Season 2026
The Firm presents another year of new music across the centuries.
There will be a series of three concerts this year, once again showcasing new music by local composers alongside works from the repertoire.
Full details of Season 2026 Concerts will be available as the year proceeds.
To be kept informed,
please email us,
phone 08 8332 1208 and ask to join our mailing list,
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The Firm
The Firm is an Adelaide-based organisation that promotes the performance of new solo and chamber works, particularly those of South Australian composers.
It also provides a performance platform for some of Australia’s finest young musicians.
The Firm's annual concert seasons are conceived, programmed, curated and directed by composers Quentin Grant and Raymond Chapman Smith. Their innovative approach to music presentation invites audiences to engage with newly written - 21st Century - art music that embraces a poetic, romantic aesthetic, alongside great works from the repertoire of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.
The structure of the concert programs is an integral part of music presentation by the Firm. The complimentary program booklet that accompanies each concert provides quotations and images that invite the audience to share the artistic preoccupations of the composers, in their quest for the poetic shape of the ideal program. Programs from past Firm seasons can be found through the Firm Archive.
The Firm was formed in 1996 through the collaboration of composers Raymond Chapman Smith, Quentin Grant, David Kotlowy and John Polglase. Known then as Chapman Smith, Kotlowy, Polglase & Grant, the long, corporate-sounding list of surnames quickly earned the organisation the affectionate nickname of ’The Firm’. Raymond Chapman Smith and Quentin Grant have been responsible for the management and core composing activities for the organisation since 2005.
The audience is invited to share complimentary refreshments and convivial conversation with the composers and players after each concert.
Posthumous Composer in Residence
Each year, the Firm works with a nominated Posthumous Composer in Residence, who provides a focus and impetus for the creation of new works and programming of existing works for performance. Through the Posthumous Composer in Residence programme, the Firm has presented many significant works of the classical repertoire, including the song cycles of Schubert and the late Beethoven piano sonatas, and covered a broad stylistic range of 20th Century works, from the Second Viennese School to European modernist György Kurtág, rarely heard by Australian audiences.
The Firm’s selection of the Posthumous Composer in Residence refects the artistic preoccupations of the directors, and often celebrates a significant event, such as the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth during 2006 and Chopin’s 200th birthday in 2010. In 2014, in a break with tradition, the Firm featured a Form in Residence, paying homage to the Viennese Waltz.
The Ensembles
In the early years,The Firm created their own ensembles to perform in the concert series - the Langbein String Quartet, the Settembrini Piano Trio and the vocal quartet Ensemble Iona.
The Langbein String Quartet was established in recognition of the late Brenton Langbein, violinist of international repute, friend and mentor to many South Australian composers and musicians, and a composer whose works were just beginning to be appreciated. The establishment of this ensemble was also an acknowledgement of the leading players from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with whom the Firm has been privileged to work.
Musicians and established ensembles regularly performing for the Firm include the Robert Walser Ensemble, Eve Vocal Trio, Seraphim Piano Trio, the Zephyr Quartet; pianists Leigh Harrold, Jamie Cock, Marianna Grynchuk and Anna Goldsworthy; sopranos Emma Horwood and Greta Bradman; tenor Robert Macfarlane; violinists Nicholas Milton, Michael Milton and Hilary Bruer; violist Rosi McGowran and cellist David Sharp.
Performer in Residence
For several years, The Firm was able to sponsor a Performer in Residence programme, where each concert of a season focussed on a talented young Adelaide performer. In 2005, The Firm presented soprano Emma Horwood and in 2006 pianist Leigh Harrold.
In 2005 The Firm, with Performer in Residence soprano Emma Horwood and pianist Jamie Cock, collaborated with Brink Theatre in This Unchartered Hour.
