‘Serenading future vintages’: Chamber music returns to Coriole winery
Coriole Music Festival promises another immersive weekend of great food, wine and world-class chamber music. New artistic director Kate Suthers shares a taste of this year’s program.
The oaky surrounds of Coriole Vineyards’ barrel room will be filled with world-class chamber music when the Coriole Music Festival kicks off this month.
“It’s in the barrel room so we’re serenading future vintages,” explains artistic director Kate Suthers, a world- renowned violinist and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra concertmaster who will also perform during the festival.
“There’s all that lovely oak in the barrels and I think because there are lots of string instruments that does a really nice thing for the acoustics. It’s also a nice space to play in, it’s not so big that anyone feels far away so it somehow manages to maintain an intimacy.”
Since its first run in 1999 the unique two-day event has cultivated a reputation for pairing great food, wine and chamber music in this intimate winery setting, and showcasing a measured blend of local and international musicians. The 2026 event marks the inaugural program for Suthers, taking over from celist Simon Cobcroft to curate a festival based around the idea of “beginnings”.
“I’ll be artistic director this year, and for the following two years so I wanted to essentially create a triptych experience,” she says.
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“So this festival, I was interested in exploring the idea of beginnings, it was being the beginning of my tenure, but also in a place like a winery, where all the grapes will have been picked at that time of year, so the beginnings of autumn, and then thinking about what the future holds and taking that in a musical direction, thinking about early works for composers, but also works that signified new changes in music, or things that are dealing with metamorphosis.
“So, I had a really fun time trying to work out, you know, a compelling narrative musically that fits in with the place.”
The festival will feature 11 musicians including debut performances by Berlin-based cellist Martin Smith and London violinist Richard Waters who will take to the stage on the Saturday with Suthers and Australian soprano Desiree Frahn.
Other performers include Elizabeth Layton (violin), Gemma Phillips (cello), Alison Heike (violin), Damien Eckersly (double bass) and Michael Ierace (piano).
“So, I wanted it to be a group of people who would appear in lots of different combinations, so that the audience would feel like they could see us in lots of different guises,” Suthers says. “I think that kind of fluidity is really compelling.”
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The program takes audiences on a “global music journey”, beginning with works by Viennese composers Erich Korngold and Gustav Mahler.
“Then we go back in time to Vienna to Beethoven with one of his first string quartets, then we pepper in some Viennese songs that are contemporaneous with Maher and Korngold, some by Alma Mahler and some by Zemlinsky who Alma had a bit of a flirtation with before she married Mahler, so I thought that was quite cute to intersperse their songs,” Suthers says.
“Then we bring it straight into the 20th century with some Caroline Shaw, a piece that she wrote inspired by Beethoven called Blueprint, and you know, Caroline Shaw is still in her 30s and she’s this amazing Pulitzer Prize-winning American,” Suthers says of the American composer, who also co-founded the innovative vocal group Roomful of Teeth, which toured to UKARIA in February. “So all of this before lunch.”
The festival will also include a dive into world folk music with works from across Iceland, Britain, Ireland, Hungary, Russia and Norway.
On Sunday, the festival, which is presented by the McLaren Vale Music Festival Association, will celebrate Australian female composers with the premiere of new works by Belinda Gehlert and Anna Cawrse. Then the weekend will culminate with one of American composer John Adams’ earliest and most iconic works Shaker Loops.
“The really important first part of the whole experience is that it’s a music festival, but it’s in a vineyard, and the Fleurieu at that time of year… it’s a 360-degree experience,” Suthers says.
And, while the festival is currently sold out, there is a chance of a limited ticket release in the coming weeks.
“You have beautiful music, and you have this beautiful food and wine at lunch and dinner on the Saturday, and the musicians come and sit with the audience,” Suthers reflects. “So, it’s a really integrated, immersive experience.”
Coriole Music Festival runs from May 16 – 17
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