Single-ticket presales open on 7 October 2026 for the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s 2027 Australian tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, featuring the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.
The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor) will reunite with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) in April 2027 for Arvo Pärt Masterworks, a concert tour visiting Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. Their previous ACO tour in 2019 sold out — so this is one occasion when leaving ticket buying to your future, more organised self, may not be the best strategy.
Single-ticket presales open on 7 October 2026 for registered ACO eNews subscribers, 48 hours before tickets go on sale to the general public. If you want early access, sign up to ACO eNews before then.
The concerts bring together some serious musical firepower. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is one of Estonia’s best-known ensembles internationally, while its founder and artistic director Tõnu Kaljuste has spent decades interpreting and championing the music of Estonian composers — particularly Arvo Pärt.
Tõnu Kaljuste founded the choir in 1981 and led it for 20 years before returning as artistic director and chief conductor in 2021. His work ranges from opera and classical symphonic repertoire to contemporary music, but his relationship with Pärt’s music is particularly significant: their collaboration stretches back to the late 1980s and has produced numerous acclaimed performances and recordings. Kaljuste won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for Pärt’s Adam’s Lament.
The choir itself has some Grammy history too. Its recordings have won the award for Best Choral Performance twice, alongside numerous other international accolades — although perhaps the more important qualification is what happens when those voices echo through the room.
Its repertoire stretches from Gregorian chant and baroque music to the 21st century, with Estonian composers including Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Tõnu Kõrvits occupying a special place. Each season, the choir performs around 60–70 concerts in Estonia and internationally.
For the Australian concerts, the program is devoted entirely to Pärt: Tabula Rasa, Berliner Messe and Te Deum.
And Pärt, now 90, remains one of Estonia’s most internationally recognised cultural figures and on 28 August received the 2026 Goethe Medal, following honours including the Polar Music Prize in 2023 and the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal in 2024. Pärt developed his distinctive tintinnabuli compositional technique in the 1970s, creating music of striking simplicity from the relationship between melodic and triadic voices. The resulting sound can feel sparse, meditative and almost suspended in time — deceptively simple music in which silence matters nearly as much as sound.
There is also history behind this particular combination of performers. The choir has collaborated with Arvo Pärt over many years and is closely associated with performances and recordings of his work; the ACO describes the 2027 concerts as a reunion following the ensembles’ sold-out Australian tour in 2019.
And Australian Estonians may get an earlier opportunity to see the choir while it is on this side of the world: the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is also currently listed to appear at Eesti Päevad in Sydney, 8–11 April 2027. We’ll tell you more about that performance as details become available.
Concert dates
Melbourne
Friday, 16 April 2027, 7.30 pm
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
Canberra
Saturday, 17 April 2027, 7.30 pm
Llewellyn Hall
Sydney
Sunday, 18 April 2027, 2 pm
Sydney Opera House
Brisbane
Monday, 19 April 2027, 7 pm
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Sydney
Tuesday, 20 April 2027, 7.30 pm
City Recital Hall
For concert information and tickets, visit the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Arvo Pärt Masterworks page here.
Want the ticket reminder to come looking for you instead? Sign up to the Australian Chamber Orchestra eNews for presale information, or subscribe to the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir newsletter for news from the choir.
Read more
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir performs with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor (In Estonian)
Arvo Pärt Receives Goethe Medal in Weimar, Germany – Arvo Pärt Centre
Thank you
A big thank you to Peeter Muttik for putting this wonderful opportunity on HEIA’s radar and sharing the information with us.
