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💃 Artist Spotlight | Estelle O'Keeffe
From classical training to Los Angeles cabaret, basketball courts and national campaigns — Estelle O’Keefe knows how to put on a show.
Originally classically trained, Estelle O’Keefe discovered a love of commercial dance after moving to Los Angeles, where she completed her Diploma in Dance at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA).
She was subsequently accepted into the prestigious Debbie Reynolds Scholarship Program, training alongside leading industry professionals and building a performance career that took her into some wonderfully different worlds.
In Los Angeles, Estelle performed with The Burlesque Beauties and Cabaret Versatile, and even appeared as a guest performer with the LA Sparks.
Since returning to Melbourne in 2019, she has continued to work across stage, screen, commercial dance and major events. Her credits include Superhoodz, the official dancers of the NBL, as well as Cabaret Melbourne, FX Entertainment and Miika Entertainment. On camera, she has appeared in national and social campaigns for Universal Studios and Samsung.
It’s a career built on versatility — classical foundations meeting commercial dance, cabaret and entertainment — and this November, Estelle brings that energy to Ooh là là! 🇫🇷✨
We suspect a Festival with a French cabaret streak might suit her rather well…
📅 Albury Chamber Music Festival | 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #EstelleOKeefe #Dance #Cabaret #AlburyWodonga
From classical training to Los Angeles cabaret, basketball courts and national campaigns — Estelle O’Keefe knows how to put on a show.
Originally classically trained, Estelle O’Keefe discovered a love of commercial dance after moving to Los Angeles, where she completed her Diploma in Dance at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA).
She was subsequently accepted into the prestigious Debbie Reynolds Scholarship Program, training alongside leading industry professionals and building a performance career that took her into some wonderfully different worlds.
In Los Angeles, Estelle performed with The Burlesque Beauties and Cabaret Versatile, and even appeared as a guest performer with the LA Sparks.
Since returning to Melbourne in 2019, she has continued to work across stage, screen, commercial dance and major events. Her credits include Superhoodz, the official dancers of the NBL, as well as Cabaret Melbourne, FX Entertainment and Miika Entertainment. On camera, she has appeared in national and social campaigns for Universal Studios and Samsung.
It’s a career built on versatility — classical foundations meeting commercial dance, cabaret and entertainment — and this November, Estelle brings that energy to Ooh là là! 🇫🇷✨
We suspect a Festival with a French cabaret streak might suit her rather well…
📅 Albury Chamber Music Festival | 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #EstelleOKeefe #Dance #Cabaret #AlburyWodonga
🇮🇹🇫🇷 Featured Composer | Danilo Karim Kaddouri
Ooh là là! takes a little detour across the Alps…
From Turin to Albury, with a world première waiting at the other end.
Italian composer Danilo Karim Kaddouri was born in Turin and studied music history with Giangiorgio Satragni, harmony and counterpoint with Guido Donati, and composition with Giorgio Colombo Taccani. He has also undertaken masterclasses with composers including Tristan Murail, Ivan Fedele and Luca Francesconi, and is composer-in-residence at the Academy of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Turin.
His recent music ranges across voices, solo instruments and ensembles, with works including Creature della notte, L’altra isola, Airports and the Songlines series. His compositions have received prizes and distinctions across Italy and beyond; in 2022, his Sette parole was selected from 119 scores submitted from 24 countries as a finalist in the Appassionato Ensemble International Composition Competition.
There’s already a lovely Australian connection. His Verso le case ben costruite di Ade was premièred in Turin during the European tour of the Ballarat Wind Orchestra, featuring Sally-Anne Russell and conducted by Mario Dobernig.
And now that connection comes all the way to Albury.
On Sunday morning at St Matthew’s, the 2026 Festival Service will include the world première of a new work by Danilo — an Italian voice joining our Australian composers in one of the Festival weekend’s most distinctive programmes. 🇮🇹🇫🇷
We’re delighted to welcome Danilo Karim Kaddouri to the musical world of Ooh là là!
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #FeaturedComposer #DaniloKarimKaddouri #WorldPremiere #ContemporaryMusic #AlburyWodonga
Ooh là là! takes a little detour across the Alps…
From Turin to Albury, with a world première waiting at the other end.
