Australian Youth Orchestra
AYO National Music Camp 2025: ‘Colourburst’ Concert Review
AYO Blog
AYO National Music Camp 2025: ‘Colourburst’ Concert Review
By Milly McAuliffe
The shaded Elder Hall lawn is a refuge for concertgoers waiting to be let in to the final concert from the AYO Summer Music Festival series. The heat has been brutal today and it is a relief to relax with gelato and cold drinks.
Audience members wear summer linen suits, long summer dresses in green and blues, and short sleeve collared shirts. The doors to the hall open early out of necessity; the foyer is straining with eager concertgoers keen to get the best seats.
Natalia Luis-Bassa, the conductor for the last pieces of the program, has snuck in to watch the first half of the show. Nearby a young couple peruse the program and say, “I’ve never heard of anything on this program.” They sound understandably dismayed, the prospect of a two-hour long concert with no guarantee of hearing something you connect with can be daunting.
The concert is being broadcast live on ABC Classic and radio host Russel Torrance is here to present it. He walks onstage to explain how this will work and is met with a big applause.
The Alexander Orchestra performs Happy Occasion Overture, which was written for the very first Australian Youth Orchestra performance. It begins jubilantly, then matures into wistfulness with sweeping romantic melodies interjected by cheerful trumpets.
As the orchestral management team prepare the stage for the next ensemble, Media and Communications student Tirion Luff-White interviews Monica Curro, the director of this year’s National Music Camp. Monica says the camp has been “epic, marvellous, inspiring, mind-blowing”, and that “when you don’t tell people it’s hard and you give them difficult repertoire and a tutor to help them, this is what happens.”
The Walsh Chamber Orchestra students take their seats. When their director Andrew Haveron enters the students stay seated to give him his moment in the spotlight, but he insists they stand to bow with him.
Their performance of Purcell’s Chacony is neat and refined, with moments of youthful enthusiasm poking through. Britten’s Variations has ten short movements, each representing a personality trait of Britten’s teacher Frank Bridge. The orchestra bring out the character of each movement vividly.
At interval performers and audience members alike lay down in the grass. The sun has set, everything is tinted cool blue and deep green and looking back at Elder Hall the stained-glass windows glow, inviting the audience back in for the second half.
The Bishop Orchestra begins Kauyumari with commanding timpani and offstage trumpetsand creates texture with layers of percussive groove and offbeat interjections.
Love of Three Oranges is dense with colour and extroverted solos bring out distinct characters. The playing is so compelling that many audience members nod their heads along to the music. Endless cheering and applause at the conclusion of the piece forces Natalia to signal to the audience to stop so she can start an encore, Conga del Feugo Nuevo.
The students play with spirit and have choreographed dances. During the applause for this piece, Natalia is exiting the stage when the orchestra start up a second encore.
Natalia acts confused and rushes back to podium while the audience dance and clap along. The orchestra sing and chant, with a few edits to the lyrics to make them specific to AYO.
Any initial reservations about the program are long gone; the music has proved the opposite of alienating. By the end of Colourburst, the audience has danced, made music, and felt the full spectrum of human emotion together; we make our way home carrying with us a sense of belonging.