Our next concert is at 2:30 pm on Sunday 9th November 2025 at Preston City Hall, Preston.
Squawkestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Darebin
Squawkestra is proud to present the the culmination of our inaugural Squawkestra Composer Project – the premiere performance of The Earth Suite, a musical story in eight movements about our planet from its birth to what its future might be.
Composed by Jukka Mäntynen, it will be performed by The Squawkestra Earth Suite Chamber Orchestra at 2:30 pm on Sunday 28th September 2025 at Preston City Hall, Preston.
Our mid year concert is at 2:30 pm on Sunday 25th May 2025 at Preston City Hall, Preston.
Squawkestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Darebin
Last Sunday, we packed up our instruments and bussed to Geelong to have a glorious afternoon with our friends and hosts Awkwardstra Geelong.
What started from a small “wouldn’t it be fun to play together?” musing, was realised into a wonderful collaboration featuring a huge combined orchestra of over 80 musicians performing both for and with each other. It was an event of sharing food, learning and above all, the sheer joy of making music together.
Our end of year concert is at 2:30 pm on Sunday 15th December 2024 at Preston City Hall, Preston.
Squawkestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Darebin
This weekend, Squawkestra members have joined the circus!
A mass of acrobats, a mass of musicians, a mass of artistry, a mash-up of circus mayhem. Over seventy humans on stage … It’s going to be massive!
When: Saturday 19 October 2024 @ 9:30pm and Sunday 20 October 2024 @ 3:30pm
Where: 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood
Tickets: https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/havoc/#sessions-tickets
Our mid year concert is on 2.30 pm Sunday 26th May 2024 at Preston City Hall, Preston.
Squawkestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Darebin
Our end of year concert is on 3pm Sunday 3rd December 2023 at Preston City Hall, Preston.
Squawkestra gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Darebin
Squawkestra is delighted to welcome Adam Simmons as our Guest Conductor whilst Carl Polke takes a well-earned break. After having the Squawkestra baton both metaphorically and physically handed over to him, Adam took us through the new repertoire we are preparing for our end of year performance. We are looking forward to some fabulous music-making together over the next couple of months.
Squawkestra swung into action on Sunday afternoon the 25th of June. Despite the wintery weather a large audience turned out to listen to our mid-year concert. Having performed at Circus Oz before, we were familiar with the bump in and out routines and appreciated playing in such a fabulous space again.
Our orchestra has grown considerably this year and features around 40 musicians split between strings, woodwind and brass. We have enjoyed seeing some familiar faces as players return and welcomed many new players. We were joined by guest artist Michael Davis on snare drum for our final piece, Ravel’s haunting Bolero. Although a shorter version than the full 14 minutes, Carl Polke’s arrangement for Squawkestra still posed plenty of challenges, requiring much practice by everyone. We recycled a few tunes and played some new ones, including Jukka Mantynen’s composition of Yaa de Yaa de Yaa; written specially for our players to channel their inner teenager. We feel that we have taken on some challenging music this year and worked hard to play it, not just as individual musicians, but also by listening to others and the group sound.
A huge thank you to our musical director Carl Polke for providing us with many opportunities to expand our musical horizons and perform for our families and friends.
SQUAWKESTRA 