Italian composer Danilo Karim Kaddouri was born in Turin and studied music history with Giangiorgio Satragni, harmony and counterpoint with Guido Donati, and composition with Giorgio Colombo Taccani. He has also undertaken masterclasses with composers including Tristan Murail, Ivan Fedele and Luca Francesconi, and is composer-in-residence at the Academy of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Turin.
His recent music ranges across voices, solo instruments and ensembles, with works including Creature della notte, L’altra isola, Airports and the Songlines series. His compositions have received prizes and distinctions across Italy and beyond; in 2022, his Sette parole was selected from 119 scores submitted from 24 countries as a finalist in the Appassionato Ensemble International Composition Competition.
There’s already a lovely Australian connection. His Verso le case ben costruite di Ade was premièred in Turin during the European tour of the Ballarat Wind Orchestra, featuring Sally-Anne Russell and conducted by Mario Dobernig.
And now that connection comes all the way to Albury.
On Sunday morning at St Matthew’s, the 2026 Festival Service will include the world première of a new work by Danilo — an Italian voice joining our Australian composers in one of the Festival weekend’s most distinctive programmes. 🇮🇹🇫🇷
We’re delighted to welcome Danilo Karim Kaddouri to the musical world of Ooh là là!
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #FeaturedComposer #DaniloKarimKaddouri #WorldPremiere #ContemporaryMusic #AlburyWodonga
🎻 Artist Spotlight | Danny Neumann
Thirty years with Orchestra Victoria — and a musical life that has continued well beyond the orchestra pit.
Violist Danny Neumann began his musical training on the violin in Canberra with Josette Esquedin, a graduate of the Brussels Conservatoire. A move to the viola led to further study with John Gould in Sydney, and later Marco van Pagee and Christopher Martin in Melbourne.
Danny then spent 30 years as a full-time member of Orchestra Victoria, retiring from his permanent position in 2005 while continuing to work with the orchestra on a casual basis.
And retirement from a full-time orchestral job certainly didn’t mean retirement from music.
Danny remains an active freelance player on both modern and baroque viola. His chamber music continues too: he performs with Aequales Ensemble, alongside fellow 2026 Festival artist Sarah Cuming, and was on stage with the ensemble again just this weekend in Melbourne for Mozart, Shostakovich and Beethoven.
There is another side to Danny’s professional life as well: alongside his work as a musician, he is a counselling psychologist.
That combination makes for a rather unusual biography — decades of orchestral experience, chamber and Baroque music, and an entirely different profession devoted to listening of another kind.
This November, we’re delighted to welcome Danny Neumann and his viola to Albury for Ooh là là! 🇫🇷🎻
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #DannyNeumann #Viola #ChamberMusic #AlburyWodonga
Thirty years with Orchestra Victoria — and a musical life that has continued well beyond the orchestra pit.
Violist Danny Neumann began his musical training on the violin in Canberra with Josette Esquedin, a graduate of the Brussels Conservatoire. A move to the viola led to further study with John Gould in Sydney, and later Marco van Pagee and Christopher Martin in Melbourne.
Danny then spent 30 years as a full-time member of Orchestra Victoria, retiring from his permanent position in 2005 while continuing to work with the orchestra on a casual basis.
And retirement from a full-time orchestral job certainly didn’t mean retirement from music.
Danny remains an active freelance player on both modern and baroque viola. His chamber music continues too: he performs with Aequales Ensemble, alongside fellow 2026 Festival artist Sarah Cuming, and was on stage with the ensemble again just this weekend in Melbourne for Mozart, Shostakovich and Beethoven.
There is another side to Danny’s professional life as well: alongside his work as a musician, he is a counselling psychologist.
That combination makes for a rather unusual biography — decades of orchestral experience, chamber and Baroque music, and an entirely different profession devoted to listening of another kind.
This November, we’re delighted to welcome Danny Neumann and his viola to Albury for Ooh là là! 🇫🇷🎻
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #DannyNeumann #Viola #ChamberMusic #AlburyWodonga
🥂 Festival Places | The Albury Club
Behind the gates on Kiewa Street is a little pocket of old Albury — polished timber, gracious rooms, a rose garden and more than 140 years of stories.
