Homophonic! brings the disco ball to the concert hall with a musical celebration of our queer history. The RESPECT commissioning project is storytelling through works for voices and strings, drawing inspiration from intergenerational conversations between queer composers and seniors from our LGBTIQ+ community.
This performance is emotional and powerful, preserving our shared cultural queer history through the mediums of music, humour, and a generous dose of collective outrage.
Homophonic! is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Homophonic! is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
Presented and performed by Miranda Hill, The Consort of Melbourne, and the Homophonic! String Quintet.
The Consort of Melbourne Singers: Katherine Norman, Kristy Biber, Alex Ritter, Anish Nair, Ben Owen & Steven Hodgson
Relaxed Performance
Tuesday 11 August 2026, 10.30am & 12pm
Melbourne Recital Centre
Promoting a casual approach to sound and movement, the Melbourne Recital Centre's series of Relaxed Performances provides the same exceptional artists, in an environment specifically suited for audiences with sensory sensitivities, using altered lighting, more in-depth musical explanations and accompanying access resources.
This year with day-time performances running for 45 minutes, this series is also perfect for young families. Children will be free to wriggle if they need or leave the Primrose Potter Salon and move to a designated quiet area in the Ground Floor Foyer.
Program TBC
The Consort of Melbourne Singers: Katherine Norman, Kristy Biber, Timothy Reynolds & Steven Hodgson
Which session time is right for me or my group?
10.30am: Tailored for individuals and community groups
12pm: Tailored for school groups
The Relaxed Performance series is supported by the Gailey Lazarus Charitable Foundation and the Learning and Access Consortium.
Homophonic! RESPECT
Saturday 29 August, 7:30pm
Hawthorn Arts Centre, 360 Burwood Road, Hawthorn VIC 3122
Championing LGBTIQ+ composers, and bringing the disco ball to the concert hall, Homophonic! is led by Artistic Director Miranda Hill, a leading voice in queer classical music since 2011.
Through performance, regional touring, commissioning, the Homophonic! Pride Prize Composition Competition and the RESPECT project telling the stories of LGBTIQA+ elders in music.
The RESPECT commissioning project is creating new music by LGBTQ+ composers, inspired by the lives, loves and adventures experienced by senior members of our community. So far 5 works for string quintet, 6 voices, and occasional piano have been commissioned in collaboration with the 5 regional Victorian pride festivals. Homophonic! is committed to bringing together cross-generational artistic goals and having community stories told by community artists.
The Consort of Melbourne Singers: Katherine Norman, Kristy Biber, Hannah Pietsch, Anish Nair, Jack Jordan & Steven Hodgson
Port Fairy Spring Music Festival Opening Gala: Superhuman
Friday 9 October, 8:00pm
Reardon Theatre, 35 Bank St, Port Fairy VIC 3284
Superpowers unite! In a glittering display of the pinnacles of human creative achievement, the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival 2026 cast of caped crusaders dazzle with Reich’s heroic multi-clarinet minimalism, eight angelic a cappella voices, the eight Herculean hands of the Hungarian Rhapsody, our blazing string octet’s fearless scream of resistance to oppressive regimes, and culminating with the transcendental artistry of our national living treasure William Barton, who with his Kalkadunga Yurdu envelops us all into the mystical realm of the most ancient and enduring culture on the planet Earth.
The Consort of Melbourne musical set includes: Charles Hubert Parry There is an old belief (1907/18), Caroline Shaw Her beacon hand beckons (2016), Caroline Shaw And the swallow (2017), William Henry Harris Faire is the Heaven (1925)
The Consort of Melbourne Singers: Katherine Norman, Eliza Bennetts O’Connor, Jenny George, Hannah Pietsch, Timothy Reynolds, Anish Nair, Christian Smith, Steven Hodgson
Associated artists: William Barton, David Griffiths, Black Square Quartet, Darlington Quartet, Douglas Rutherford, Stephen McIntyre, Alex Ranieri, Julian Wade, Stefan Cassomenos
Port Fairy Spring Music Festival Closing Gala: Synergetic
Sunday 11 October, 3:30pm
Reardon Theatre, 35 Bank St, Port Fairy VIC
A transcendent collaboration
The Port Fairy Spring Music Festival 2026 Closing Gala strikes at the glowing core of what causes our human nature to gravitate to the superhuman — SYNERGY — our unequalled capacity to collaborate in the creation of something greater than the sum of its parts.
From the birth of the expression of our shared humanity — in the Baroque worlds of Jean-Féry Rebel & Jean-Philippe Rameau, and in the awe-inspiring expression of millennia of culture in the music of William Barton, sung in language by our entire massed Festival Chorus — to the world premiere of new music collaboratively composed by local school children together with Stefan Cassomenos, a structured improvisation sono-kinetically conducted by Aaron Choulai, Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra, and underpinned throughout with an electronic soundscape performed live by Thomas Green — Synergetic brings together a star-studded cast of magnificent minds, expert instrumentalists and impassioned choristers from South West Victoria, Melbourne, and all around the country, in a triumphant acclamation of our truly limitless shared potential to achieve the superhuman.
Selected works by Jean-Féry Rebel, Jean-Philippe Rameau & world premiere compositions by Stefan Cassomenos in collaboration with the children of Port Fairy
The Consort of Melbourne Singers: Katherine Norman, Eliza Bennetts O’Connor, Jenny George, Hannah Pietsch, Timothy Reynolds, Anish Nair, Christian Smith, Steven Hodgson
Associated artists: Stefan Cassomenos, Aaron Choulia, William Barton, Monica Curro, Thomas Green, The PFSMF Chorus, The PFSMF Children's Choir, The PFSMF Chamber Orchestra, Black Square Quartet, Doug Rutherford, Martin Kay, Tom Green, and Julian Wade
Support
The Consort of Melbourne is a small not-for-profit arts organisation that currently receives no support from state or federal funding bodies. To sustain and build The Consort of Melbourne, we need your help. We want to expand our offerings with a greater number of more ambitious musical events. We want to commission new works, explore additional staging and multi-media dimensions to our performances, and create studio recordings to share our most treasured repertoire, ancient and new, across the globe. We want to ensure that our artistic staff and singers have the financial support they need to deliver you great singing.
Everything we do depends on the generous support of donors who share our vision and our ambition, and we need your help to grow. By giving to The Consort of Melbourne, you invest in our vision, our singers, our artistic programs, and in the composers we work with to keep this art form current and alive.
Donations of all sizes make a difference.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Stay in touch with the Consort of Melbourne. We email newsletters to let our followers know of upcoming appearances and special offers. We respect your privacy and will not forward your information to any third parties.