This year, ‘Homophonic!’ celebrates their 16th annual performance at Midsumma. Directed and presented by double bass player Miranda Hill, ‘Homophonic!’ features new music by queer composers and embraces the playful, shiny disco ball side to the classical music scene. I was devastated I couldn’t make it last time, so consider this review a year in the making.
Storytelling was without a doubt the heart of ‘Homophonic!’ I noticed, as Hill reverently introduced each composer and the stories behind their work. Backed by a strings quartet, percussion and the voices of the Consort of Melbourne, the program reflected on the many diverse facets of the queer experience. Lyle Chan’s AIDS memorial quartet and Caroline Shaw’s ‘To The Hands’ were particularly memorable examples in their haunting, near-tangible beauty. At times, ‘Homophonic!’ felt more like a conversation between composer, musician and audience; a mutual understanding beyond what language alone can describe. It was visceral, and nothing short of an amazing experience.
‘Homophonic!’ played with a blend of mediums from classical to contemporary, disco, performance art and spoken word. ‘i ain’t reading all that / i’m happy for you tho / or sorry that happened‘, composed by Connor D’Netto and written by Alex Creece, was a brilliant foray into poetry: hilarious, ineffable and heartbreakingly real. The Consort of Melbourne serving as a conduit for the barrage of inner thoughts projected onto the theatre wall was genius, and as their voices overlapped in crescendos and cacophonies, I remember thinking, ‘Oh, so thiiiis is poetry. I finally get it!’. ‘All lesbians are jellicle’ is a line that will literally never leave my consciousness now.
I’m no classical aficionado by any means, so I brought a date who is, but we ended up having so much fun the technicalities I was so worried about didn’t matter. While the performers were incredibly skilled, and I could go on and on about that, it was their enjoyment of the craft that struck a chord—they were having just as much fun as us. Carving out space for experimental, passionate and proud queer art is a form of protest as much as it is play and ‘Homophonic!’ balances that responsibility with grace.
Music is inherently political. To create art on stolen land, as queer people, as activists, it’s impossible to blithely remove this context from our practices (even so-called ‘apolitical’ art is an intentional, if telling, choice). ‘Homophonic!’ celebrates the intertwinement of art and self in a new form that welcomes a wider audience through the golden gates of classical music—which, by the way, has always been queer.
To book tickets to Homophonic, please visit https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2026/homophonic.
Photographer: Darren Gill
