Emelia May🥉

Taking place at Melbourne’s Recital Centre, ‘Starburst’ marks the start of the Omega Ensemble’s 2026 season, featuring works by four unique composers in an evening of genre-bending chamber music. The Omega Ensemble is a cornerstone of Australia’s classical music scene, and this year’s performance once again reaffirmed their reputation for pushing boundaries and delivering extraordinary musical experiences.

The program was nonstop from curtains up, opening with Jessie Montgomery’s punchy, experimental ‘Starburst’ and moving just as quickly into the more traditional ‘Clarinet Concerto’ by 20th century composer Gerald Finzi. The small chamber ensemble was a tight unit throughout, gliding through highly complicated pieces with cohesion and exquisite technique. Within the walls of the acoustically-optimised Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, each instrument blended together superbly and never once into the background.

Trumpeter David Elton and clarinetist David Rowden were a pleasure to watch, from their brilliant solo performances of Finzi and Shostakovich to the world premiere of Lachlan Skipworth’s ‘A Turning Sky’, a double concerto composed specifically for Elton and Rowden. Side by side they expertly weaved together a melodic and full-bodied duet that, backed by the orchestra, completely encompassed the hall in a wash of perfect harmony. ‘A Turning Sky’ was incredibly arranged, highly detailed and masterfully performed; it was just awesome to experience original work by leading Australian composers.

The Omega Ensemble’s rendition of Dmitri Shostakovich’s ‘Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings’ was truly something to behold and the undeniable nucleus of ‘Starburst’: an unrelenting combustion of a concerto closing with a piano solo that earned pianist Vatche Jambazian a well-deserved standing ovation. It was a physical performance as much as it was musical and Jambazian’s backbreaking playing style kept eyes pinned as he shredded on the keys like a man possessed. Shostakovich, I now know, was insane—but man, the whiplash from ominous dissonance to jolly fanfare melted my brain. I had to go listen to it again later just to be sure it was real.

‘Starburst’ featured a particular selection of composers that, while incredibly enjoyable to listen to, emphasised a deeper significance beyond music alone. In the years between what we know to be classical (then) and contemporary (now), experimental music emerged as a means of radical self-expression in times of great uncertainty, loss and discovery. The Omega Ensemble explores the space between classical and contemporary music in bursts of sound and light, connecting modernist musicians of centuries past with composers pioneering the classical genre today. Both an exchange and a collaboration, ‘Starburst’ highlights the value of artistic dialogue as a catalyst for redefining the boundaries of contemporary classical music.

‘Starburst’ has finished up its run, but you can always catch the Omega Ensemble Australia-wide all year round!

To book tickets to Starburst, please visit https://www.omegaensemble.com.au/starburst.

Photographer: Amelia Kain

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