Feb
27
7:30 PM19:30

Mayhem & Rapture with West Australian Symphony Orchestra

Timeless stories

John ADAMS Chamber Symphony
Holly HARRISON And Whether Pigs Have Wings
Osvaldo GOLIJOV Ayre

Benjamin Northey conductor
Jessica Aszodi mezzo-soprano

Bookings at WASO

Experience a captivating evening at the classical vanguard with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Benjamin Northey and featuring mezzo-soprano Jessica Aszodi. Enter the exhilarating world of John Adams’ hyper-dynamic Chamber Symphony, before delighting in Holly Harrison’s playful And Whether Pigs Have Wings. Then be transported by Osvaldo Golijov’s luminous song cycle Ayre, a mesmerising blend of diverse musical traditions and evocative storytelling.

Presented in association with Perth Festival.

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Feb
28
7:30 PM19:30

Mayhem & Rapture with West Australian Symphony Orchestra (Copy)

Timeless stories

John ADAMS Chamber Symphony
Holly HARRISON And Whether Pigs Have Wings
Osvaldo GOLIJOV Ayre

Benjamin Northey conductor
Jessica Aszodi mezzo-soprano

Bookings at WASO

Experience a captivating evening at the classical vanguard with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Benjamin Northey and featuring mezzo-soprano Jessica Aszodi. Enter the exhilarating world of John Adams’ hyper-dynamic Chamber Symphony, before delighting in Holly Harrison’s playful And Whether Pigs Have Wings. Then be transported by Osvaldo Golijov’s luminous song cycle Ayre, a mesmerising blend of diverse musical traditions and evocative storytelling.

Presented in association with Perth Festival.

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Mar
19
7:30 PM19:30

"Chindamo & Stravinsky" with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

BOOKINGS

Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte
Joe Chindamo^ Are there any questions?*
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

^2026 Composer in Residence
*World Premiere of an MSO Commission

About this performance

Prepare to use your imagination in weird and wonderful ways. When French composer Maurice Ravel wrote his ethereal Pavane pour une infante défunte, he’d been dreaming of the long-lost melodies that may once have inspired a young Spanish princess to dance. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring shares a French connection as it premiered shortly after in a Parisian theatre, but the story of this ballet music is much darker. It culminates with the raw and frenetic rhythms of a sacrificial dance, sounding wild enough to send audiences into an uproar at the first performance.

The musical tales on this program are centred around Are there any questions? – an Australian composition from our 2026 Composer in Residence Joe Chindamo. It takes its name from the final line of Margaret Atwood’s chilling dystopic novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Hear Chindamo’s piece for the first time on this narrative-fuelled program. It’s music to leave you thinking deeply about the world you live in – and the worlds that live inside you.

Featuring

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor
Jessica Aszodi mezzo-soprano
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

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Mar
21
7:30 PM19:30

"Chindamo & Stravinsky" with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Copy)

BOOKINGS

Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte
Joe Chindamo^ Are there any questions?*
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

^2026 Composer in Residence
*World Premiere of an MSO Commission

About this performance

Prepare to use your imagination in weird and wonderful ways. When French composer Maurice Ravel wrote his ethereal Pavane pour une infante défunte, he’d been dreaming of the long-lost melodies that may once have inspired a young Spanish princess to dance. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring shares a French connection as it premiered shortly after in a Parisian theatre, but the story of this ballet music is much darker. It culminates with the raw and frenetic rhythms of a sacrificial dance, sounding wild enough to send audiences into an uproar at the first performance.

The musical tales on this program are centred around Are there any questions? – an Australian composition from our 2026 Composer in Residence Joe Chindamo. It takes its name from the final line of Margaret Atwood’s chilling dystopic novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Hear Chindamo’s piece for the first time on this narrative-fuelled program. It’s music to leave you thinking deeply about the world you live in – and the worlds that live inside you.

Featuring

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor
Jessica Aszodi mezzo-soprano
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

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Jan
17
12:00 PM12:00

OODA - Somatic Voice Workshop

“ObserveOrientDecideAct”

somatic vocal workshop @ Extrasensory. 649 Plenty Rd, Preston, Naarm

Saturday Jan 10th 12-4pm ($60-40) Bookings via humantix

Can you listen to your insides and outside at the same time?  

A workshop in the form of a rehearsal in the form of a piece of music 


The voice is the most intimate kernel of the self. Expressed up from our insides, our voices resonate the voids of the body, as they make their way through the oral orifice, the portals of our noses and mouths, and out into an external world. “out there”, free of ourselves our voices become part of an acoustic landscape of vibrant chaos. This workshop asks us to feel into voice as a tool for navigation, for knowing how we are (Observe) where we are (Orient) and where we are going (decide) in a landscape for listening.  

