Gloria!
Ballarat Organs & Fine Music Festival
Friday 9 January 2026, 7:00pm
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat
The Ballarat Organs and Fine Music Festival opens in a blaze of joyful sound with Gloria! — a celebration of radiant polychoral music from the golden age of the early Baroque. In this exhilarating program, vocal ensemble the Consort of Melbourne, directed by Steven Hodgson, joins Consortium Viols and the curtal consort Unholy Rackett, supported by a rich continuo of organ, harpsichord, and theorbo. Together they fill the space with luminous harmony, dancing rhythms, and the glorious interplay of voices and instruments.
Featuring music by Heinrich Schütz, Hans Leo Hassler, and Michael Praetorius, Gloria! revels in the splendour of seventeenth-century sound — choirs calling to one another in cascades of echo and colour, expressing joy, devotion, and human connection.
From stately grandeur to radiant exuberance, Gloria! invites audiences to share in the warmth and optimism of this timeless music — a jubilant opening to the festival and a true feast of harmony and celebration.
Featuring the voices of: Katherine Norman, Elspeth Bawden, Jenny George, Sophia Gyger, Timothy Reynolds, Robin Parkin, Lachlan McDonald and Steven Hodgson (Director).
Homophonic!
Friday 6 - Sunday 8 February 2026
Theatre Works - 14 Acland St, St Kilda
Homophonic! is bringing the disco ball to the concert hall and inviting you to experience the entrancing sound world of todays LGBTIQ+ composers.
Performed by the Homophonic! Chamber Ensemble and 6 voices of The Consort of Melbourne.
Featuring the world premiere of Midsumma Presents: The Homophonic! Pride Prize performed by Homophonic! Artistic Director and double bassist Miranda Hill, works for voices and strings telling the stories of LGBTIQ+ seniors, and so much more.
Friday 6 February 7.30pm
Saturday 7 February 1pm (Relaxed Performance)
Saturday 7 February 5pm
15% off full price tickets on until 5pm 16 Dec 2025!
If you would like to support Homophonic’s 2026 season you can do so via The Australian Cultural Fund.
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
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.
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.