Award-winning chamber musicians Inventi Ensemble will turn the Hawthorn Arts Centre’s Main Hall into an enchanted forest on Friday 22 April while treating audiences to a new arrangement by Glynn Davies of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, to be performed for the first time. 

Immersed in a forest of special light effects, Inventi Ensemble will perform a new arrangement of the Beethoven classic alongside Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony was composed to elicit the feeling of being surrounded by nature, while Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun evokes an encounter with forest spirits. The surrounding interactive light forest will provide audience members with a new and immersive listening experience and give audiences a chance to be transported into nature, in the transformed Hawthorn Arts Centre.  

The performance also includes new work from acclaimed composer Melody Eötvös known for her multi-media and traditional instrumental contexts. Pioneered by Artistic Directors Melissa Doecke and Ben Opie, Inventi Ensemble first defined Australian music with their inventive style in early 2014.