Australian String Quartet Barossa Weekend of Music

Last weekend marked a fantastic few days of music making in the Barossa! Our Quartet-in-Residence, the Australian String Quartet, held their inaugural Barossa Weekend of Music on Friday 30–Saturday 31 August, and were joined by Head of Jazz Mark Ferguson's quartet featuring Bachelor of Music Honours alumni Kyrie Anderson (drums), Bonnie Grynchuk [Aué] (bass) and Ciara Ferguson (vibraphone and voice).

The group played alone and as a 'double quartet' with a tag-team concert on the Saturday morning. Ferguson's writing featured heavily on the program with his new String Quartet No. 1, five new arrangements for double quartet and works from his quartet's 2022 ABC Jazz commission. There were tears aplenty when the double quartet performed his For the Lost – originally commissioned by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra to acknowledge the lost fauna of Kangaroo Island in the 2020 bush fires.