For over seven decades, the name Astra has occupied a singular position within Melbourne's musical community.
Astra Concerts - The Astra Choir - Astra Publications
Founded in 1944 as a string orchestra for women musicians, Astra has evolved into one of Australia’s forward-thinking cultural forces, embracing a wide diversity of performance, publication and recordings.
Astra Concerts bring together musicians from a wide range of disciplines with a particular focus on new and unusual work. Recent seasons have featured collaborations with instrumental soloists such as pianist Michael Kieran Harvey and recorder player Genevieve Lacey, as well as artists from diverse musical traditions, including Iranian qanun player Vahideh Eisaei and Guinean percussionist Mohamed Camara.
Astra has also partnered with ensembles like Slave Pianos, Speak Percussion, and and Flederman, and engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations with dance groups such as Danceworks and Russell Dumas' Dance Exchange. A continuous stream of premiered compositions from Australia and other countries are set within environments that extend beyond conventional formats, to movement, theatre, text, film and multimedia installations.
The Astra Choir has been central to Astra since 1978. It takes an explorative approach to its own medium among the many unusual corners of the repertoire, ranging through all eras between the Middle Ages and the present day. Performance-art traditions of the 20th century meet new forms of sound technology, redefining the possibilities of choir as a musical instrument.
Astra performances activate diverse architectural surroundings. The choir was among the first ensembles in the 1980s to utilize environments in such buildings as the North Melbourne Town Hall, the Meat Market, the domed reading room of the State Library of Victoria, and the Old Customs House. Each program is designed as an event engaging the audience with contemporary and older materials in interaction with the physical location.
Astra has premiered hundreds of new instrumental, choral, and cross-disciplinary works from Australian and international composers, including those from Germany, the UK, the United States, Japan, Italy, Greece, China, and Romania.
Astra Publications are an important extension of concert activity, producing critical editions of scores by Australian composers Keith Humble, Lawrence Whiffin, Helen Gifford and William Henderson. Astra’s discography includes major releases on New York’s New World Records, Melbourne’s Move Records, and its own imprint, extending Astra’s influence globally.
Astra's work has earned accolades that include the inaugural Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, a national award to John McCaughey, and the Australian Music Centre’s Best Australian Composition award, for Lawrence Whiffin and William Henderson's murchitt a daydream.
In 2024, Astra entered a new creative stage of its history with the appointment of Andrew Byrne as joint Musical Director with John McCaughey. With over two decades of experience as a composer and artistic director in New York, Andrew brings a global perspective, with a focus on experimental music and interdisciplinary work.
