3 November 2025
AYO Summer Music Festival returns to Adelaide for 2026
Experience the fantastical and the unexpected when AYO Summer Music Festival makes an epic return to Adelaide in 2026. This January, from 10 to 17 January, the University of Adelaide’s Elder Hall will come alive with seven incredible concerts, showcasing the talents of Australia’s brightest young orchestral musicians.
Led by internationally-renowned conductors Alan Buribayev and Andrea Quinn, AYO alum Glenn Christensen (QSO) and under the guidance of AYO National Music Camp Creative Director, Monica Curro (MSO) this vibrant celebration of song, dance and storytelling features everything from ballet and orchestral suites to contemporary Australian works.
Hear 200 AYO National Music Camp musicians bring stories to life, prepare to be transported to new sonic realms and be moved by music at its best.
“There are many reasons to come along in January to our Summer Music Festival. Audiences will see Australia’s brightest and boldest musicians in seven public concerts – from small chamber groups to massive ensembles at the stunning Elder Hall. Another reason to come is the unbelievably accessible ticket prices from just $5.”
NMC Creative Director Monica Curro
As part of AYO’s commitment to accessibility and inclusivity, AYO is offering audiences the chance to buy
tickets for just $5 to any of the 7 concerts before 30 November. Festival multi-passes are also available.
“An AYO concert is the perfect introduction to classical music and our commitment to free or affordable
tickets for all, means that there really is something for everyone,” said AYO CEO Kimbali Harding.
About the program
From Beethoven, Stravinsky and Ravel ballets to operas by Rossini and Borodin, avant-garde pantomimes, choral masterpieces and Ancient Greek comedies, prepare to be transported to new sonic realms filled with a joyous eruption of movement, choral splendour and dreamlike drama – and meet a curious cast of enchanted characters along the way.
Enter the Greek gods in Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus and Stravinsky’s neoclassical ballet Apollon Musagète, kung fu fighters in composer-in-residence Thomas Green’s The Sounds of Char Gow, a malevolent puppet in Petrushka, Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin, litigious wasps and a real-life Cinderella. And in a National Music Camp first, the Summer Music Festival will feature massed choirs in two choral works – Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe Suite 2 – both famed for their soaring, lush melodies.
From early 19th-century composers we are also heralding the work of living contemporary voices who provide fresh perspectives and explore new musical territories in a diverse program set to fuel your imagination.
Audiences will hear a World Premiere of Thomas Green’s Music for Imaginary Anime. Float away with the undulating textures and layered lines of British composer Thomas Adès’s maritime-inspired Shanty – Over the Sea, reimagine night roadworks with Australian composer Holly Harrison’s energetic, percussion-driven Hi Vis, enjoy Jessie Montgomery’s study in rhythmic vitality in Strum and celebrate the vivid blues of Australia’s skies and seas in Naomi Dodd’s playful and jubilant orchestral fanfare, Cerulean Dances.
Tickets
- Early Bird – $5 (available until 30 November)
- Single Concert – $10
- Festival Pass (all 7 concerts) – $40
- Festival Pass (students + concessions) – $30