Nations Contemporary Classical Composer Brenda Gifford, featuring members of the Australian Art Orchestra.

Due to COVID-19 capacity restrictions this performance will be run twice. Concert duration 60min.
Friday April 30, 6:30pm
Friday April 30, 8:30pm

Together with Arts Centre Melbourne, we are excited to present the Meeting Points Series 2019-2020.

The four-part series is an intimate collection of concerts curated by Australian Art Orchestra’s Artistic Director Peter Knight, bringing together musical styles from across the globe in unexpected collaborations.

Returning for its third year, audiences will experience a mesmerising line-up of never-before-seen works and cross-cultural compositions in our most exciting line-up yet. Each concert features acclaimed international and local artists, accompanied by the Australian Art Orchestra.

This new work by Reuben Lewis, the Australian Art Orchestra’s Pathfinder Associate Artist for 2019/2020, will explore MPavilion’s March 2020 theme of ‘Knowledge: Shared Learning, Shared Power’ through an expansion of his duo project with AAO artistic director Peter Knight through the addition of multi-disciplinary storyteller Tariro Mavondo and core members of the AAO.