A live, one-to-one concert format devised in Germany last year has proven uniquely suited to the global COVID-19 pandemic, with hundreds of intimate concerts performed all over the world in 2020. Australian flautist Sally Walker has now brought 1:1 CONCERTS to Australia, with events planned for Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart, featuring artists including soprano Taryn Fiebig, pianists Elena Kats-Chernin and Sonya Lifschitz, cellists Anthea Cottee, Daniel Yeadon and James Beck, and oudist Kim Cunio.

Sally WalkerSally Walker performing a 1:1 CONCERT in Christ Church Cathedral Newcastle. Photo © Jen Hankin

“1:1 CONCERTS were conceived by three Germans in 2019: my friend flautist Professor Stephanie Winker, whom I met in the early 2000s when we played together in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, set designer Franziska Ritter and cultural mediator Christian Siegmund, for a festival in Thüringen in the German summer,” Walker tells Limelight. “Little did they know at the time that a pandemic was nigh and that this unique concert format would make such a substantial contribution to the preservation of the cultural landscape by bringing together musicians, listeners and hosts; with the voluntary donations from concert visitors going directly to...