BOLD PERFORMANCE | VISIONARY WORKS | Joyful creativity
ARCO 2026
Bel canto voices of love and loss, with full orchestral passion. Shimmering ocean colours from Australian composer Nicole Murphy. Intimate chamber music, regional tours and the Australian premiere recording of the brilliant Nonet that won equal pay for a woman composer in 1849 Paris. Three dynamic Young Mannheim Symphonist Academies, inspiring HIP workshops, and unique music education programs. Our 2026 Season brings BOLD performance, VISIONARY works and JOYFUL creativity, all on period instruments with the emotion and insight of historically informed performance.
This is classical music as you’ve never heard it. Join ARCO as we INSPIRE, EDUCATE and CONNECT through concerts, storytelling, music education, and community events across Australia.
Explore our 2026 Season, with more concerts coming soon.
Tickets are now on sale.
2026 CONCERTS
Photo credit: Marcus Ward Curran
A clarinet melody, rising like the sun from shimmering strings. Five of Australia’s most brilliant musicians. Works beloved and new, illuminated by the sunrise in a tour presented by Musica Viva Australia.
‘First Light’ sweeps across the heartbreak of Mozart and playful Schubert to brilliant ocean colours by Brisbane composer Nicole Murphy and Haydn’s sparkling Sunrise quartet, arranged by clarinettist Vincenzo Gambaro.
5-8 March
Armidale | Port Macquarie | Tamworth | Dungog
Photo credit: Aleksrandra Walker
Bel canto tales of love, loss and madness from 19th-century Italy, told by some of Australia’s most brilliant singers, using all the chiaroscuro and passion of the human voice against a lush backdrop of historical strings, winds, brass and percussion.
Based on groundbreaking new research by Prof. Neal Peres Da Costa, and featuring leading Australian vocal soloists with ARCO’s full orchestra of period strings, winds and brass.
Thursday 16 July
Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney
Mozart & MURPHY
Mozart’s brilliance + Australian creativity
Fresh from tours in QLD, NSW and Victoria, we’ll be recording and performing the only two quintets ever written for historical basset clarinet and strings: Mozart’s iconic Clarinet Quintet, and the shimmering, ocean-inspired Wavelength by Australian composer Nicole Murphy, commissioned by ARCO in 2024.
Sunday 24 May
Melbourne
Photo credit: Wallis Media
more concerts AND TOURS coming soon!
2026 Album
Photo credit: Hikari Photography
Farrenc NONET
An Australian premiere from the salons of Paris
Our fifth album features the incredible Nonet of Louise Farrenc on period instruments with the dynamism of historically informed performance (HIP). It’s the first Australian recording ever of the Nonet, which wowed 1849 Paris and won Farrenc equal pay to her male colleagues at the Paris Conservatoire.
Featuring an all-star cast of international ARCO soloists.
Releasing in 2026 on CD, digital and streaming.
2026 education
photo credit: Hikari Photography
The Young Mannheim Symphonists is Australia’s only national Historically Informed Performance (HIP) youth orchestra. This unique and inspiring program gives secondary and tertiary students and emerging musicians, the chance to experience the transformative power of HIP, with final inspiring public concerts in three major cities.
YMS 2026 National Academy 6–11 July | Sydney
YMS 2026 QLD State Academy 22–26 Sept | Brisbane
YMS 2026 VIC State Academy 29 Sept–3 Oct | Melbourne
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra is passionately committed to education. In 2026 we’ll be offering unique HIP Workshops for school- and tertiary-level students and community orchestras, plus development opportunities for professional musicians and music teachers.
Historically Informed Performance workshops, bringing music to dynamic life around Australia in regions and cities.
Watch this page for locations.
“The best HIPsters under the Southern Cross.” – Limelight
photo credit: Bradley Kanaris