Ten years ago, ACO Collective began its musical journey across the country.

In celebration of this milestone the 17-piece string ensemble, which joins Australia’s most talented and dynamic emerging string players with the professional musicians of the ACO, will embark on an eight-stop tour across regional New South Wales and Queensland, stopping in at the Tanks Arts Centre on Friday the 15th of September.

The tour – titled Mozart & Brahms – will be directed by charismatic Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto in his second year as ACO Collective Artistic Director, and will feature Britain’s leading clarinettist, Matthew Hunt, as soloist.

Kuusisto, who is renowned the world over for his fiery and exuberant style of music-making, will lead the ensemble for performances of string music by Mozart and Bartók.

“The Mozart is perfect, pocket-sized and sweet, with very few dark clouds,” Kuusisto said.

“The Bartók is fun, grotesque, heartbreaking and revolutionary. It’s a party before the war breaks out, before you try to make your escape, and you have to decide which elements of your life you leave behind, and which elements you take with you.”

The concerts will also feature Brahms’ soulful Clarinet Quintet.

Written from the heart, the mellow, haunting quality of the clarinet is the perfect vehicle for expressing Brahms’ autumnal temperament in his later years.

Highlights of this milestone tour include a concert at the Bellingen Memorial Hall, a venue that the ACO Collective performed in on their very first tour in 2007, and a collaboration with the Cairns Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir at the Tank Arts Centre in Cairns as part of a multi-year collaboration with Gondwana Choirs.

Tickets available through Ticketlink

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