{"id":115725,"date":"2026-07-09T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/?p=115725"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:35:21","slug":"a-list-artists-converge-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/living\/a-list-artists-converge-for\/","title":{"rendered":"A-list artists converge for gold-standard festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THE world-class Keys of Gold classical music festival has returned for a second edition after its successful debut last year, having begun last Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Running for the entire month of July, a host of curated concerts are being spread across historic venues throughout Bendigo, Castlemaine, Inglewood and Maldon.<\/p>\n<p>Led by internationally acclaimed Bendigo-based organist Thomas Heywood, featured artists include soprano Merlyn Quaife, British-born pianist Yasmin Rowe, Japanese-Australian flute player Masahide Kurita and Bendigo-born, London-based violinist Patrick Savage.<\/p>\n<p>Also on the program are Baroque violinist Lizzy Welsh, the Australian Boys Choir, trumpeter and composer Louisa Trewartha, French horn player Roman Ponomariov, Bendigo&#8217;s Fourth Harmony Brass and the Bendigo Chamber Choir, plus representatives from more than 15 Victorian choirs.<\/p>\n<p>Heywood, who has travelled 1.2 million kilometres performing solo concerts on the most celebrated pipe organs across the globe during his career, said he is excited by the program.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had 45 performers last year and this year, we&#8217;ve still got the 16 concerts, but we have 250 performers involved,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve also added another venue, the beautiful Inglewood Town Hall.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the stellar lineup of musicians performing are being more than matched by each town&#8217;s &#8220;gorgeous&#8221; heritage buildings.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a chance for the audience to come in and experience these venues architecturally and, very interestingly, in the fine music context, the acoustics are magnificent for this sort of music,&#8221; Heywood said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re really, really beautiful \u2013 very warm, generous, and in some cases reverberant sound, which adds a sugar coating to the performances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With a lot of pre-bookings coming from Sydney, Melbourne and even from overseas, Heywood said the festival is starting to get some real traction as more and more people hear about it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It really is becoming quite like a festival family of people coming up and looking forward to it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I encourage everyone to come and experience this beautiful architecture, these gorgeous spaces, and listen to literally some of the world&#8217;s finest musicians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Keys of Gold Festival 2026 continues until Sunday 26 July, with full festival passes on offer at a 20 per cent discount.<\/p>\n<p>View the full program and buy tickets on <a href=\"http:\/\/events.humanitix.com\/keys-of-gold-festival\/tickets\">Humanitix<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE world-class Keys of Gold classical music festival has returned for a second edition after its successful debut last year, having begun last Friday. Running for the entire month of July, a host of curated concerts are being spread across historic venues throughout Bendigo, Castlemaine, Inglewood and Maldon. Led by internationally acclaimed Bendigo-based organist Thomas [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/living\/a-list-artists-converge-for\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":115727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_section_post":"main_featured","home_featured_section_post":"main_featured","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-115725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A-list artists converge for gold-standard festival - Bendigo Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Experience the Keys of Gold Festival 2026. 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