2026 Melbourne FAME Festival
The 2026 Melbourne FAME Festival was a fabulous success with over 120 players registering along with a number of non-playing partners who boosted the total number of registrants to well over 130! So the 2026 FAME Festival Orchestra was huge. However, our fabulous Musical Director and Conductor, Stephen Lalor maintained amazing control of the orchestra with a mixture of humour and patience. Stephen had crafted an amazing repertoire of music from a variety of cultures and countries in keeping with the Festival theme of "multicultural Melbourne" as well as a fantastic piece of music, "Floral Arrangements" with three movements. All players and the audience at the 2026 FAME Festival concert, held in The Edge auditorium at Federation Square thoroughly enjoyed the entire program which was the culmination of a week of intensive rehearsals.
The concert ended in a standing ovation with two encores! The standard of playing was extremely high and the music was fantastic!
Accommodation for the Festival at University College in Parkville was comfortable and the facilities were excellent for full orchestra rehearsals as well as small sectional rehearsals.
During the week three workshops were held including a masterclass run by Stephen Lalor, an extremely interesting presentation of early music manuscripts for mandolin ensembles run by Stephen Morey and Craig Greening, and a presentation by Graham MacDonald, a mandolin maker who had driven down from the ACT to show off his instruments AND to attend to players who were experiencing problems with their instruments. Other events during the Festival included a Jazz Dance with music provided by the "Meir Cats Jazz Band" from central Victoria who were well received, and an in-house concert with performances by representatives of nearly all Australia's mandolin ensembles giving short performances of pieces from their repertoires. There were also some wonderful impromptu performances of trios, duets and other groups of players. There were some very memorable moments in this concert for and by the registered players.
The concert ended in a standing ovation with two encores! The standard of playing was extremely high and the music was fantastic!
Accommodation for the Festival at University College in Parkville was comfortable and the facilities were excellent for full orchestra rehearsals as well as small sectional rehearsals.
During the week three workshops were held including a masterclass run by Stephen Lalor, an extremely interesting presentation of early music manuscripts for mandolin ensembles run by Stephen Morey and Craig Greening, and a presentation by Graham MacDonald, a mandolin maker who had driven down from the ACT to show off his instruments AND to attend to players who were experiencing problems with their instruments. Other events during the Festival included a Jazz Dance with music provided by the "Meir Cats Jazz Band" from central Victoria who were well received, and an in-house concert with performances by representatives of nearly all Australia's mandolin ensembles giving short performances of pieces from their repertoires. There were also some wonderful impromptu performances of trios, duets and other groups of players. There were some very memorable moments in this concert for and by the registered players.
The small number of photos below is part of a much larger collection taken by photographer Jinette de Gooijer during the rehearsal of the 2026 Melbourne FAME Festival orchestra a couple of hours before their performance at The Edge auditorium at Federation Square. Access to these photos will soon be provided to all participants of the Festival who will also be able to add their own photos and also videos to the collection for sharing.
