Omega Ensemble To Open 2026 Season With STARBURST National Tour

Omega Ensemble will launch its upcoming season with Starburst, a national tour featuring Australian trumpeter David Elton. The program includes Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1, Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto, and Jessie Montgomery’s work for strings, alongside a world premiere by Lachlan Skipworth. The tour will bring the ensemble to major venues across Sydney, Newcastle, and Melbourne.

Omega Ensemble will open its 2026 season with Starburst, a three-city tour that will feature guest soloist David Elton and a program spanning Shostakovich, Jessie Montgomery, Gerald Finzi, and a new double concerto by Australian composer Lachlan Skipworth. Performances will take place in Sydney, Newcastle, and Melbourne, with pianist Vatche Jambazian featured in Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings. Artistic Director David Rowden will appear as soloist in Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto and will join Elton in the world premiere of Skipworth’s A Turning Sky.

The program also includes Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, a short work for strings noted for its rhythmic and stylistic interplay. Rowden said the season will “invite audiences to listen with curiosity” and noted Skipworth’s new concerto as a central component of the ensemble’s upcoming work. Elton appears with permission from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

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