Expressions of Interest
Expressions of Interest are now open!
Musica Viva Australia invites exceptional musicians to share their talents with regional audiences, ensuring that communities across NSW have access to high-quality live performances.
We partner with performing arts centres, regional conservatoriums, volunteer music societies, and festivals to connect artists with new audiences. With the support of Create NSW, we assist regional presenters by:
- Handling contract administration
- Covering domestic travel and accommodation for artists
- Advising on technical and artistic needs
- Supporting local marketing efforts
This ensures regional presenters can host high-quality performances on an equal footing with their metropolitan counterparts—all they need to cover is the artist fee.
HOW IT WORKS
From the applications, we will select approximately 10 soloists or small ensembles to feature on our website and promote directly to presenters across NSW. Ideally, artists will perform short tours of 2–5 concerts, though this may vary based on demand.
We offer presenters a diverse selection of artists and programs, including:
- Classical chamber music
- Music from diverse cultural backgrounds
- Music-driven works that cross into other artforms
We are seeking outstanding musicians and excellent communicators who can also offer workshops and community engagement activities alongside their concerts.
We Encourage Applications From: First Nations artists, People with disability, LGBTIQA+ artists, Artists from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Please note that this program is offered to Australian residents and/or citizens only.
How to Apply
If you are interested in being considered for our 2027 featured artist list, please complete the form below by 11:59PM AEDT, Sunday 1 March 2026.
All applicants will receive a response by Friday 3 April 2026.
Please read the FAQs and additional information below before applying. This program is offered to Australian residents and/or citizens only.
Submissions missing information from the required fields may not be considered.
What Musica Viva Australia does
- We use the information you provide in your application to create artist pages which will be sent to our regional touring presenting partners. In discussions with our presenting partners, we hope to build short tours for your ensemble in regional NSW on mutually agreed dates.
- Once these dates are confirmed, Musica Viva Australia will liaise with you to create an appropriate travel itinerary. We will then book and pay for your domestic flights, accommodation and hire vehicle (away from your home city), and reimburse you for the petrol consumed during your tour.
- Each member of your ensemble will also be paid a daily travel allowance for each night they are away on the Musica Viva Australia tour in addition to their performance and workshop fee.
- Your ensemble will be covered by Musica Viva Australia’s public liability insurance for all concerts performed with Musica Viva Australia.
- Musica Viva Australia will report and cover the cost of the APRA/OneMusic performance licence for your concerts while on tour.
What we ask of you
- After we launch our artist pages, all program/repertoire and personnel changes must be approved by Musica Viva Australia, so that there is no confusion between all the different people involved in a tour.
- The success of our presenting partners’ events can be greatly affected by any of our artists performing for someone else nearby, which in regional NSW can mean up to two hours’ drive away – the distance audience members might travel. Because of this, we will need exclusivity in certain regions in 2027. Performances in Sydney are not a problem.
- Any additional activities organised by yourself or other management while on tour must be agreed to by Musica Viva Australia, and we may require reimbursement for a share of your travel expenses.
- If you are approached for another performance outside of your engagements with Musica Viva Australia in regional NSW for 2027, we would like you to talk to us about it early, to see whether we can support your travel costs for that event. We love building new networks and working with new presenters – and they’re usually happy for the assistance, too.
For more information please contact:
Elizabeth Dedman - Manager, Regional Touring & Special Projects
Phone: 02 8394 6662
Email: ededman@musicaviva.com.au
What kind of groups do you book?
As a classical music organisation, our regional touring roster is broadly classical, however we occasionally accept jazz, folk and world music ensembles. Projects with cross-genre elements (theatre, dance, visual art, puppetry, cabaret etc) may be considered, but the music elements must be a major feature of the show.
Unfortunately, we do not accept applications from contemporary music groups (singer-songwriters, cover bands) or shows without music in the forefront.
How many shows should we expect?
