“At its heart chamber music is the art of dialogue and conversation, sometimes witty, scintillating, and entertaining, other times profound, deeply moving and full of drama,” writes Claire Kilgariff, Artistic Director of Arafura Music Collective, in the program for the NT Chamber Music Festival.

The notion of dialogue, listening and voice was brought to the fore in fascinating ways in the NT Chamber Music Festival’s varied program, which ran from 4–5 June in Darwin, and showcased the diversity and beauty of chamber music repertoire. A joint venture by Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Arafura Music Collective in association with Brown’s Mart, the festival demonstrates the growing enthusiasm for chamber music in the Northern Territory.

The weekend began with an unexpected highlight, the NT Composers Seminar. Far from an abstruse discussion on composition, this delightful event presented three new works by NT composers – Netanela Mizrahi, Nick Yates and Francis Diatschenko – that were specially commissioned by DSO. Beautifully performed by a talented ensemble of musicians drawn from DSO’s regular players and three guest artists – Ioana Tache on violin, guest violist Sally Boud and Distaschenko on guitar – each piece was remarkably different in style...