Iain Grandage is kicking off his first year as Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival with a dynamic programme titled Re-Inventions. Grandage has taken over from former Artistic Director Anna Goldsworthy and is presenting a programme that celebrates great music of the past and the way musicians are still touched and inspired by it today.

“In the vibrant and dynamic world of Post-Modern music making, composers and performers are increasingly finding new ways to honour the traditions of Western Art Music through re-invention,” Grandage said. “Contemporary composers and performers alike stand on the shoulders of the giants who preceded us, re-framing the past to inform our present world.”

Audiences will hear contemporary responses to historical masterworks, such as Max Richter’s Four Seasons Recomposed, inspired by Vivaldi’s much-loved cycle of concertos, and Joe Chindamo’s homage to Bach, the New Goldberg Variations. The centrepiece of the festival will be Reinbert de Lieeuw’s Wunderschön, which uses Schubert and Schumann Lieder, taking the form of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire as its structure.

There will also be a strong focus on indigenous music. Quartet and Country will feature new works by composers William Barton and Deborah Cheetham – both indigenous artists with acclaimed reputations within western musical traditions, as...