The Albury Club has roots stretching back to the 1870s. Its founders wanted a place where gentlemen could meet, dine, read and converse, and in 1883 the Club moved into its purpose-built home at 519 Kiewa Street. More than a century later, it remains a rare example of a nineteenth-century clubhouse.
It is an elegant place, certainly.
But the Albury Chamber Music Festival has never been inclined to let a little grandeur get in the way of having fun.
Once a year, the Festival moves in — musicians mingle with guests, glasses clink, dinner is served and the stately old Club becomes the setting for one of the least predictable events of our weekend.
Previous Galas have involved alpacas, hobby horses, Malteser races, limerick competitions, unexpected performances and assorted acts of musical mischief.
And in 2026, we’re going French. 🇫🇷
Bleu Blanc Rouge brings a three-course French-inspired dinner, bubbles on arrival and Lou Blackwell and her French Set, with Mark Ferguson, Dan Witton and Michael Evans-Barker — all within the rooms and gardens of this remarkable old Albury institution.
A nineteenth-century clubhouse. A French cabaret. Dinner, music and absolutely no guarantee of decorum.
That sounds about right for the Albury Chamber Music Festival. 🇫🇷🥂
📅 Ooh là là! | 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A very limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #FestivalPlaces #AlburyClub #BleuBlancRouge #AlburyWodonga
Behind the gates on Kiewa Street is a little pocket of old Albury — polished timber, gracious rooms, a rose garden and more than 140 years of stories.
The Albury Club has roots stretching back to the 1870s. Its founders wanted a place where gentlemen could meet, dine, read and converse, and in 1883 the Club moved into its purpose-built home at 519 Kiewa Street. More than a century later, it remains a rare example of a nineteenth-century clubhouse.
It is an elegant place, certainly.
But the Albury Chamber Music Festival has never been inclined to let a little grandeur get in the way of having fun.
Once a year, the Festival moves in — musicians mingle with guests, glasses clink, dinner is served and the stately old Club becomes the setting for one of the least predictable events of our weekend.
Previous Galas have involved alpacas, hobby horses, Malteser races, limerick competitions, unexpected performances and assorted acts of musical mischief.
And in 2026, we’re going French. 🇫🇷
Bleu Blanc Rouge brings a three-course French-inspired dinner, bubbles on arrival and Lou Blackwell and her French Set, with Mark Ferguson, Dan Witton and Michael Evans-Barker — all within the rooms and gardens of this remarkable old Albury institution.
A nineteenth-century clubhouse. A French cabaret. Dinner, music and absolutely no guarantee of decorum.
That sounds about right for the Albury Chamber Music Festival. 🇫🇷🥂
📅 Ooh là là! | 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A very limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #FestivalPlaces #AlburyClub #BleuBlancRouge #AlburyWodonga
🎭 Artist Spotlight | John Bolton Wood AM
1,498 performances as Old Deuteronomy in Cats.
That fact alone gives some idea of the extraordinary performing life of Australian baritone John Bolton Wood AM — but it barely scratches the surface 🐾.
Born in Sydney, John studied at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and the London Opera Centre, making his UK debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Bosun in Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd.
Back in Australia, he has appeared as a principal artist with Opera Australia, every State opera company and symphony orchestras around the country, with a repertoire stretching across opera, operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan and musical theatre.
And yes — there really were 1,498 performances as Old Deuteronomy in the original Australian production and Asian tour of Cats.
John is also the recipient of five Green Room Awards, with roles ranging from Papageno and Germont to Major-General Stanley and Lord Mountararat. His international engagements have included Welsh National Opera and Opera New Zealand, while Australian audiences have seen him in a remarkable succession of roles for Opera Australia.
In 2009 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the performing arts as an operatic baritone, for his tuition and mentoring of emerging artists, and for service to the community.
From Covent Garden to the Sydney Opera House, Gilbert and Sullivan to Cats — this is a performer with stories enough for several lifetimes.
