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ACO Currents 2027

Currents

3 - 6 Jun

A four-day festival of new music at ACO On The Pier. Book three or four concerts and save 10%, or book all five and save 15%. Single ticket presale opens Wed 7 Oct, sign up to access tickets.

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Music in continuum. Made for now.
 

About Currents
The most important music being made is made right now. Forged through Richard Tognetti’s restless conviction that music is music, irrespective of genre or time, Currents is a new festival made for this very moment. Pulsing, alive and transmuted across generations, it starts with a spark. Each year an esteemed guest curator will bring new ideas into the ACO’s orbit. Through a wilful act of disruption, or an act of graceful transcendence, Currents will shape a dynamic conversation with Richard Tognetti, the ACO, guest artists and our adventurous audience.

 

Our guest Curator
In 2027, the inaugural guest curator is Samuel Adams. Guggenheim Fellow and one of the great compositional minds of his generation, Adams’s music weaves acoustic and electronic sound with a weight and purpose that is captivating and undeniably present. The New York Times calls him “mesmerizing” and Adams’ decade-long partnership with Tognetti has produced some of the most electric new string writing anywhere in the world. Currents festival 2027 will write the next chapter of this relationship with music that weaves and collides across time to reveal connections. Where the music of Bach and Mozart sounds like it was written yesterday, and the music of today feels as though it has been with us for centuries.
 
Our collaborators
Joining Adams are two of the most important musical voices of his generation and longtime close collaborators. The first is world-renowned soloist, violinist Karen Gomyo. Ferocious, luminous, born in Tokyo and forged at Juilliard, Karen inhabits everything she touches. The second is pianist Conor Hanick, an undeniably vital artist of our time. NPR calls him “a true champion of contemporary music.” and The New York Times described him as “breathtaking”. A fierce and passionate collaborator, Hanick’s story is intimately intertwined with the story of music for our age.
 
 
Welcome to Currents.
 

 

Artists
Samuel Adams Guest Curator-in-residence
Karen Gomyo Violin and Director Mozart Meets Cage and Karen Gomyo Plays Bach
Conor Hanick Piano

 

 

View the program for Currents below, or discover the full 2027 Season.

ACO Currents Young Americans 2027

Thu 3 Jun, 7pm

Young Americans

A program of restless invention, boundless energy and unmistakably individual voices from a generation reshaping the sound of the United States.

 

Artists
Richard Tognetti Director & Violin
Maxime Bibeau Double Bass
Australian Chamber Orchestra
 
Program
Gabriella Smith Carrot Revolution
Reena Esmail Darshan, for solo violin: I.
Missy Mazzoli Dark With Excessive Bright, for solo double bass and string quintet
Ted Hearne Law of Mosaics: I. Excerpts from the middle of something
Jessie Montgomery Chemiluminescence
Samuel Adams Echo Transcriptions, for electric violin and string orchestra
Paul Wiancko (arr. strings) Lift: Part III
 

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ACO Currents Surface Image 2027

Fri 4 Jun, 7pm

Surface Image

Tristan Perich's monumental Surface Image is a dialogue between human touch and machine logic that transforms the concert hall into a kinetic landscape. Featuring solo piano, electronics and 40 loudspeakers.

 

Artists
Conor Hanick Piano
 
Program
Tristan Perich Surface Image, for piano and 40-channel 1-bit electronics
  

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ACO Currents Mozart Meets Cage 2027

Sat 5 Jun, 3pm

Mozart Meets Cage

Karen Gomyo and Conor Hanick bring together two musical visionaries, separated by almost 200 years, who expanded their art, challenged conventions and forged new paths for those who followed.

 

Artists
Karen Gomyo Violin
Conor Hanick Piano
 
Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Violin Sonata No.27 in G major, K.379
John Cage Eight Whiskus
Cage Nocturne for Violin and Piano
Mozart Violin Sonata No.21 in E minor, K.304
Cage In a Landscape
Cage 4′33″
Mozart Violin Sonata No.32 in B-flat major, K.454 
 

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ACO Currents Now Is The Time 2027

Sat 5 Jun, 7pm

Now Is The Time

Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time is a defining work of the twentieth century, heard here alongside Samuel Adams' Devotions which probes the nature of human connection to place and time.

 

Artists
Richard Tognetti Violin
Helena Rathbone Violin
Ike See Violin
Elizabeth Woolnough Viola
Timo-Veikko Valve Cello
Melissa BarnardCello
David Griffiths Clarinet
Conor Hanick Piano
Samuel Adams Sound Design
 
Program
Samuel Adams Devotions, for string quartet, percussion, and electronic sound design
Olivier Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time
 

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ACO Currents Karen Gomyo 2027

Sun 6 Jun, 3pm

Karen Gomyo Plays Bach

Karen Gomyo leads a program that follows ideas across centuries, with Bach's music a point of departure for composers whose works echo, refract and reimagine the past in contemporary ways.

 

Artists
Karen Gomyo Guest Director & Violin
Helena Rathbone Violin
Maxime Bibeau Double Bass
Conor Hanick Piano
Australian Chamber Orchestra
 
Program
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. Stefano Scodanibbio) The Art of Fugue, BWV1080: Contrapunctus I
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G major, BWV1048
Samuel Adams Violin Diptych, for violin and piano
Adams Arches, for two violins, piano, and strings
Caroline Shaw Punctum
John Luther Adams Three High Places, for solo double bass
Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV1043
 

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