Aura Go

Artist

Aura Go piano

In Friendship and Memory

In Friendship and Memory explores the intimate world of friendship through music, tracing a personal thread of affection, memory and artistic kinship. Carlos Guastavino’s Mis Amigos is an enchanting set of ten musical portraits of friends, while each of Lili Boulanger's evocative and poignant Trois Morceaux is dedicated to a dear friend of the composer. Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 9, written during his deep friendship with Robert and Clara Schumann, form a poignant homage to a mentor in decline. Composed within the final six months of Schubert's life, the Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946 contains music of profound interiority and tenderness. The work was published posthumously by Johannes Brahms in an act of admiration and artistic friendship across time. The rarely heard Six Pieces by neglected Swedish composer Hélène Tham continue the theme of legacy and rediscovery—inventive, expressive miniatures that speak with compelling freshness. Together, these works form a musical tapestry woven from affection, remembrance, and quiet acts of devotion.

PROGRAM

Version 1 (70min, no interval)

Carlos GUASTAVINO (1912-2000)
Mis Amigos: Musical portraits for young pianists (1966) 20'

Lili BOULANGER (1893-1918)
Trois morceaux pour piano (1914)

Hélène THAM (1843-1925)
Six Pieces for Piano (1883)

Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946 (1828)

Version 2 (90min, with interval)

Carlos GUASTAVINO        (1912-2000)
Mis Amigos: Musical portraits for young pianists (1966)

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 9     (1854)

Interval

Hélène THAM (1843-1925)
Six Pieces for Piano (1883)

Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946 (1828)          

About the Artist

Aura Go is an Australian pianist whose practice spans performance, collaboration, curation, education and artistic research. She performs across the globe, as soloist in concertos from J.S. Bach to Sofia Gubaidulina, as recitalist and chamber musician in imaginative programs that interweave old and new music, and as creative collaborator in the development of performance projects. In recent seasons, Aura has been soloist with orchestras such as the Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. She has performed at international festivals including the Edinburgh Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, PianoEspoo, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Metropolis Festival, and the Musica Viva Festival.

In 2025, performance highlights include the Australian premiere performance of Doreen Carwithen’s Piano Concerto with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, a new collaboration with the Australian String Quartet in piano quintets of Amy Beach and Gabriel Fauré, song recitals with Scottish mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison (Sydney Opera House Utzon Room) and Australian soprano Sara Mcliver (Dunkeld Festival), Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Southern Cross Soloists, and soloist appearances in The Art of the Score’s new show ‘The Music of Joe Hisaishi’ with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

With pianist Tomoe Kawabata, Aura founded the KIAZMA Piano Duo, which has established itself as one of Australia’s most dynamic ensembles. She enjoys a regular collaboration with cellist Timo-Veikko Valve (principal cello, Australian Chamber Orchestra), with whom she recorded the complete Beethoven cello and piano sonatas for ABC Classics. Other recordings to her credit include first premiere recordings of Lisa Illean’s arcing, stilling, bending, gathering (with Emma McGrath, Tilman Robinson and ANAM Strings), Japanese works for four-hands and two pianos with Tomoe Kawabata, and piano duets by Ekaterina Komalkova with Ian Munro. In 2023 Aura toured nationally for Musica Viva as pianist-actor in the new stage adaptation of Paul Kildea's Chopin’s Piano.

Aura is an advocate for new music and regularly collaborates with composers. World premieres to her credit include works by Australian composers Lisa Illean, Holly Harrison, Gordon Kerry, Ian Munro, Kate Neal and Cat Hope, as well as Tiina Myllärinen (Finland), Christopher Cerrone (USA), Garth Neustadter (USA) and Ye Xiaogang (China).

Aura is Head of Piano at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University. A passionate educator, she has been visiting artist at the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas (USA), the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus (Denmark), the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (Poland) and the Australian National Academy of Music. She has taught piano at Yale College (USA) and the Sibelius Academy (Finland). Following studies at the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian National Academy of Music, Aura attained her Master of Music at the Yale School of Music. Aura received her doctorate from the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, where her artistic research drew on the acting methodology of Michael Chekhov to explore the embodied imagination, creativity, and collaboration in music performance.