September
Ba Da Boom
Percussion
Brisbane Cheryomushki
Opera
Based on Moscow, Cheryomushki by Dmitri Shostakovich
Librettists Vladimir Mass and Mikhail Chervinsky
English translation by David Pountney
Witty and affectionate, this satirical operetta is a musical gem.
A group of friends. A housing shortage. A homeless crisis. Corrupt, over-paid officials. Sounds familiar? Welcome to the world of Brisbane Cheryomushki.
Originally performed as Moscow Cheryomushki, Dmitri Shostakovich’s delightful operetta, named after an actual Moscow suburb, takes a biting and satirical look at the housing crisis in post-World War II Russia, which he matches with musical pastiches and parodies, often associated with the operetta style — the waltz, the polka, choral music and traditional Russian folk songs.
Conducted by esteemed Australian composer, Richard Mills AO, and directing is Queensland Conservatorium favourite, Constantine Costi (2025’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, & the award-winning documentary The Golden Spurtle), with costumes and set design by Brisbane’s own Peter Keavy, don’t miss your chance to enjoy this rare musical gem.
Performed by Conservatorium Classical Voice Students and Orchestra.
Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich, orchestra version by Gerard McBurney, with additional arrangements by Jim Holmes by arrangement with Origin Theatrical on behalf of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. English translation by David Pountney.
View the program here
October
3rd Year Bachelor of Acting Showcase
Acting
3rd Year Bachelor of Acting Showcase
Acting
3rd Year Bachelor of Acting Showcase
Acting
3rd Year Bachelor of Acting Showcase
Acting
3rd Year Bachelor of Acting Showcase
Acting
Big Ideas Lunchbox Series
Research
Can Music Change the World? Art, Politics, Justice and Censorship
Panellists: Chris Stover, Naomi Sunderland, Rebecca Lloyd-Jones
Chair: Catherine Grant
Music is never just sound: it can challenge power, amplify unheard voices, provoke debate, and imagine fairer futures. This Big Ideas session explores the political life of music through questions of justice, artistic freedom, censorship, representation, and the social responsibilities of musicians, educators, and cultural institutions.
Guitar & Harp Lunchtime Concert
Lunchtime
Sublime sounds from our Guitar and Harp students.
German Week Lunchtime Concert
Special Event
Ralf Klepper, founder and director of SuonaVoce™ Australia, in association with Senior Lecturer in Strings, Graeme Jennings, presents a free, lunchtime concert with the Conservatorium Students, to celebrate German Week.
Program
CMTP Capstone
Music Technology
Third year Creative Music Technology & Production students present their final performances of original work. Come support our graduating students!
Brass Ensemble & Friends
Brass
Queensland Conservatorium brass students perform a range of repertoire for brass ensemble.
Welcome to My World
Students
Come along to a night of never-before heard classical music, written by Sam Borgert, with a special feature from QCGU Composition Student Charlene Cloud Tan! Welcome To My World is an exploration of love, loss and mourning, as well as a celebration of diversity and resilience, featuring solos, duets and choral works performed by upcoming Brisbane artists. Leave your world behind and step into ours, as we show you the future of the classical vocal scene in Australia.
Pop Showcase
Pop
This exciting capstone event features an evening of original music created, arranged and performed by by the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University’s amazing third-year Popular Music students.
An Evening In Concert – 2nd Year Musical Theatre Students
Musical Theatre
An Evening in Concert is a celebration of where the musical theatre students are at towards the end of their second year of training. They have all challenged themselves with the material they have chosen to perform, and they look forward to sharing these beautiful songs with you.
The concert will offer the discerning musical theatre lover the chance to witness the first public performances from these talented second year students of the Queensland Academy of Excellence in Musical Theatre at Griffith University.
An Evening In Concert – 2nd Year Musical Theatre Students
Musical Theatre
An Evening in Concert is a celebration of where the musical theatre students are at towards the end of their second year of training. They have all challenged themselves with the material they have chosen to perform, and they look forward to sharing these beautiful songs with you.
The concert will offer the discerning musical theatre lover the chance to witness the first public performances from these talented second year students of the Queensland Academy of Excellence in Musical Theatre at Griffith University.
Australian String Quartet: Voyager
Chamber
An expedition to the outer limits of the string quartet.
Garth Knox’s Satellites opens Voyager with a kaleidoscopic exploration of sound and texture that expands the sonic possibilities of the string quartet. Bartók’s arresting String Quartet No.4, a tour de force of rhythmic energy, then takes you to a playground of Hungarian folk influences and raw emotion.
Beethoven’s monumental String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op.130, then unfolds with lyricism and grandeur, before concluding with the awe-inspiring Grosse Fuge, a work of uncompromising power that pushes the boundaries of musical form.
The music of Voyager charts a radiant course through beauty, complexity and boundary-breaking innovation.
Program
GARTH KNOX
Satellites
BARTÓK
String Quartet No.4
BEETHOVEN
String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op.130, and Grosse Fuge, Op.133
November
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Musical Theatre
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Featuring the music of In Pieces by Joey Contreras
A picture is worth 1,000 words – what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In You Never Know: A Song Cycle, each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern musical can be.
Contains mature content, adult themes, coarse language, reference to drug use, and minor violence.
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Musical Theatre
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Featuring the music of In Pieces by Joey Contreras
A picture is worth 1,000 words – what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In You Never Know: A Song Cycle, each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern musical can be.
