Classical Music in Perth 

The soirées are hosted at the Kidogo Arthouse Gallery in Fremantle and are set to run exclusively throughout winter, June through to August with limited seats for each dinner.

From jazz and blues to opera and everything in between, each night offers music by a different artist, making each soirée experience that much more unique. The intimate setting creates an immersive musical experience like no other that creates a genuine connection between performers and dinner guests.

The three course meal begins with Joanna’s freshly baked Irish soda bread, followed by a warm hearty soup, a vegetarian and meat main course and finishes off with something sweet.

Each soirée is a truly magical experience, being serenaded in the cozy gallery space surrounded by the warmth of candlelight, all while enjoying a scrumptious three course meal in great company.

Mozart composed his Piano Trio in C major (KV 548) at the peak of his creative powers. In this concert, Mozart’s masterpiece keeps company with Beethoven’s first and last piano trios; three pinnacles from the piano trio repertoire, including Beethoven’s monumental Archduke Trio – the most beautiful of his ground- breaking piano trios – clothed in the luminous sonorities of Classical era instruments, including WAAPA’s new Graf (1819) fortepiano.

The devil tricks a soldier into giving up his violin in return for a book that tells the future... Igor Stravinsky brings to life the famous Russian folktale about the value of human spirit in the face of greed and materialism. WAAPA’s Executive Dean, David Shirley joins the Indian Ocean Ensemble and students from WAAPA’s Performance Making course to revel in one of the most influential and dramatic works of the past century. The Seven Seas world music ensemble also performs a new work filled with imagination and virtuosity.

Paris, 1889... The perfect meeting point for high society and high fashion. The ideal rendezvous for God-like men and beautiful women. At a time when public opinion demands strict morals of all Parisians, how is it the artists of the Moulin Rouge can celebrate their liberte´, e´galite´ and fraternite´ with wild abandon? Come with us as we peel back the layers of French society and descend into the cabaret underworld of the 'city of love'.

Babies Proms with the Philharmonic Orchestra

Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 September 10am & 11:30am 

Peter Moore OAM, presenter
Jen Winley, conductor 

The Babies Proms offer children aged 2 – 8 the wonderful opportunity to experience live music. With a full 70-piece symphony orchestra, learn about the instruments, be invited to conduct the orchestra and join in for the finale!

Proudly presented by St John of God Health Care, Community & Family Partner

Tickets - $15 per person (unallocated seating). No booking or processing fee! Children under 2 are free provided they do not require a seat (ticket required).

So often, composers wrote songs spontaneously for lovers, colleagues or friends. The composer was likely a pianist, choosing a text and crafting the vocal line for someone dear to them. Richard Strauss wrote a great many of his songs for his wife Pauline, a formidable singer. Claude Debussy wrote several songs as a young man, head-over-heels in love with the red-haired, green-eyed soprano Blanche Vasnier. And Benjamin Britten produced almost all of his songs and operatic tenor roles for his lifelong partner Peter Pears. We guarantee that you will fall in love with Pia Harris's voice.

Pia has performed principal roles for New York Lyric Opera, Opera Holland Park (London) as well as for West Australian Opera, Lost and Found, Freeze Frame Opera and the innovative Vocal Performance Initiative, based in Albany.

Anna Amalia, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach ruled from 1758. Under her urbane rule, the small duchy became a cultural mecca. She instigated the birth of Weimar classicism by gathering together the leading intellectuals of Enlightenment Germany; music, literature, and drama flourished. The Musenhof (Court of the Muses), as her court came to be called, included Goethe, Herder, and Schiller. Lucy Mervik presents songs to poetry by these Titans, plus ravishing music by the Duchess herself.

Lucy has been a regular principal artist with West Australian Opera since moving to Perth. After graduating from London’s Trinity College and from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she sang principal roles and concert solos in the Barbican Centre, across the UK and in Germany, France and Spain.

Katja Webb offers visions, revelations, confessions and glimpses of the supernatural. Katja presents outstanding Australian music from her two CDs, including world and state premieres. West Australian composers James Penberthy and Geoffrey Allen are joined by Paul Paviour, Richard Peter Maddox, Dorian Le Gallienne and Margaret Sutherland. With poetry by Gwen Harwood, WB Yeats, Mary Gilmore, John Shaw Neilson and Shakespeare, this is a feast not to be missed.

