Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields will return in January bringing classical music to historic venues across the region for the 27th year.
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And its traditional opening night concert at St Patrick's Cathedral will pay tribute to the festival's founder Sergio de Pieri who turned 90 this month.
Festival director Judy Houston said although Mr de Pieri would not be able to travel to Ballarat from Italy for the festival, he would be delighted to know it will open with Monteverdi Vespers written to mark the birthday of the Doge at St Mark's Basilica in 17th century Venice.
This year's Organs festival will feature 13 recitals and run from Friday January 13 to Tuesday January 17, slightly later than previous years to avoid any potential clash with the Federation University Road National Championships.
Ms Houston said the festival was sticking to the shorter format, introduced for the 2022 event because of COVID uncertainty, but would have more than twice as many concerts.
"Because COVID is still around we are going for an extra day than the last one, but with COVID still hanging over our heads we've got to be aware that things can get cancelled," Ms Houston said.
For its first 25 years the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields ran for around 10 days across two weekends.
With Mr de Pieri unable to attend the 2023 Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields, Ms Houston has been appointed festival director after her involvement in organising the past 26 festivals.
This year concerts will be held at Carngham Uniting Church at Snake Valley and Clunes Anglican Church along with recitals at St Patrick's Cathedral, Ballarat Mechanics Institute, Mary's Mount Centre, St Peter's Anglican Church, St Alipius Church, St Paul's Anglican Church and Neil Street Uniting Church in Ballarat.
Saturday night's concert at Mary's Mount Centre features Music of the Tango with with mezzo soprano Sally-Anne Russell and Italian classical guitarist Massimo Scattolin.
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Ms Houston said tango music was classical music. "It's all classical music as classical music covers a lot of things from the 16th century to the present day," she said.
The festival breakfast also returns on Sunday morning from 9am in the garden of Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields treasurer Voi Williams in Solders Hill - a popular tradition that has been running on the first Sunday of the music festival since its inception.
The festival ends with a recital at St Patrick's Cathedral on January 17 at 8pm.
Tickets are available from www.ballaratorgans.com.au and must be pre-booked before January 12. There will be no door sales at venues.
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