This November, we have the pleasure of welcoming John Bolton Wood AM back to the Albury Chamber Music Festival for Ooh là là!. 🇫🇷🎭
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #JohnBoltonWood #Baritone #Opera #ChamberMusic #AlburyWodonga
1,498 performances as Old Deuteronomy in Cats.
That fact alone gives some idea of the extraordinary performing life of Australian baritone John Bolton Wood AM — but it barely scratches the surface 🐾.
Born in Sydney, John studied at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and the London Opera Centre, making his UK debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Bosun in Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd.
Back in Australia, he has appeared as a principal artist with Opera Australia, every State opera company and symphony orchestras around the country, with a repertoire stretching across opera, operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan and musical theatre.
And yes — there really were 1,498 performances as Old Deuteronomy in the original Australian production and Asian tour of Cats.
John is also the recipient of five Green Room Awards, with roles ranging from Papageno and Germont to Major-General Stanley and Lord Mountararat. His international engagements have included Welsh National Opera and Opera New Zealand, while Australian audiences have seen him in a remarkable succession of roles for Opera Australia.
In 2009 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the performing arts as an operatic baritone, for his tuition and mentoring of emerging artists, and for service to the community.
From Covent Garden to the Sydney Opera House, Gilbert and Sullivan to Cats — this is a performer with stories enough for several lifetimes.
This November, we have the pleasure of welcoming John Bolton Wood AM back to the Albury Chamber Music Festival for Ooh là là!. 🇫🇷🎭
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #JohnBoltonWood #Baritone #Opera #ChamberMusic #AlburyWodonga
📯 Artist Spotlight | Melanie Simpson
From symphony orchestras to Wicked, Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera — Melanie Simpson’s horn has taken her into some wonderfully different musical worlds.
Melanie studied at the University of Melbourne with Anton Schroeder before completing her Master of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, studying with Peter Luff and Ysolt Clark.
While undertaking her postgraduate studies, she travelled to Brazil for the 2017 International Horn Symposium, where she won the Dorothy Frizelle Orchestral Audition (High Horn) Award.
Since then, her orchestral and chamber work has included performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington and Victorian Opera, as well as Camerata, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Southern Cross Soloists and Arcadia Wind Quintet.
And then there is another side to Melanie’s musical life.
She has played in the orchestras for Les Misérables, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Cinderella, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and Jesus Christ Superstar — quite a repertoire to have sitting on one music stand over the years.
Since 2024, Melanie has also been a member of the Royal Australian Air Force Band, performing with its Wind Quintet, Brass Quintet and Concert Band.
This November she joins our Festival ensemble — including the musicians who will fill St Matthew’s with the colours of Fauré’s Requiem as Ooh là là! begins. 🇫🇷📯
We’re delighted to welcome Melanie Simpson to Albury.
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #MelanieSimpson #FrenchHorn #ChamberMusic #AlburyWodonga
From symphony orchestras to Wicked, Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera — Melanie Simpson’s horn has taken her into some wonderfully different musical worlds.
Melanie studied at the University of Melbourne with Anton Schroeder before completing her Master of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, studying with Peter Luff and Ysolt Clark.
While undertaking her postgraduate studies, she travelled to Brazil for the 2017 International Horn Symposium, where she won the Dorothy Frizelle Orchestral Audition (High Horn) Award.
Since then, her orchestral and chamber work has included performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington and Victorian Opera, as well as Camerata, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Southern Cross Soloists and Arcadia Wind Quintet.
And then there is another side to Melanie’s musical life.
She has played in the orchestras for Les Misérables, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Cinderella, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and Jesus Christ Superstar — quite a repertoire to have sitting on one music stand over the years.
Since 2024, Melanie has also been a member of the Royal Australian Air Force Band, performing with its Wind Quintet, Brass Quintet and Concert Band.
This November she joins our Festival ensemble — including the musicians who will fill St Matthew’s with the colours of Fauré’s Requiem as Ooh là là! begins. 🇫🇷📯
We’re delighted to welcome Melanie Simpson to Albury.
📅 6–8 November 2026
🎟 A limited number of White Festival Passes are still available:
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1489483
#AlburyChamberMusicFestival #OohLaLa #ArtistSpotlight #MelanieSimpson #FrenchHorn #ChamberMusic #AlburyWodonga
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