Bringing live music to the central highlands!

Welcome

The Central Highlands Festival of Bands Inc. was born after local music educators identified a need for students to hear and learn from expert performers on their instrument and/or vocals. As a result, the first festival was held in 2014 as a collaboration between the Central Highlands community and the BoB Quintet.

The Central Highlands Festival of Bands annually brings different professional quality chamber ensembles from brass, woodwind, percussion and vocals to the Central Highlands region. These musicians provide access to a music performance experience otherwise not available in our local region. Through a series of school performances, the festival provides a source of inspiration too for young students to take up learning a musical instrument. For those that already play an instrument the community workshops challenging musicians young and old in the community to further develop their skills beyond what they thought possible. By developing local musician’s capabilities and participation in music making, we aim to empower local musician’s ability to contribute musically to their community beyond the festival and in turn, improve the cultural vibrancy and musical diversity of their local community.

Bringing school and community musicians, young and old, of all ability levels together from the Central Highlands and beyond fosters a sense of community music making and learning. The Central Highlands Music Festival Inc. aims to build on the music development of the local community in this festival and beyond. Creating a sense of community in music making and knowledge sharing. Come and make some music!

Learn more

James Raschle, President of Central Highlands Music Festival Inc.

James Raschle
President, Central Highlands Music Festival Inc.

About Us

Central Highlands Music Festival Inc. grew out of the Central Highlands Festival of Bands and Choirs (first event held in 2014) and since 2019 is an incorporated association.

The objectives of the association are

to provide opportunities to the Central Highlands community to engage in music making and skills development throughout the year, culminating in the annual Central Highlands Festival of Bands in Emerald, with the primary focus of providing an education-based band experience to develop and maintain the musical capacity of wind band, stage band and choral singers in the region.
to deliver performance and workshop experiences to schools and the wider community otherwise not available in the area (primarily during the festival period), and, where financially and logistically possible, endeavour to follow up on the major event with additional activities throughout the year to build upon the learning objectives of the festival.
to achieve closer collaboration with neighbouring regional centres in order to foster collaboration and exchange as well as resource sharing in order to provide better and more frequent opportunities to the community.

Central Highlands Music Festival Inc is
– registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)
– listed on the Register of Cultural Organisations that can receive tax deductible donations (ROCO)

Past Festivals

Sponsors and Partners