Pekka Kuusisto: Legends & Luminaries

Pekka Kuusisto returns to the ACO after nearly a decade to direct music from four prodigious talents. Kuusisto is an artist unbound by convention, who embodies an artistic freedom that is unexpected and thrilling.

As a renowned virtuoso and boundary-crossing composer, he pushes the limits of performance into exciting new realms, championing contemporary music with an openness and warmth that captivates audiences.

Mozart is the original prodigy. His effervescent opera The Magic Flute is filled with sparkling lyricism and the ACO will play some of its most loved tunes. Nico Muhly’s Shrink, written especially for Kuusisto’s extraordinary talents, is a big, glittering violin concerto that plays with smaller and smaller intervals as it bristles with intensity. Kuusisto is a great admirer and frequent collaborator with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid. Hear the Australian premiere of her West Coast Sky Eternal, a work that wrestles with the disconnect between the business of living and the majesty of sky, land and sea.

Felix Mendelssohn’s precocious talents were evident as a child and began to outstrip even Mozart as a teen. His Quintet in B-flat major harnesses a fierce energy and lively power – a perfect match for the effusive style of the ACO and Kuusisto.