Katja has performed in Australia and Germany since 2006 in all genres of vocal music from musicals through operetta to opera. She has been acclaimed by critics and public alike for her portrayals of Nannetta in Falstaff (Verdi); Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach); Proserpina in L’Orfeo (Monteverdi); Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus (J.Strauss jnr); Leïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Bizet); title role in Rusalka (Dvorák) and as the Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart).

Principal piccolo of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra Michael Waye joins us for the Penberthy songs.

Tickets include the show, a three-course dinner and a glass of bubbles on arrival.

As the city of Paris lights up and celebrates White Night, Government House Ballroom echoes this exceptional evening of art, festivities and music. An opulent evening of long table dining will be interspersed with a sumptuous feast of French songs, sung by Fiona Campbell, accompanied by one of Australia's greats and ABC 'Duets' star Tamara-Ann Cislowska. In true Nuit Blanche style, be prepared to be surprised and delighted with torch songs, Chopin and a late night lantern stroll in the Gardens surrounded by angelic Voyces.

The brothers of Austria's Eggner Trio personify so much of the history of chamber music. They literally grew up playing music together in their living room, the intended venue for so many works written for this most intimate artform. While each has their own solo career, together they make an inspiring and superbly matched ensemble, regularly appearing in the great concert halls of the northern hemisphere – and for Musica Viva. On this tour they’re joined by superb Australian oboist Diana Doherty in a unique and exciting virtuoso collaboration. With four famously engaging personalities on stage, expect a vividly memorable event! 

The Royal Over-Seas League assists WAAPA’s most talented music students to achieve their dreams on stage in Australia and internationally. This concert showcases the winners of the ROSL prizes in Chamber Music, the music of Bach, Improvisation, Art Song, Early Keyboard and Composition. WAAPA is proud to partner with the Royal Over-Seas League in recognising and supporting the stars of tomorrow.

WAAPA students and lecturers introduce and play rare and important harpsichords and pianos from our astonishing, growing and extensive store of extraordinary historical keyboard instruments – this is a concert to delight the ear, move the heart and fire the imagination.

Schubert’s first great song cycle presents the greatest of challenges to performers because of its simple perfection. Twenty songs chart the journey, physical and psychological, of a curious, dreamy young apprentice. The miraculous musical depictions of water make the mill-stream a central character in the drama of first love. Matthew Dixon portrays the young miller.

24 year-old Matthew is a graduate of WAAPA and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was the recipient of the Silver Anniversary Prize for the Evelyn and Ralph Thompson Scholarship and also the winner of the Royal Overseas League Singing Competition and a semi-finalist in the 2019 IFAC Australian Singing Competition (winning the Tinkler Trust Award). In 2018/19 Matthew performed the roles of Don Giovanni, Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore) and Billy Budd at GSMD, also debuting at London’s Wigmore Hall in a Schubertiade with Graham Johnson. He debuted the role of Motor Cop in Dead Man Walking for the UK premiere opposite Joyce Di Donato.

Once thought to be musically inferior, the riches of the English musical tradition were rediscovered through musicians such as tenor Peter Pears and virtuoso classical guitarist Julian Bream. Pears and Bream premiered new works by modern masters such as Britten, Tippet and Berkeley, while also bringing to light the glories of the lute music of the Elizabethan golden age. Join us for a celebration of the English Orpheus across the ages, in a musical journey showcasing the best of English songs and madrigals, and English music for classical guitar.

The WAAPA Symphony Orchestra celebrates the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth in style, performing some of the most dynamic and beautiful music of all time. WAAPA's Head of Strings Paul Wright directs the orchestra in Beethoven's gorgeous Pastoral Symphony, inspired by the composer's legendary love of nature. You’ll also hear Mozart's exquisite Violin Concerto No 5 performed by Paul Wright. It’s a 250th birthday party like no other!

"I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven." – Richard Wagner

"Paul Wright is a national treasure." – Neville Cohn The West Australian