Bendigo Chamber Music Festival has announced its 2022 program. Returning for its third year, Co-Directors Howard Penny and Chris Howlett have gathered together a superb roster of Australian musicians. Sophie Rowell, Natsuko Yoshimoto, Sulki Yu, Grace Clifford, Stephen King, Tobias Breider, Daniel de Borah, Amir Farid, Donald Nicolson, Chloe Lankshear, David Elton, Charlotte Miles and Penny and Howlett themselves will all descend upon Victoria’s fourth-largest city for five days of music making in February.

Andrew Goodwin and Daniel De Borah perform at Forest Street Uniting Church during the 2020 Bendigo Chamber Music Festival. Photo © Brendan McCarthy

None of these performers are coming with their own established chamber groups; instead they will mix and match with each other across 16 concerts, creating unique and one-off ensembles that may never perform together again – Farid, Yu and Howlett performing Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ Trio, or Lankshear and Farid exploring Strauss and Messiaen. According to Howard Penny, that is the fun part of organising a festival like this.

“You get your little black...