We will spend the first 3 hours rehearsing how to “observe, orient, & decide” then for the final hour we will “act” as a group to create a work-in-process with our listening bodies. We will undertake a series of exercises in listening with the felt sense, voicing with the whole body and navigate one another with attunement.

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Oct
25
7:30 PM19:30

Exstasis

Exstasis @ extrasensory

649 Plenty Rd, Preston, Naarm

Improvising duo Lizzy Welsh and Jess Aszodi : “Amarant”

Experimental takes on Hildegard von Bingen’s Canticles of Ecstasy by James Rushford and Jess Aszodi

New work for flutes, objects and audience participation by Jodie Rottle

Sonic choreographies by the "Somatic choir"

Bookings at Humanitix

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Sep
26
to Sep 28

"Moonstruck" with Ensemble Offspring

Jess will sing a new major new work by Laura Bowler on the program Moonstruck with Ensemble Offspring

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Pierrot lunaire* (1912) 36’

Interval

LAURA BOWLER Deconstructing Pierrot (2024) 46’

Pierrot lunaire sits somewhere between cabaret and concert, acting and singing, madness and depravity. Showcasing the extraordinary talents of soprano Jane Sheldon, it flirts with chaos as Arnold Schoenberg translates each tiny poem into music. It’s over a hundred years old, but it remains radical to the ear – a revolutionary classic that transformed music and concerts forever, just as Cubism changed painting. Even Ensemble Offspring’s distinctive line-up of musicians can be traced to this iconic creation and its grungy tale of the ‘moonstruck’ clown of commedia dell’arte.

In a one off staged performance at Eugene Goossens Hall presented in association with Sydney Chamber Opera, Pierrot lunaire looks to Ensemble Offspring’s origins and imagines the future. And we’re pitting it against a long form new work by ‘triple threat composer-performer provocatrice’ Laura Bowler. In a fresh interpretation of Albert Giraud’s poems, Bowler will deconstruct and repurpose Schoenberg’s original musical material, viewing it through a contemporary queer lens in ‘a subversive act of defiance of the great master’. International star mezzo-soprano Jessica Aszodi, one of the “finest actress-singers in the country” (The Age) joins us for the virtuosic challenge of Schoenberg’s reimagined vocal lines.

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Aug
31
7:00 PM19:00

Tactile co-regulation @ Extrasensory

Jess will be facilitating an evening of meditation and guided touch exercises, followed by free form a cuddle puddle and oxytocin overdose. Afterwards we gather for a (not compulsory) dinner and a chat.

These sessions are part of the "very soft opening” of new multidisciplinary arts venue “Extrasensory”. For the rest of the year folks are invited to come, commune and contribute, as we get to know each other. Events in August are Free! We ask for a $10 donation towards food costs.

Doors are at 6. Come early for a chat and cuppa. We will start the practice at 7.

649 Plenty Rd, Preston, 3072

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Aug
28
1:00 PM13:00

Stripsody

Jess sings Cathy Berberian’s comic strip delight “Stripsody” in a free lunchtime concert at Monash University (where she also teaches voice).

More information here

The concert also features the Monash animated notated ensemble playing music by Cat Hope, Rose Gooden, Louise Devenish, Aaron Wyatt and more.

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Aug
17
7:00 PM19:00

Tactile co-regulation @ Extrasensory

Jess will be facilitating an evening of meditation and guided touch exercises, followed by free form a cuddle puddle and oxytocin overdose. Afterwards we gather for a (not compulsory) dinner and a chat.

These sessions are part of the "very soft opening” of new multidisciplinary arts venue “Extrasensory”. For the rest of the year folks are invited to come, commune and contribute, as we get to know each other. Events in August are Free! We ask for a $10 donation towards food costs.

Doors are at 6. Come early for a chat and cuppa. We will start the practice at 7.

649 Plenty Rd, Preston, 3072

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Aug
8
8:00 PM20:00

Astra "Joan Events"

The Joan Events No. 1

8pm, Friday August 8
Hall of St Mary’s, North Melbourne

The JOAN EVENTS are a multi-year project - in honour of pianist, choral improviser, educator and longtime Astra member Joan Pollock -  with the aim of generating new works and performances between these two domains of concert expression.

Joan Event 2025: creative exchanges among a spectrum of guest performers.

Performers:
Kim Bastin, piano; Elizabeth Drake, piano; Caroline Almonte, piano; Jessica Aszodi, voice; Jaslyn Robertson, synths, Iran Sanadzadeh, pressure-sensitive table floors

Works by:
Ruth Crawford, Helen Gifford, 

Jess performs:

3 Latin Prayers by Giacinto Scelsi

Aria by Wojtek Blecharz

GLORI by Jennifer Walshe 

supported by the Joan Pollock Creative Fund and Creative Australia

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