Australian Chamber Orchestra partners with Yumi Stynes for their ACO StudioCasts film season

In keeping with the 'online soup du jour' established during everyone's great 2020 'year-in',  The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) has partnered with media presenter, podcaster and author Yumi Stynes for a premium online content series accompanying the new digital concert experience titled ACO StudioCasts.

Launching on 17 February 2021ACO StudioCasts is the Orchestra's inaugural digital subscription series, which will see eight 50-minute pioneering concert films released on a new video streaming platform throughout the year.  

Drawing on over a decade of producing films, the ACO is collaborating with leading directors and cinematographers to create intimate and immersive cinematic experiences shot in iconic locations including Sydney’s Town Hall and Carriageworks. The debut release Rapture and Revolution is a beautiful and emotional transcendence through the music of Schubert, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams, including Artistic Director Richard Tognetti performing Williams’ universally loved The Lark Ascending, and Beethoven’s Cavatina and Grosse Fuge arranged for the Orchestra by Richard Tognetti. 



Filmed in the grand and expansive Centennial Hall at Sydney Town Hall, this pioneering concert film is directed by Chilean/Australian director Matisse Ruby, with cinematography by the award-winning Tyson Perkins (ARIA Award nominee for Life is incredible) and Drew English (ACS gold tripod winner).

To enhance the viewing experience and give audiences further insight into the music and the ACO, Yumi Stynes (pictured) will present a series of interviews and featurettes going behind the scenes with the musicians and creative team, and exploring the power and impact of orchestral music on the lives of people from all walks of life. Launching alongside the premiere of Rapture and Revolution is an in conversation piece with Yumi and Richard Tognetti discussing the Orchestra's decade-long experience working in film and their journey to creating this new digital concert experience.  

ACO StudioCasts launches on the ACO’s new video streaming platform.  Following each online premiere, the films are available to view on-demand on smart TVs, desktop, tablet or mobile devices. ACO StudioCasts season subscriptions cost $199 or $149 for those who also subscribe to the ACO’s Live season. Individual films cost $35 for seven day access.

Alongside ACO StudioCasts, the ACO's 2021 season features seven live concert programs, opening in Wollongong and Sydney in February with Tabula Rasa. The first concerts in the ACO’s 2020 program to be cancelled due to Covid19, Tabula Rasa by one of the most performed and influential living composers Arvo Pärt, translates to clean slate in Latin. Celebrating music and arts’ enduring ability to prevail, the program also features Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C Minor as well as the world premiere of Shanty by British Composer Thomas Adès CBE

More information and tickets at aco.com.au/acostudiocasts

Here's the complete list of  ACO STUDIOCASTS for 2021:

Rapture & Revolution
17 FEBRUARY PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
The debut release in the inaugural season of concert films, Rapture and Revolution premieres in February 2021. Filmed in the grand and expansive Centennial Hall at Sydney Town Hall, the film features Richard Tognetti performing Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Tognetti’s arrangement for string orchestra of Beethoven’s Cavatina & Grosse Fuge.  

Bach and the Beyond  
31 MARCH PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
Bach and the Beyond pitches Bach’s timeless search for redemption alongside compositions by Richard Tognetti. Filmed at Studios 301 in Sydney and directed by Matisse Ruby with cinematography from Tyson Perkins, this evocative and impassioned concert film features a guest performance from the world’s greatest living flautist Emmanuel Pahud, recorded during lockdown from Berlin and Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie on guitar. The program includes Bach’s tumultuous The Musical Offering, a heart-rending performance from the St Matthew Passion featuring ACO Principal Cello Timo-Veikko Valve and original compositions by Richard Tognetti from his 2012 film The Reef, sung by Satu Vänskä.

Love & Transfiguration
19 MAY PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
In Love and Transfiguration the Orchestra perform Latvian composer Peteris Vasks’ Vox amoris, written for Richard Tognetti and Schoenberg’s Verklarte nacht. This is a film where love transforms from sombre hues and shadows to the warmth and radiance of new light and new  day. Directed by Matisse Ruby with cinematography by Tyson Perkins.

Tchaikovsky’s Serenade
7 JULY PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade celebrates composers who write music from the heart, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, one of the most loved pieces written for string orchestra and a calling card of the ACO’s, Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Andante for Strings and George Walker’s moving Lyric for Strings.

Tabula Rasa
18 AUGUST PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
Tabula Rasa was the first concert in the ACO’s 2020 program to be cancelled due to COVID-19. Celebrating music and arts’ enduring ability to prevail, the concert will feature Tabula Rasa by one of the most performed and influential living composers, Arvo Pärt, alongside Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C Minor.

Beethoven & Bridgetower
3 NOVEMBER PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
Artistic Director Richard Tognetti performs Beethoven’s arguably most loved and performed violin Sonata The Kreutzer, originally dedicated to George Bridgetower, a violinist of West Indian descent. Bridgetower performed with Beethoven at the Sonata’s premiere, but the pair spectacularly fell out and his name was removed from the dedication. In a dramatic collaboration with Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre, Tognetti seeks to tell Bridgetower’s story and restore his place in history. 

Schubert’s Quintet
15 SEPTEMBER PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
Schubert’s career was marked by admiration for Beethoven and his desire to match the heights achieved by his hero. Schubert’s Quintet will see a star studded ACO ensemble led by Richard Tognetti perform his String Quintet in C major, composed in the final weeks of the composer’s too short life, and considered one of the best longform pieces of chamber music ever written.  

Baroque Revelry
1 DECEMBER PREMIERE THEN AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
The final concert film in the series, Baroque Revelry is a unique experience that will see the ACO collaborate once again with Belvoir St Theatre to explore the music and musicians who created the vibrant world of Baroque Europe. Richard Tognetti will direct an orchestra of ACO soloists featuring music by the trailblazer Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini and the devilish Giusepe Tartini.

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