Australian Chamber Orchestra: Five Centuries of the Sublime

Richard Tognetti is Artistic Director and Lead Violin of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has established an international reputation for his compelling performances and artistic individualism.

Richard performs on period, modern and electric instruments and has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras as director or soloist. In 2016 Richard was appointed the first Artist-in-Residence at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court Concert Hall and he was Artistic Director of the Festival Maribor in Slovenia from 2008 to 2015.

Richard’s arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra
repertoire and been performed throughout the world. He curated and co-composed the scores for the ACO’s documentary films Musica Surfica, The Glide, The Reef and The Crowd & I, and co-composed the scores for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Tom Carroll’s film Storm Surfers. Richard collaborated with director Jennifer Peedom and Stranger Than Fiction to create the award-winning films Mountain, which went on to become the highest-grossing homegrown documentary in Australian cinemas, and River, which won Best Soundtrack at the ARIA, AACTA and APRA awards.

Richard was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010 and was made a National Living Treasure in 1999. He is the recipient of seven ARIA awards and in 2017 was awarded the JC Williamson Award for longstanding service to the live performance industry. He plays a 1741-44 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù violin on loan to him by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
 

“The Australian Chamber Orchestra is uniformly high-octane, arresting and never ordinary.”
 

The Australian.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra lives and breathes music, making waves around the world for its explosive performances that redefine orchestral music. With their fearless leader of 35 years, Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, in 2025 the Orchestra celebrates 50 years of invention, disruption and unforgettable music-making.

The ACO performs more than 100 concerts each year, with programs that embrace celebrated classics alongside new commissions and ground-breaking collaborations, working with artists and musicians who share their ideology: from Emmanuel Pahud, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt and William Barton, to Jonny Greenwood, Neil Finn and Meow Meow; to visual artists and film makers such as Bill Henson, Shaun Tan, Jane Campion, and Jennifer Peedom, who co-create unique, hybrid productions for which the ACO has become renowned.

The ACO has its own streaming platform, ACO On Demand, which hosts the Orchestra’s award-winning cinematic concert films, ACO StudioCasts, alongside live concert streams. The Orchestra also has an active recording program. Its recordings of Bach’s violin works won three consecutive ARIA Awards. Recent releases include Water | Night Music, the first Australian-produced classical vinyl for two decades, Beethoven 1, 2, & 3 Eroica and ARIA award-winning albums River and Indies & Idols.

In 2022 the ACO opened a new, world class venue, ACO On The Pier, continuing their dedication to creating and presenting transformative experiences for all music lovers.