Sydney Festival returns this January to give the city its sizzle with an exhilarating line - up of vibrant ideas, irrepressible creativity, remarkable talent and pure summertime revelry across 25 days from 5 - 29 January 2023.
Playing host to its largest line up of international artists since 2019, the second program from Artistic Director Olivia Ansell features 18 World Premieres and 14 Australian Exclusives from across a full program of over 100 unique events – 26 of which will be free – featuring 748 performances traversing 54 venues.
Literally taking the city as its canvas, the 2023 program will encourage Sydneysiders and visitors to see Sydney differently with site - specific programming unfolding all over town, inviting audiences to revive the long - forgotten haunts of old - world Sydney, engage in familiar locations in different and unusual ways and immerse themselves in emerging spaces beyond their doorsteps.
MUSIC PROGRAM
Asko|Schönberg in concert with Ens emble Offspring will see the world’s finest new music champions honour the late Louis Andriessen, a leading twentieth century Dutch composer, by celebrating the diversity of voices he influenced from David Lang through to Australian composers Mary Finstere r, Damien Ricketson and Dutch Australian Kate Moore. The famously uncompromising and quirky sound of Asko|Schönberg (who will also perform Antarctica ) is perfectly matched with Australia’s own innovators, Ensemble Offspring , as works from Andriessen and hi s most celebrated students are expertly performed.
In a world premiere immersive audio experience, Sydney Festival has commissioned UK poet and experimental saxophonist Alabaster dePlume to create In Chamber . Alabaster has prepared this piece, in isolation , for viewers to experience, in their own isolation within a room just big enough for one person, surrounded by thick steel and concrete walls: a literal safe in the basement of the Kimpton Margot Hotel.
Four of the country’s leading female vocalists will be celebrated and honoured in the festival’s cabaret series, transforming the beautiful Wharf 1. In Show People , Christie Whelan - Browne lovingly reveals the unpolished guts of the entertainment industry, in a scalpel - sharp show in which she plays six characters – each with an insider’s view of how the showbiz sausage gets made.
Four of the country’s leading female vocalists will be celebrated and honoured in the festival’s cabaret series, transforming the beautiful Wharf 1. In Show People , Christie Whelan - Browne lovingly reveals the unpolished guts of the entertainment industry, in a scalpel - sharp show in which she plays six characters – each with an insider’s view of how the showbiz sausage gets made.
The soulful sounds of multi - award winning performer Ursu la Yovich and her live band featuring bassist Adam Ventura (Midnight Oil), will electrify audiences at An Evening with Ursula Yovich – a journey through the universal language of song, inspired by Ursula’s roots in Arnhem land.
The Old Rugged Cross brings together the deeply powerful voice of Emma Donovan with celebrated pianist, composer, arranger and conductor Paul Grabowsky , plus a collection of Sydney's finest jazz musicians, to perform country gospel classics at City Recital Hall. This stellar collection of talent pays t ribute to a rich musical legacy in arrangements given the inimitable Grabowsky treatment, a loving nod to grand traditions, to the domestic and the divine, and a homage to the great Emma Donovan herself.
Dry My Tears offers an intimate acoustic evening wit h iconic performer Paul Capsis as he interprets cabaret, jazz and ragtime classics (Nina Simone, Marianne Faithful, Elton John, Kurt Weil) alongside Francis Greep on piano. Capsis and Greep selected the song program to take the audience on a journey throug h a story of Capsis’s life: of love gained, love lost, and strength found again. Capsis says, with trademark wickedness, “razorblades will be provided.”
Described as New York’s queen of avant - garde piano, visionary Australian pianist Lisa Moore (and a long time touring member of Bang on a Can) delivers a distinctly unusual program ranging from simple pop songs and virtuosic solo piano to rich chamber works and transcendent interpretations of the likes of Stravinsky, Janacek, Randy Newman, Philip Glass and m ore. With violinist Jenny Khafagi and clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, Show Your Heart is contemporary classical performance at its best.
Described as New York’s queen of avant - garde piano, visionary Australian pianist Lisa Moore (and a long time touring member of Bang on a Can) delivers a distinctly unusual program ranging from simple pop songs and virtuosic solo piano to rich chamber works and transcendent interpretations of the likes of Stravinsky, Janacek, Randy Newman, Philip Glass and m ore. With violinist Jenny Khafagi and clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, Show Your Heart is contemporary classical performance at its best.
In an investigation of extreme wind and ice, pristine Antarctic field recordings combine wit h live industrial percussion to envelope the audience in a visceral soundscape and performance environment. Housed at Carriageworks, Polar Force makes us rethink our relationship to the natural world and explores notions of human fragility and isolation f rom the perspective of the coldest, windiest and driest continent on earth.
Join the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conductor Benjamin Northey for a starlit evening of orchestral classics with a Lunar New Year twist at The Crescent, Parramatta Park. Sydney Symphony Under the Stars will feature music from Tan Dun, Chinese folk favourites, the best of film music, and symphonic masterpieces, ensuri ng an evening of good times, good company and great music.
Woven Song is the latest international project by Short Black Opera , featuring nine new compositions by Deborah Cheetham AO each inspired by the Australian Tapestry Workshop Embassy Tapestries. Ins piring a contemporary response in current classical music practice, Cheetham performs with musicians local to each country – Singapore, Japan, France, Ireland, China and India – breathing new life into each work. Woven Song is a unique collaboration across cultures and art forms, building international creative communities.
In a series of special, one - off performances in collaboration with Brett Whiteley Foundation and Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Brett Whiteley Studio Sessions will see three unique performers: iconic frontman Tim Freedman (The Whitlams); singer/songwriter Martha Marlow with experimental jazz legend Chris Abrahams (The Necks); and rising jazz star Alma Zygie r make a response to the work of one of Sydney’s most iconic visual artists at the Brett Whiteley Studio.
Deep in the roots of Martin Place’s iconic Seidler mushroom building, there is a hidden gem of Sydney nightlife, a buried bastion of 1970s bar culture, and your new favourite haunt after dark this summer. Unpretentious and unrenovated, history lines the walls and so does the original red carpet at The Weary Traveller, Sydney Festival’s live music takeover in a rare retro find. Enjoy 16 nights of eclectic, cutting - edge music programming across January, from punk to pop, jazz to metal, indie, ambient and plenty of opportunities for a dance. Come for the music, stay for the characters.
THE WEARY TRAVELLER - FEATURING:
Alice Skye
Astral People Feat. Or:la and Elkka
Astral People Feat. Sherelle and Crescendoll
Automatic
Coloured Stone
HTRK
June Jones
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Lil Silva
ت ا ر Moktar ْ خ ُ م
Party Dozen
Potion
Tom Snowdon
Too Birds with Bayanga (tha bushranger)
Tickets are currently on sale for Sydney Festival 2023. Visit www.sydneyfestival.org.au/ for more information.
