Monash University Performing Arts Centres

11/03/2026

For one night only, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony in the Robert Blackwood Hall.

Conducted by Benjamin Northey, the program also features favourites by Glinka, Bizet and Massenet.

This special performance celebrates 120 years of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - a historic milestone you won’t want to miss.

Experience Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for one night only at MPAC's Robert Blackwood Hall with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

09/03/2026

Choose your Big Jazz Day Out journey.

With live music unfolding across multiple stages, we’ve mapped a few pathways through the festival to help you explore the day.

Explore three curated jazz journeys:
🎷 Straight Up Jazz
💫 Choose Your Own Adventure
🌍 Feeling Adventurous

Or, follow the music wherever it takes you.

Start planning your Big Jazz Day Out: go.monash.edu/bigjazzdayout

05/03/2026

Dancenorth Australia is coming to MPAC this March. Book tickets: go.monash.edu/lightingthedark

03/03/2026

Afro‑Cuban rhythms. Deep musical lineage. One unforgettable set.

Bassist and composer Yunior Terry brings his unmistakable energy and complex rhythms to Big Jazz Day Out, joined by Vashti Sivell and Monash’s Latin Jazz Large Ensemble.

In this conversation, Yunior Terry speaks about collaboration, community and the artists exploring sounds he’s excited to hear live at the festival.

Across five stages, experience genre‑shifting jazz that brings bold musical voices, from icons like Vince Jones to emerging artists shaping the future of soul, funk, swing, Latin and more.

BIG JAZZ DAY OUT
Saturday 21 March
Explore the lineup and book tickets: go.monash.edu/bigjazzdayout

16/02/2026

We’re excited to bring Live at The Count’s back with a fresh season filled with vibrant jazz, soulful grooves and high‑energy swing.

This season showcases Latin jazz, bossa nova and exhilarating big band performances, with returning favourites Ruth Rogers-Wright, The Pearly Shells, Ultravox and Mina Yu.

Opening night is already sold out! Secure your seats for the rest of the season 🥂🎶

Discover what's on at MPAC. Explore live music, theatre and cultural events and book your tickets today.

06/02/2026

Womindjeka.

Expressions of Interest are open to participate in kummargi yulendj gadhaba (knowledge rising up together).

A two‑day gathering of Indigenous Knowledges, creativity, and exchange, presented as part of Kindred People on 3–4 September.

This is not a typical academic event. We invite all First Nations Knowledge Holders - Elders, cultural practitioners, artists, community leaders, or academics - from wherever you may be, to share ideas, stories, research, and creative practices across ways of Knowing, Being and Doing. Contributions may take the form of conversation, performance, song, story, talk, or other modes of expression.

The language and spirit of this gathering have been guided by Professor N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs AM, Senior Boon Wurrung Elder, alongside an Indigenous Steering Committee.

EOIs close 16 February.
👉 Express your interest: go.monash.edu/kpeoi

29/01/2026

Experience five stages of unforgettable live jazz music. Tickets are on sale now: go.monash.edu/bigjazzdayout

The day-long festival brings together some of Australian jazz’s most respected names alongside the emerging talent of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music. Vince Jones performs with the Monash Sinfonia, Mildlife closes proceedings with cosmic disco and deep-space jazz in the Alexander Theatre, and...

28/01/2026

join the Big Jazz Day Out lineup this March 🌀

ARIA Award–winning and genre-blurring, Mildlife bring deep-space jazz and psychedelic funk in a set that moves, shifts and mesmerises.

Live Saturday 21 March.
Full lineup: go.monash.edu/bigjazzdayout

21/01/2026

Love and light illuminate the darkness.

Dancenorth’s Lighting the Dark is a bold new work coming to MPAC this March.

Directed by Chris D**e, the mesmerising Dancenorth Ensemble transform the stage into a space of connection, compassion and creative brilliance. Chris, a Kaurna (Adelaide)-based dancer and choreographer living with Down syndrome, leads the performance.

Audiences are invited into a world where contemporary dance meets beatboxing, a ca****la and street-art influences.

Performed live at Alexander Theatre: go.monash.edu/lightingthedark

⚠️ Strobe, haze and loud sounds

23/12/2025

Womindjeka. Something exciting is coming to Boon Wurrung Country.

From 1–5 September 2026, Monash Uni will host Kindred People festival – a celebration of Indigenous knowledges, creativity and culture.

Indigenous peoples from around the globe are invited to submit an Expression of Interest for kummargi yulendj gabhaba (knowledge rising up together), a two-day gathering of ideas, dialogue and cultural exchange.

We welcome academics, Knowledge Holders, Elders and cultural leaders across all areas of expertise to share insights, challenge assumptions and explore pathways of healing and transformation in the face of existential challenges.

Join a ngargee (celebration) of knowledge, kinship and creativity - where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices meet global First Nations perspectives, and research, storytelling and creative practice converge.

Expressions of Interest now open for Kindred People ‘Symposium’.

22/12/2025

A look back at 2025 💫 From festival premieres to groundbreaking collaborations, here are some of our highlights:

1 — NGAIIRE and Paul Grabowsky launching Big Jazz Day Out. 📸 Darren Gill

2 — Songman Fred Leone transforming the David Li Sound Gallery with Butchulla song and stories for Blakout.

3 — Australian Dance Theatre's ensemble brought Marrow to our stage for one night only.

4 — Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh tested the reverb on our Meyer Sound's Constellation system with Swell, as part of our commissioning program. 📸 Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh

5 — Artist Q&A for Sayes Arares, a poetic sonic and visual journey into the Middle Sepik region of Papua New Guinea.

6 — Emma Donovan lighting up the stage with Andrew Murray’s 15-piece big band. 📸 Matthew McCarthy

7 — The development of Beneath Our Feet, coming to Family Fiesta in 2026.

8 — ABC Melbourne broadcast live from Robert Blackwood Hall with Jacinta Parsons and Brian Nankervis' The Friday R***e.

See what we have coming up: go.monash.edu/mpac2026

27/10/2025

Where ancient wisdom meets future worlds.

Kindred People is a powerful new Indigenous-led festival of art, culture and kummargi yulendj gadhaba (knowledge rising up together).

From 1–5 September 2026, Monash University will present a gathering unlike any other, a convergence of global First Nations artists, Elders, and Knowledge Holders, exploring the intersections of performance, ceremony, and research.

Guided by Professor N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs AM, Senior Boon Wurrung Elder, and curated by Gunditjmara man Tom Molyneux, Kindred People will transform Monash campuses on Kulin Country into living spaces of creativity, exchange and renewal.

The festival’s visual identity, created in collaboration with Gumbaynggirr artist and activist Aretha Brown, draws from the six Boon Wurrung seasons, reflecting the cycles of land, sky and water. It embodies the living murrup (spirit) of Country and the evolving rhythms of culture.

A celebration of resilience, imagination and kinship, Kindred People invites audiences to listen deeply, witness transformation, and experience art as a vessel for truth and healing.

Awaken Murrup. Awaken the spirit within.
Register to learn more → kindredpeople.monash.edu