Latvian Radio Choir & Genevieve Lacey

Multiple Venues

Book online and join us for the Season

A glimpse of the sublime

The Latvian Radio Choir spreads its wings and soars with recorder queen Genevieve Lacey.  

 
Concerts in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and Sydney.
Tickets from $65 – $135 | Under 40s $49 | Save with a Subscription

The Latvian Radio Choir is not just a choir: it is a sound laboratory, its members always ready to explore new work and new ways of singing. Its repertoire encompasses music from the Renaissance to now.

Genevieve Lacey is a fearless artist who challenges us to rethink the recorder, the classical music concert experience and, indeed, how we listen.

Together these pioneering musicians present a program of music which looks to the sky in search of beauty, wonder and things with wings.

Get a glimpse of the sublime with a psalm, a prayer and a song of songs; catch the call of the nightingale, the swallow and the sparrow; and explore the intimate poetry of bird names with Pēteris Vasks.

Then, to celebrate the return of this ensemble of musical pioneers, get ready to experience two new commissions which meld human and avian voices. Bird on Byrd is an interspecies collaboration where curiosity and humour meet, created by Australian composers Hollis Taylor and Jon Rose. Finally, Ceremony of Swans is a world premiere from internationally revered Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, with a text by celebrated Australian author Alexis Wright.

"[Lacey plays with] wit, sensuality, and mind-boggling flamboyance."
— Guardian
"This chorus’s expertise in music pushes voices to extremes, from ethereal high tones to uncannily sustained bass drone."
— New York Times
"The girl thought that she could hear ghost music, black swans whispering, descending in never-ending ribbons, gathering into flocks of thousands."
— Alexis Wright, The Swan Book

Listen to the music before you witness Latvian Radio Choir & Genevieve Lacey live on stage.

LATVIAN RADIO CHOIR
KASPARS PUTNIŅŠ artistic director

GENEVIEVE LACEY recorders

Caroline SHAW And the Swallow
VAN EYCK Engels Nachtegaeltje
PÄRT Magnificat and Nunc dimittis
MENDELSSOHN Psalm XXII ‘Mein Gott, warum hast du mich verlassen’
Hollis TAYLOR and Jon ROSE Bird on Byrd*
PALESTRINA Diminutions on Pulchra es anima mea
VASKS Our Mothers' Names
Ēriks EŠENVALDS Ceremony of Swans*

*Commissioned by Musica Viva Australia. World premiere performances.

HOLLIS TAYLOR

Violinist/composer, zoömusicologist, and ornithologist Hollis Taylor is Research Fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Taylor rethinks pied butcherbird repertoire for other human instruments and voices. Central to her compositional ethos is celebrating avian achievements rather than adding human improvements.

Recent commissions include works for Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Offspring and a birdsong concerto for recorder, performed by Genevieve Lacey and the Adelaide Symphony, London Sinfonia, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, supported by Creative Australia.

Generously supported by D R & K M Magarey


JON ROSE

Violinist/composer Jon Rose’s life’s work is the development of a total artform based around one instrument: The Relative Violin. Jon has appeared on over 100 albums and CDs, working with many of the innovators and mavericks in contemporary music such as Kronos String Quartet, Derek Bailey, Alvin Curran, Otomo Yoshihide, Ilan Volkov, Christian Marclay, and John Zorn.

In 2012 Jon was honoured with the Australia Council’s prestigious prize, the Don Banks Award for outstanding and sustained contribution to Australian music.

He curates the Rosenberg Museum, his own violin museum of more than 1000 artefacts.

Hollis Taylor and Jon Rose are recipients of the 2025 APRA AMCOS Art Music Award’s Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.


ĒRIKS EŠENVALDS

Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of the most sought-after composers working today. Performances of his music are heard on every continent and his works are widely recorded. Ēriks is a popular public speaker, which he often combines with leading masterclasses and conducting. Born in Priekule, Latvia in 1977, Ēriks is a graduate of the Latvian Academy of Music where he today heads the Department of Composition.

