This month WA Opera presents Marriage of Figaro with ex-West Australian Emma Pearson returning from Wiesbaden where she is a principal artist to perform Susanna. James Clayton is her Figaro, Samuel Dundas the Count, Elvira Fatykhova as the Countess and Fiona Campbell is Cherubino. The season opens July 15th.

The WA Symphony Orchestra will put principal cellist Rod McGrath front and centre on July 3rd for cello works by Saint-Saens and Rachmaninov. At the end of the month (31st) the orchestra will collaborate with oboe superstar Diana Doherty (I rank her her as one of Australia’s finest instrumentalists) in Mozart’s Oboe Concerto.

It is an exciting month for community music ensembles. It’s been a long while since I heard the Fremantle Symphony Orchestra and they have a fantastic program coming up on the 5th: Tango Suite and Three Songs of Sadness by Duncan Gardiner (see his album review here) and Louise McKay in Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. On Saturday the 25th the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra (a smaller, more professional group than the FSO) are giving a performance of Bruch’s rarely heard Concerto for Viola and Clarinet featuring the husband and wife duo Sally Boud and Geoffrey Bourgalt du Coudray.


Graham Johnson (one of the world’s finest accompanists) will perform with senior voice students from around Australia at Government House Ballroom on the 5th July.

On the 17th  The Sound Collectors (Louise Devenish and Leah Scholes) perform works for two percussionists in the second Scale Variable concert at PICA.

 The Australian Chamber Orchestra are in town on the 22nd with American mezzo Susan Graham performing Franck and Ravel.
WAAPA’s Defying Gravity have hunted down a rare version of Gustav Holst’s The Planets for two pianos and percussion which they will be performing with David Wickham and Irina Vassilieva on July 30th. And that brings the month of July to its end. Do let me know if there are important gigs missing from the list. Otherwise I hope to see you at a show!