We can’t guarantee a minimum number of shows, but we aim for approximately 2-6 shows in one or two tour periods.
What should we include in our fee?
Please indicate your total fee per show for the group, excluding GST but inclusive of 12% superannuation per person.
If your touring party includes crew such as a sound engineer, their fees are paid by you the artist, so should be included in your calculations.
How much driving is involved?
MVA endeavours to plan tours with the most efficient and sustainable travel routes, however long-distance drives in regional NSW are unavoidable, including drive+play days.
Unless you have personal conditions that prevent it, groups can be reasonably expected to drive up to four hours on a drive+play day, and up to 8 hours with two drivers on a non-play day.
Each group (if two or more people) must have at least two licensed and confident drivers.
Personnel and Equipment
Our group is 6 people, should we apply?
Unfortunately, we cannot support groups of more than 5 people. All personnel, instruments and luggage must fit in a hire car no bigger than a Kia Carnival. Preference is given to smaller ensembles.
What gear are we (the group) responsible for?
You are responsible for all backline (ie. all instruments required to perform). In most cases, if you have large instruments that cannot go on a plane (eg. double bass, large percussion) you will be responsible for hiring this from an appropriate place at the start of your tour (eg. Sydney or Canberra).
Presenters are responsible for supplying technical equipment. However, many regional presenters are independent music organisations, small theatres or conservatoriums with limited technical resources. Please bear this in mind when providing technical riders. The more you can supply yourself, the better!
MVA is not responsible for providing technical equipment or backline.
Application
The promotional materials in your application are what we use to promote your show directly to presenters, and what they use to directly promote your show to audiences. Consider these materials as if you are directly marketing to the audience yourself.
The following tips are not a strict requirement for applying, but they will do more to get you across the line.
The most valuable materials in your show promotion are:
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A professional show-reel style video - a short excerpt or trailer of your work professionally filmed and edited.
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A full-length video of this show or something similar, ideally with the same personnel as you are proposing.
Eg. if you have applied as a string quartet, you must have at least one video featuring most of the proposed personnel playing as a string quartet. Videos of alternative instrument groupings like trios or piano quintets, even if some of the individuals are the same, are not close enough to be used to promote your show.
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Videos do not need to be strictly the music performance – content that shows introductions, your stage presence and how you interact with the audience are also great!
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Professional photos, of the specific group you have applied with. Pictures of different people, single headshots side-by-side, performance photos are not as helpful as your main hero image.
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Well-written and catchy blurbs and taglines.
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Short bios please! 100-250 words for the group, less than 100 words per individual if including individual bios. Long bios can be provided later if needed.
What not to do:
Most applications are declined due to low quality or unusable promotional materials. The following will most likely result in a declined application:
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Blurry photos or videos, or if all content has been watermarked by another production or broadcaster.
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No photos and videos of the actual group or show you are proposing. If you don’t have a photo together, combined headshots are ok as long as you have good video content of the exact group.
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Only providing low-quality videos taken from the back of an audience or on a phone. These cannot be used by presenters to promote the show. If you have one professionally shot video, extra footage at lower quality is fine as support material.
Our presenting partners require imagery that accurately reflects the artists and performance proposed. Please supply THREE (3) different professional photo options, with at least one portrait and one landscape option, each a minimum of 2MB in size. If you have any difficulties or concerns regarding photo delivery, please contact us.
Submissions without at least two images will not be considered.
I loved regional touring for Musica Viva Australia! Music is all about connection in the moment, and it felt inspiring and enriching to connect with communities around NSW in various ways - hearing students and talking about music and making music in masterclasses, dancing with kids and talking about what stories and feelings and colours music evokes, meeting audience members and talking with them before, during, and after performances. It was a real privilege to share music with lots of different and absolutely beautiful communities around NSW.
- Andrea Lam, 2022 & 2023 Regional Touring Artist
Image credit: Orange Regional Conservatorium