Matthew Hindson

This year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music, held in Townsville in early July, looks to be an absolute cracker. Co-artistic director Chris Latham has organized a stellar cast of fantastic musicians - both national and international - playing a wonderful selection of music. I was lucky enough to attend last year’s festival and being right near the Great Barrier Reef, in the tropics in the middle of winter is a marvellous experience. Temperatures are near 27 degrees and it’s just like summer in Sydney. Sure beats the 13 degrees we’ve had recently.

As part of this festival, I have a new arrangement from the second movement of A Symphony of Modern Objects, “Spirit Song”. This new chamber version is scored for shakuhachi, violin, cello, piano and percussion. Also performed will be the oboe and string quartet version of Rush, played by the inimitable Goldner String Quartet and Diana Doherty, and Technologic, performed by the Fyra Quartet on their western Queensland tour.