Music writer IAN McLEAN reports from the launch of the 2026 Canberra International Music Festival.

Precluded by safety constraints over renovation of its “home” venue, the Fitter’s Workshop in Kingston, the next Canberra International Music Festival (CIMF) will be presented at a variety of venues between April 29 and May 3. 

And a fine list of performance spaces has been chosen!

The four “blockbuster” major concerts will be performed in the Snow Concert Hall, Red Hill and the other 17 programmed events will be presented at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Wesley Uniting Church, The Street Theatre, Embassy of Greece, Gandel Hall at the National Gallery of Australia, the ANU’s Manning Clark Hall, the National Carillon and Parliament House.

There will even be a concert of ragtime, blues and other prohibition-era music played on a honky-tonk piano in Lucky’s Speakeasy at the QT Hotel.

At the festival launch on Monday, artistic director Eugene Ughetti explained that a sense of community and social bonding had governed planning for the 2026 CIMF with a vast array of nationally and internationally renowned artists to be showcased.

Performers, including the Australian String Quartet, James Crabb, Lina Tur Bonet, Ensemble Liaison, Lyrebird Brass and Ensemble Contrechamps, come from countries as diverse as Spain, Switzerland, Serbia and Scotland, while the works of seven First Nations composers will be featured.

With music ranging from De Falla’s Popular Songs and Kate Ceberano’s Bedroom Eyes to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Strauss’ Four Last Songs, the festival promises a musical feast perfect for an amazing variety of tastes.

Full details of the 2026 CIMF is at cimf.org.au