Musica Viva Australia’s musical legacy continues
'I often think I cannot imagine what Australia would have sounded like without the foundation of Musica Viva'
What began as a simple desire to recreate the European salon tradition has blossomed into one of the world’s leading chamber music organisations.
In 2025, Musica Viva Australia marks its 80th anniversary, celebrating a remarkable journey that began with two Jewish émigré musicians who refused to let their musical dreams be extinguished.
The story of Musica Viva starts in December 1945, when Walter Dullo and Richard Goldner organised a concert at Verbrugghen Hall in Sydney.
The two musicians, who had escaped Nazi Europe in the late 1930s, found themselves initially unable to perform professionally due to strict musicians’ union restrictions.
By 1945, when those barriers lifted, they seized the opportunity to recreate what they missed most from home: intimate chamber music for friends.
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