Llewellyn Hall ANU

16/10/2026

Australian Youth Orchestra || Sunday 14th Feb 2027

Maestro Umberto Clerici (SSO, QSO) invites you to experience a rare orchestral spectacle as the Australian Youth Orchestra(AYO) performs the complete Roman Trilogy by Respighi. These three monumental tone poems conjure the beautiful, the chaotic and the always cinematic city of ancient ruins and romance. An ambitious feat for an orchestra of any age, this unmissable concert will be a breathtaking showcase of the abilities of these prodigious young musicians, known for their fearless energy.

AYO is joined by soloist Joshua Batty a virtuoso British-Australian flautist and former Principal Flute with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Batty will perform the Australian premiere of a Flute Concerto by AYO alumnus and Sydney-based composer Harry Sdraulig. This concerto re-casts the flute as an instrument of emotional depth and dramatic scale, moving from mystery and virtuosity to an aching Cantilena, before resolving in a quiet, reflective epilogue. In this evening of cinematic technicolour, Resphigi and Sdraulig are two composers revelling in colour, lyricism and orchestral drama.

Come revel with us. Tickets available now: https://bit.ly/AYO-LLH27

16/10/2026

Pekka Kuusisto: Legends & Luminaries - Tomorrow at Llewellyn Hall, Australian Chamber Orchestra

09/10/2026

“The intensity, the fearlessness, the curiosity. This remains rule-bending at its most revelatory.”— The Guardian UK

Join Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra for an epic season celebrating tradition, transformation and transcendence.

In 2027, experience the ACO at the height of its creative powers, with concerts showcasing their exceptional virtuosity and irrepressible sense of adventure and curiosity. From exploring some of the most extraordinary music ever written, and bringing these works to light with the fearless interpretation that has come to define the ensemble, to celebrating today’s boldest musical voices, the season embraces music of remarkable breadth and imagination.

This is where music is not simply performed, but comes alive.

2027 Season Tickets are on sale from today: https://bit.ly/ACO-LLH27

01/10/2026

Pekka Kuusisto: Legends & Luminaries || Saturday 17th Oct - 7:30 PM ||
Llewellyn Hall

It's been almost a decade, but Pekka Kuusisto is back at the ACO for our next National Tour ✨

'Pekka Kuusisto: Legends & Luminaries' is touring Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. Tickets https://bit.ly/4gAskWa

28/09/2026

LEE ASHER IS COMING TO AUSTRALIA! 🐾
Founder of The Asher House animal refuge and one of the world's most passionate animal advocates, Lee Asher brings his remarkable rescue journey to the stage for the first time in Australia.

Hear the stories of the dogs who challenged him, changed him and helped him find his purpose.

Warm, funny and deeply personal, An Evening with Lee Asher is for anyone who has ever loved an animal and felt that love returned.

🎟️ Tickets on sale TOMORROW 30 Sep 10am - https://bit.ly/LASHR-LLH27
📍 Canberra · Llewellyn Hall 20 January 2027!!!

24/09/2026

On Friday 24 September 1976, the new Canberra School of Music officially opened its doors — the culmination of more than a decade of work to create a permanent home for music in the national capital. The building was opened by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, with the week-long Opening Festival running from 24–30 September.

The archival photographs tell the story before the doors ever opened: an empty site beside the old Canberra High School, foundations going in, concrete being poured, scaffolding filling what would become the auditorium, and the extraordinary structure slowly taking shape.

Designed by Daryl Jackson and Evan Walker, the School of Music was never intended to disappear quietly into the Canberra landscape. Its architecture was conceived as an assertive, sculptural composition — massive concrete forms, cylinders, towers and cantilevered spaces arranged around a concert hall deliberately protected from the outside world by layers of circulation and teaching spaces. One later architectural study described the building itself almost as an instrument, with sound and light moving through its carved spaces.

At its heart was the concert hall that would later take the name of the School’s founding director, Ernest Llewellyn.

And in the fifty years since, those walls have accumulated far more than music.

The space which was Wig&Pen and it's nine-metre signature wall now carries around 270 signatures from performers, thinkers and world figures who have passed through the building. Among them are Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, José Ramos-Horta, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Richard Tognetti, Peter Sculthorpe, Paul Kelly, Tina Arena, the Soweto Gospel Choir and many others.

The old photographs show a building that has changed around the edges — foyers, finishes, technology and audiences have all evolved.

But the idea at its centre has endured.

A place built for sound.
A place built for musicians.
A place built for Canberra.

50 years on — still standing, still sounding, and still at the heart of Canberra music.