It’s less than two weeks until this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music gets underway in Townsville and Artistic Director Kathryn Stott is enthusiastically counting down the days on social media.

Kathryn StottKathryn Stott. Photograph supplied

It’s her second festival as Artistic Director, having taken over from her close friend and colleague, classical pianist Piers Lane, who popped the question about her taking on the role on the phone. As she told Limelight before her first AFCM, Lane rang her late one night. She was in a taxi at one in the morning and while they were chatting he suddenly said: “How would you like to take over Townsville?” She admits she was surprised but said yes pretty quickly.

Chatting to Limelight, Stott says that had she not played at the festival several times before being offered the AD role, she probably wouldn’t have considered it.

“I think I played in the festival four times before I took on the position. Otherwise, I think in all honesty I would never have taken it on, because of the geography and [the scale of the festival]. It would have...