Australian Academy of Music and Melbourne Recital Centre
July 1 – 8, 2018

Move over World Cup, Wimbledon and your television streaming service of choice. Why indulge yourself with those when you can binge-listen to live chamber music? Once every four years the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (MICMC) allows lovers of chamber music to hear the very best young musicians the world has to offer as they compete for a prize pool of $150,000. Luckily, the Victorian government, Musica Viva, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC), the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and a number of other partners have seen the value of the competition and how perfectly it fits Melbourne. Musica Viva has always had a strong base in the city, ANAM is actively involved in training the musicians of the future, and the MRC’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall is the perfect space for performances. Such ideal conditions for a competition of this sort would be hard to better.

Germany’s Goldmund Quartet, which won first prize in the String Quartet division. Photograph © Mike Keating

After intensive preparations and a preliminary screening round, 56 musicians under the age of 35 (eight string...