Ēriks' music has been performed in major venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Philharmonie Berlin, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. Nordic Light, his multimedia symphony on the folklore and mythology of the northern lights, has been performed in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. His full-scale opera The Immured was premiered at the Latvian National Opera and Ballet.


ALEXIS WRIGHT

Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. She is the author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria, The Swan Book and, most recently, Praiseworthy. Wright’s books have won numerous literary awards, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Queensland Literary Award for Praiseworthy.

Wright is the first author to win the Stella Prize twice, and Praiseworthy is the only book to have received both the Stella and the Miles Franklin awards.

Wright is the inaugural winner of the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature and the winner of the 2024 Melbourne Prize for Literature.

With special thanks to Ensemble Patrons Ian Dickson AM & Reg Holloway for their generous support of this tour, and to our Concert Champions for their support of this tour within their state. We also gratefully acknowledge the Creative Development Collective for their generous support of new artistic projects, and the Amadeus Society for their support of the 2026 Concert Season.

Event and Ticketing Details

Dates & Times
Wednesday 04 November
7.00pm
Duration

120 mins

Tickets
$135.00
A Reserve - ($120 Concession/Student)
$92.00
B Reserve - ($80 Concession/Student)
$65.00
C Reserve
$49.00
Under 40
Location

CONCERT HALL, QPAC

Corner Melbourne St and Grey St, Melbourne St, South Brisbane QLD 4101

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Accessibility
Assistive listening

Assistive Listening

Wheelchair Access

Dates & Times
Saturday 07 November
7.00pm
Duration

120 mins

Tickets
$163.00
Premium Reserve - ($145 Concession/Student)
$135.00
A Reserve - ($120 Concession/Student)
$92.00
B Reserve - ($80 Concession/Student)
$65.00
C Reserve
$49.00
Under 40
Location

MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE

31 Sturt Street, Southbank VIC 3006

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Accessibility
Assistive listening

Assistive Listening

Wheelchair Access

Dates & Times
Tuesday 10 November
7.30pm
Duration

120 mins

Tickets
$135.00
A Reserve - ($120 Concession/Student)
$92.00
B Reserve - ($80 Concession/Student)
$65.00
C Reserve
$49.00
Under 40
Location

WINTHROP HALL, PERTH

35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley WA 6009

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Accessibility

Wheelchair Access

Dates & Times
Thursday 12 November
7.30pm
Duration

120 mins

Tickets
$135.00
A Reserve - ($120 Concession/Student)
$92.00
B Reserve - ($80 Concession/Student)
$65.00
C Reserve
$49.00
Under 40
Location

ADELAIDE TOWN HALL

128 King William St, Adelaide SA 5000

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Accessibility
Assistive listening

Assistive Listening

Wheelchair Access

Dates & Times
Saturday 14 November
7.00pm
Duration

120 mins

Tickets
$135.00
A Reserve - ($120 Concession/Student)
$92.00
B Reserve - ($80 Concession/Student)
$65.00
C Reserve
$49.00
Under 40
Location

LLEWELLYN HALL, CANBERRA ANU

Building 100, William Herbert Place, Canberra ACT 2601

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Accessibility
Assistive listening

Assistive Listening

Wheelchair Access

Dates & Times
Monday 16 November
7.00pm
Duration

120 mins

Tickets
$163.00
Premium Reserve - ($145 Concession/Student)
$135.00
A Reserve - ($120 Concession/Student)
$92.00
B Reserve - ($80 Concession/Student)
$65.00
C Reserve
$49.00
Under 40
Location

CITY RECITAL HALL, SYDNEY

2 Angel Pl, Sydney NSW 2000

Get directions
Accessibility
Assistive listening

Assistive Listening

Wheelchair Access

Event notes

Venues

Read more about the venues here.

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