This weekend, the Coriole Music Festival returns, featuring four festival debuts as well as some returning favourites to celebrate 25 years of one of Australia’s most loved chamber music festivals. Over Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of May, attendees will be able to enjoy three beautiful concerts and a showcase of the Fleurieu Peninsula’s finest food and wine.
Coriole Music Festival Artistic Director and acclaimed soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, Simon Cobcroft, has once again curated a wonderful program to celebrate this huge milestone.
Simon spoke to Glam Adelaide about the festival, the program and what drew him to pursue a career in the music industry.
“I think there’s a lot of wonderful things about performing and obviously people clap for you to do your job. It all seems very glamorous from the outside, but in the end what continues to draw me in and keeps me there is the extraordinary quality of the music that we get to play. We get to interface with people who are really geniuses. There are always new things to discover and new perspectives to take, so that’s really what keeps me coming back.”
Simon spoke to us about the importance of festivals, such as the Coriole Music Festival, to the musical landscape of Australia for artists and audiences alike.
“I can’t overstate the importance of these boutique chamber music festivals. I think they’re the lifeblood of the real creativity of what’s going on around Australia, classical music wise. A lot of the people coming to play will be people like me who have a career playing in orchestras, but to be a good orchestral musician it’s absolutely essential that you play chamber music and have this variety. So it just keeps us all inspired when we have the chance to hear such a wide variety of music.”
Coriole Vineyards is the perfect setting for a festival like the Coriole Music Festival. Simon shared how the festival came about.
“It just grew from a great love of chamber music within South Australia and particularly around the Fleurieu Peninsula. I know that the people who run Coriole Vineyards themselves are absolutely obsessed with classical music, and more specifically vocal and chamber music. So they just wanted to bring some of the richness that was being offered around Australia and internationally to Coriole, which after all is just beautiful. It simply is one of the most beautiful places on earth.”
We asked Simon if he works to a theme when programming the festival.
“I like to dream up a very loose theme if I can, because you never want to be constricted. So for instance, this year is about musical crossroads. Whether thoat is the crossroads between low and high art, or crossroads of history, or crossroads of fantasy and reality, just the idea of where these seemingly contradictory ideas intersect. Once I’ve got a thematic idea which is not too limiting, then the music just follows from that, because in essence everything is connected.”
This year’s program is once again packed with an incredible lineup of performers and works, including several premieres.
“I’m very excited that the wonderful Malaysian-British pianist Mei Yi Foo has been able to be part of the program this year. In another lifetime when I lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur, playing in the orchestra there, Mei Yi would return from London to play as a soloist with us, and we got the opportunity to play quite a bit of chamber music. She is a simply stunning pianist and she will be making her Australian debut. For me it will be over 10 years since we’ve last been able to play together, so I’m very excited about that. Mei Yi will be giving the Australian premiere of a number of the fiendish and scintillating etudes by Unsuk Chin, who is a living composer. I get to play with my piano trio, the wonderful Lyrebird Piano Trio again. They are my favourite people to play with. We have a commissioned work by the elder statesman of Australian classical music, Richard Mills, who’s been kind enough to write a sonata for cello and piano that former Coriole director Anna Goldsworthy and I will be premiering at the festival, so I’m very excited about that. I’m honestly just excited about all of the program.”
The 2025 festival will celebrate the world’s best chamber music, artist talks and South Australia’s finest food and wine in the spectacular surrounds of Coriole Vineyards, McLaren Vale on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May 2025.
For further information on Coriole Music Festival and ticket packages:
https://www.coriolemusicfestival.com
Photo credit: Photos by Jamois
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