Contains mature content, adult themes, coarse language, reference to drug use, and minor violence.
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Musical Theatre
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Featuring the music of In Pieces by Joey Contreras
A picture is worth 1,000 words – what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In You Never Know: A Song Cycle, each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern musical can be.
Contains mature content, adult themes, coarse language, reference to drug use, and minor violence.
Jazz Showcase
Jazz
The Jazz Department presents a vibrant showcase of student talent, featuring a diverse program of ensembles and performances. Through creativity, collaboration, and individual artistic expression, students explore their musical identities in an engaging evening of outstanding live music
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Musical Theatre
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Featuring the music of In Pieces by Joey Contreras
A picture is worth 1,000 words – what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In You Never Know: A Song Cycle, each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern musical can be.
Contains mature content, adult themes, coarse language, reference to drug use, and minor violence.
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Musical Theatre
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Featuring the music of In Pieces by Joey Contreras
A picture is worth 1,000 words – what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In You Never Know: A Song Cycle, each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern musical can be.
Contains mature content, adult themes, coarse language, reference to drug use, and minor violence.
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Musical Theatre
You Never Know: A Song Cycle
Featuring the music of In Pieces by Joey Contreras
A picture is worth 1,000 words – what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or fifteen? In You Never Know: A Song Cycle, each photo creates a unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical which explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre… This intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern musical can be.
Contains mature content, adult themes, coarse language, reference to drug use, and minor violence.
Tim Winton – Songs from the Firefront Book Launch
Special Event
Avid Reader and Riverbend Books presents the exclusive Brisbane event for Songs for the Firefront by Tim Winton. Tim will be in conversation with Ashley Hay.
Prokofiev, Sibelius & Wyatt
Symphony Orchestra
Anne Sofie von Otter & Kristian Bezuidenhout
For more than four decades, von Otter has been one of the defining voices of the international stage, performing in the world’s great opera houses and concert halls, with an extraordinary career spanning Schubert, Mahler and Mozart and collaborations with Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber and John Eliot Gardiner.
Joining her is Bezuidenhout, returning after his incredible Australian Chamber Orchestra performance last year, and one of the most respected and distinctive keyboard artists of his generation.
Together, they present an intimate program of Schubert alongside Swedish songs reflecting von Otter’s own musical heritage.
“I’m very much looking forward to this Autumn’s Australian adventure together with my dear friend and wonderful pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Four concerts, revisiting vibrant Melbourne and beautiful Adelaide and adding Canberra and Brisbane to my list of new cities to discover.
In these recitals, Kris and I are focusing on Franz Schubert, but for good measure we´ll throw in a handful of lovely Swedish songs by the composer Adolf Fredrik Lindblad (1801-1878). Lindblad was a close friend and mentor of Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale”, and some of the songs were specifically written for her. I’m really excited to make the long journey from Stockholm to Australia in November and very much hope to see you there at one of our concerts.”
Program
Franz Schubert
Der Einsame, D 800
An den Mond, D 259 (“Füllest wieder”)
An den Mond, D 193 (“Geuss, lieber Mond”)
Der Wanderer an den Mond, D 870
Erntelied, D 434
Piano Solo – Kristian Bezuidenhout
Die Sommernacht, D 289
So lasst mich scheinen, D 877 No. 3
Gretchen am Spinnrade, D 118
Wiegenlied, D 867
Interval
Adolf Fredrik Lindblad
Nattviolen
Varning
Mån tro? Jo, jo!
Vaggvisa
En sommardag
Piano Solo – Kristian Bezuidenhout
Franz Schubert
Selections from Schwanengesang, D 957
Liebesbotschaft
Ständchen
Abschied
Die Stadt
Am Meer
Der Doppelgänger
Die Taubenpost
Programme subject to change.
Guitar Extravaganza
Guitar
Karin Schaupp is one of the most outstanding guitarists on the international scene, a formidable pedagogue, and a valued staff member at the Queensland Conservatorium. Karin curates this exciting evening featuring the Riverside Guitar Ensemble, Open Con Guitar Ensemble (conducted by Joel Woods), Colombian singer-songwriter Karen Arango, and The Bronos Kentet.
women in baroque
Chamber
The female voice is often something unheard of in the Baroque period – the sister, the tutor, the cousin.
This program spotlights some of the many talented female composers in the baroque period featuring Bach’s Coffee Cantata alongside Baroque sonatas by female composers.
Chamber Music Side by Side
Chamber
Queensland Conservatorium’s Head of Chamber Studies, Dr. György Déri ,presents a program of chamber music with current students performing alongside faculty and industry professionals. Included in the annual favorite is a performance of Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3.
Conservatorium Contemporary Collective #3
New Music
The Conservatorium Contemporary Collective presents its final offering of 2026, as faculty and students combine forces in a showing of experimental music. Join us for an exciting foray into new timbral territories.
Symphonic Rock 2026
Orchestra
Curated by Caleb James and Peter Morris.
After selling out in 2025, Symphonic Rock is back.
Symphonic Rock 2026 brings together the full force of the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra alongside the Pop cohort, Jazz students, Student Songwriters and Composers, and the Conservatorium Singers for one unmissable evening.
Marking the end of the Con’s 2026 season, this promises to be one night to remember.
