The Bangalow Music Festival has announced its 2021 program. Now in its 19th iteration, the festival run by the Southern Cross Soloists in northern New South Wales will feature a swathe of guest artists and three world premieres. After the 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s festival program is dubbed “music’s inexhaustible joie de vivre” and will include 25 musicians across seven concerts from 12 – 15 August, as well as pre-festival events and smaller performances and conversations events under the banner of “BMF Bitesize”.

The Southern Cross Soloists in concert at the Bangalow Music Festival. Photo courtesy of Southern Cross Soloists

Artists at the festival will include the Orava Quartet – who begin a three-year stint as the BMF Quartet in Residence – as well as pianists Gladys Chua and Jayson Gillham, New Zealand soprano Isabella Moore, trumpet and digeridoo player Chris Williams (who is SXS Artist in Residence), Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bandjalang and Gumbangirr violinist, dancer and composer Eric Avery, Ngugi actor, playwright and storyteller Paula Nazarski, cellist Richard Narroway and French horn player Nick Mooney.

This year’s festival will also see the debut of a newly revised...