Unique venues, free community events and world-class music: Orange Chamber Music Festival returns March 6–9

The Orange Chamber Music Festival returns this March 6–9 with a diverse program of events to delight music lovers and showcase our city’s thriving cultural and culinary scenes.

Now in its fifth year, the 2025 Orange Chamber Music Festival has built a reputation for presenting a program of high-quality music in a variety of unique venues ranging from churches to cellar doors and farm stables. It’s a recipe that sees increasing numbers of music lovers return year after year.

“This year we are bringing 17 different events in 13 venues, showcasing not only Orange but Nashdale and Millthorpe…we've got two churches, a barn, horse stables, concert halls, the library and gallery!”  Festival Director Carmen Nieves said.

“It’s what I think makes it a very unique festival… People are excited to see what's next and what new venue they are going to discover. At the Orange Chamber Music Festival, they get a lot of fine dining and great wine, great experiences and great music!”

 “It's really important for us to showcase our town in the festival,” added festival producer, Jay Byrne.

“We're local residents ourselves and we love the town. We want to showcase the high-quality music and everything that Orange has to offer as well.”

The 2025 festival program gets underway on Thursday, March 6, with returning favourites the Orava Quartet, who will be performing in the Derek Pigot Auditorium at Kinross Wolaroi School. The opening night concert is one of several featured performances, with tickets still available for the general public.

“We're hoping to fill the auditorium for that performance,” Carmen said. “The Orava Quartet are returning for their third year here and they're festival favourites. A lot of people come especially to hear them play.”

A key feature of the Orange Chamber Music Festival is the community event, Cultured, a full day of music in the cultural precinct, with performances held in the library, gallery and Orange Civic Theatre.

Cultured begins 10am Saturday, March 8, in Orange City Library with Elemental Resonance, an interactive performance for all ages by harpist Paul Nicolaou, using sensorial elements to enhance the audience’s perceptions of sound, music and colour.

“We're very excited about the sensorial concert at the library,” Carmen said. “It’s a style of performance more targeted to neurodivergent people.. music in that setting is more relaxed and they can touch and they can feel and smell, rather than sitting there for an hour quietly.”

Cultured then continues with the newly established Cultured Youth Orchestra, featuring young local musicians who will be performing a program titled ‘Australiana’ at the Orange Civic Theatre, a celebration of Australian themes by Australian living composers.

The final event sees alumni of the acclaimed Australian Chamber Orchestra present a specially curated performance in the Anne Thomson exhibition at Orange Regional Gallery.

“The exciting thing for me is that everything is free, so it's open to absolutely anybody that wants to come along and experience these performances in unique settings,” Jay said.

“Part of the mission of Cultured is to show that classical music isn't scary and it isn't elitist; it can be for everybody. We know that classical music has a little bit of a stigma about it, and we're trying to break that barrier because we don't think it should have that stigma. So including all these events that are accessible for everyone, I think, is a really great thing.”

The climax of the 2025 Orange Chamber Music Festival is a very special Festival Gala celebrating International Women’s Day on Saturday March 8.

Curated by Carmen Nieves, Opus.Her, weaves together archival footage, narrative and melody, in a tribute to women composers, singers and leaders from a diverse range of eras and backgrounds.

“It will be an all-women performance and mostly women composers as well,” Carmen said. “It’s an evening of high-calibre performances telling the story of women throughout time and it will be an audiovisual sort of show, so a little bit different from what we normally do – it's a really interesting show!”
The Orange Chamber Music Festival takes place March 6–9. For the full program of events and links to tickets visit www.ocmf.com.au

Cultured is the flagship community event of the festival, delivering free performances in the Orange Civic Theatre, the Orange City Library and the Orange Regional Gallery on March 8.