Astra concludes 2024 with a big thank you to all our listeners and donors, performers and creators – each of them essential for a season of wide and original musical contents

The eight programs of the year saw:

• Interactions between old & new in four concert experiences with the Astra Choir under John McCaughey – reaching across performance surroundings in Footscray, Carlton, North Melbourne, and Fitzroy.
• Four excursions into experimental and world music, directed by Andrew Byrne, with sounds ranging from kora and koto to amplified tea-pot, from qanun and baryton to the four pianos of Gay Guerrilla and other exhilarating creations of American Julius Eastman in their first Australian hearings.
• Nine premieres of works created and commissioned for Astra by composers Steve Stelios Adam, Penelope Alexander, Warren Burt, Kym Alexandra Dillon, Vahideh Eisaei, Martin Friedel, Michael Hewes, Troy Rainbow, and Allan Walker.

Astra also farewelled long-time Manager Gabrielle Baker and welcomed Administrator Fergus Inder, along with our new Co-Director Andrew Byrne.

More in 2025!