About AFCM
About the Australian Festival of Chamber Music
See chamber music in Australia's tropics.
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music is one of Australia's most significant arts events, and the only major chamber music festival held in tropical Australia. Since 1991 it has brought musicians of national and international standing to northern Queensland every year - building, over thirty-five years, the long-term trust of artists, audiences, donors, government funders and the northern Queensland community.
Since 2026 the Festival's home has been Cairns-Gimuy, where it runs for nine days each July.
Our mission
AFCM exists to:
01
Deliver an international chamber music festival and related experiences in northern Queensland at the highest artistic standards
02
Enrich the musical and broader cultural life of northern Queensland
03
Create compelling reasons for diverse audiences to visit from across Australia and around the world
What makes this Festival different
Most festivals book ensembles. AFCM books musicians.
Our defining practice is to bring together high-calibre individual artists and place them in different combinations across the Festival period, rather than programming established groups. It means the Festival is full of the unexpected, and it means many of these performances are genuinely once-in-a-lifetime - combinations unlikely ever to be heard again, anywhere.
Artists tell us they come for two reasons in equal measure: the calibre of the colleagues they get to play with, and the relaxed, sunny northern Queensland culture. Audiences tell us much the same - the quality of the music-making, and the casual, laid-back vibe of Cairns-Gimuy and its surrounds.
That informality shapes how the Festival is built. Under Artistic Director Jack Liebeck, AFCM has expanded well beyond performance alone, with discussion sessions built for the curiosity of 21st-century audiences and close contact between artists and audiences through the Concert Conversations and AFCM Illuminates series.
Our guiding principles
What guides every decision we make
Great art
We present high-quality chamber music across small and large-scale programming, blending the traditional canon with new repertoire, and established composers with emerging composers from Queensland, nationally, overseas, and First Nations artists. Our aim is to constantly revitalise the content and format of music performance in Australia.
Great artists
Attracting the best artists locally and internationally is core to what we offer - and placing them in unexpected combinations is what keeps the Festival alive.
Engaged audiences
We work in partnership with audiences: long-term subscribers, occasional concert-goers, and people attending their first chamber music performance. We continually review how the Festival is structured to create points of entry on many levels.
A vibrant society and culture
AFCM strengthens Cairns-Gimuy's position as the arts capital of northern Australia, presenting world-class international musicians alongside Australia's finest artists, and driving cultural tourism and economic growth across the region.
Engaged communities
The Festival seeks new ways to partner with local and regional businesses, arts organisations, governments and schools - strengthening community wellbeing, fostering social cohesion and building creativity across the region. Our Community Culture initiatives, including Pathways Pop-up Concerts, community access programming and the Fellowship Ensemble's regional tours, extend these benefits well beyond the Festival period.
Our values
Our values
Artistic integrity
We celebrate principled and authentic music making, and believe that arts, and artists, have an important and unique role in human life.
Engagement
We engage actively and productively with artists, audiences, our local communities, funders and supporters.
Professionalism
We strive to be professional in all we do, and particularly in the way we organise and present concerts and support musicians.
Openness
Our processes and operations are open to appropriate scrutiny, and we are open to new ideas.
Accountability
We are accountable in our actions, decision-making and stewardship of the resources entrusted to us.
Thirty-five years, four Artistic Directors
Four directors, one Festival
1991–2007
Theodore Kuchar
AFCM was founded in 1991 by the Ukrainian-American violist and conductor Theodore Kuchar, with Professor Ray Golding, then Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University. Kuchar led the Festival for its first sixteen years, building its foundation in the strings-and-piano heartland of the repertoire with a strong vein of Central and Eastern European music.
2007–2018
Piers Lane AO
A Brisbane-raised pianist with a major international career based in London, he spent eleven years broadening the Festival's sound - opening it to winds, brass and voice - and pairing the music with the food, wine and warmth of the tropics. His final Festival in 2017 delivered the highest box office result in AFCM's history to that point.
2018–2022
Kathryn Stott
Kathryn Stott followed in 2018, opening with the second-highest box office result on record, then steering the Festival through the disruption of COVID-19 and preserving her 2020 programming for a postponed 2021 season.
2022–present
Jack Liebeck
Jack Liebeck became Artistic Director in 2022, and in 2026 led AFCM through the largest change in its history: the move from Townsville's Civic Theatre to a new home in Cairns-Gimuy.
Four directors in thirty-five years, each building on what came before rather than starting over. Read the full history
Investing in Australian musicians
The AFCM Pathways Program
The AFCM Pathways Program is the Festival's year-round work, and the cornerstone of our commitment to the next generation of chamber musicians and arts professionals.
Emerging Australian ensembles receive mentorship from Festival artists, main-stage performance opportunities, and support to tour regional Queensland - assisted by the Ian Potter Foundation. Recent ensembles include Melbourne's Cedar Quartet, Sydney's Orpheus Quintet, and Victoria's Kingussie Trio, winners of Musica Viva's 2026 Strike A Chord.
Pathways runs through several strands: International Masterclasses, the Emerging Composers Initiative, the Outreach Tour and Workshops, Pathways for Schools, and Digital Outreach. The Theodore Kuchar Scholarship, established in the founder's name, supports young Australian chamber musicians directly.
Commissioning new work is part of the same commitment. AFCM presents new First Nations and Queensland commissions each year, alongside new work from other Australian and international composers.
Access and inclusion
Access and inclusion
The Festival's main venue, the Cairns Performing Arts Centre, is fully accessible: lift access to every level, accessible bathrooms on each floor, and hearing loops at the box office, bar, theatre and studio. Flexible seating - end-of-row, step-free, or a dedicated wheelchair space - can be arranged through the Box Office at the time of booking. Assistance animals are welcome and the Companion Card is supported.
CPAC also has a quiet room with a one-way-glass view of the stage and an adjustable live audio feed, built with parents of young children in mind and open to anyone who needs a calmer space.
How the Festival is funded
How the Festival is funded
Ticket income covers only part of the cost of bringing artists of this calibre to northern Queensland. The rest comes from government support, philanthropy and individual giving.
AFCM is supported by Music Australia through Creative Australia, the Queensland Government, Tourism and Events Queensland, JCU, Cairns Regional Council and Tourism Tropical North Queensland, with major philanthropic support from the Ian Potter Foundation. We also have many other partners that support the festival, see the full list here.
Individual supporters give through the AFCM Friends, through the Artistic Director's Circle - which directly expands the Festival's artistic offering and its capacity to commission new work - through one-off and regular donations, and through bequests.
Governance
Governance
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music - North Queensland Limited is an Australian public company limited by guarantee, trading as Australian Festival of Chamber Music. ABN 34 050 418 730.
AFCM is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, and is endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible in Australia.
The organisation is governed by a volunteer Board and delivered by a small staff team, supported each July by a large group of local volunteers. AFCM's four-year Strategic Plan sets out our priorities through to 2029.
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music acknowledges and pays our respects to the Traditional Custodians of the region, the Djabugay; Yirrganydji; Buluwai, Gimuy Walubara Yidinji; Mandingalbay Yidinji; Gunggandji; Dulabed and Malanbara Yidinji; Bundabarra and Wadjanbarra Yidinji; Wanyurr Majay; Mamu and NgadjonJii peoples.
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