Munro of the mountain: Homecoming for ‘connected’ SXS festival director
Acclaimed educator and musician Tim Munro started his career with Brisbane’s Southern Cross Soloists and is thrilled to be back playing with them and helming their new music festival.
Tim Munro has come home in more ways than one. The acclaimed Grammy Award-winning musician made a pandemic-inspired move back to Brisbane with his wife Julie and young son Ellis a few years ago.
That was one homecoming for Munro, who’s an associate professor at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. The other was reconnecting with Southern Cross Soloists, the Brisbane-based chamber music outfit that gave him a start as a young flautist.
Now Munro has joined them again as a guest artist and as festival director of the 21st SXS Chamber Music Festival. He will also collaborate with musician Chris Williams on the groundbreaking SXS didgeridoo commissioning project.
For two decades SXS ran the Bangalow Music Festival in the Byron Bay hinterland, but the company has brought the festival back to Queensland in a new iteration in a new location – beautiful Tamborine Mountain in the Scenic Rim. The festival will unfold over three days, August 22 to 24, and is presented in partnership with Shambala Estate, a venue Munro loves.
Tim Munro.
“It’s a wedding venue, which initially made me a bit sceptical,” Munro says. “But I walked in and found it has such character and is run by people who are really connected to the community. The hall there feels like an old-fashioned hall and the chapel is beautiful and perfect for the Chapel Series. The venue is amazing and feels like it was made for this festival.”
Along with the SXS musicians, Munro will be a guest artist. Other guest artists include acclaimed soprano Alexandra Flood; guitarist Slava Grigoryan and his wife, chamber musician Sharon; and pianist Sholto Kynoch and the Orava Quartet.
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Living in Chicago in the US for many years, Munro was the flautist and co-artistic director of Eighth Blackbird from 2006 to 2015. He toured the US and internationally, premiering more than 100 works, co-curating festivals, playing as a concerto soloist, collaborating with artists and winning three Grammy Awards.
He was the St Louis Symphony Orchestra’s creative partner, working as curator, broadcaster, writer and artistic consultant. With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he appeared as flautist, speaker and teacher. He was the flautist with the University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and performed with Ensemble Signal, Imani Winds, Wu Man, Newspeak and Third Coast Percussion.
But Munro got his start with SXS.
‘Chamber music is about connection, from one heart to another’
“My relationship begins 20 years ago when I did my first gigs with them,” Munro recalls. “It was some of the first professional chamber work I did and it was transformative. I performed at Bangalow over three years and that’s where my love of chamber music began.
“Chamber music is about connection, from one heart to another. In putting together this festival program, I asked myself how to connect musicians, how to connect with audiences and how to connect to the community.
“How to make this time on Tamborine Mountain special – intimate, intense, pleasurable? I wanted to gather a crew of world-class chamber musicians who are also wonderful humans. They all appear in many guises across the festival as soloists, duo partners, chamber musicians … and many are bringing dream projects.
“Throughout the weekend we cross centuries and continents. There are intimate solos and boisterous septets. Songs with and without words. Love gained and love lost. Sounds of whimsy and nostalgia, sounds both strange and captivating. And musical friends, old as well as new.”
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Twelve virtuosic artists from across Australia and internationally will bring the music to the mountain for a glorious winter weekend escape on Tamborine, a place of outstanding natural beauty. All events for the 21st festival edition will be held within the stunning surrounds of Shambala Estate.
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Orava Quartet.
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Alexandra Flood.
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Sharon and Slava Grigoryan.
These exceptional artists will provide invaluable knowledge to the SXS 2025 Next Gen Artists who will perform a recital in The Chapel Series. The festival is broken into three sections: Festival Welcome; The Chapel Series;and The Galaxy Ballroom Mainstage Concerts.
The festival continues its tradition of working closely with local partners to deliver exceptional experiences for audiences, residents and visiting tourists.
4MBS Classic FM will partner with the festival to provide day trip packages from Brisbane for its subscribers. (Information about the packages will be announced soon via 4mbs.com.au.)
Councillor Kerri Cryer of Scenic Rim Regional Council says it’s a boon to the region.
“As Scenic Rim’s portfolio councillor for community, arts and culture, I am excited by the line-up for the 21st SXS Chamber Music Festival to be held at Tamborine Mountain in August,” says Cryer.
“The Scenic Rim welcomes the staging of this event in our region, which continues to build on its reputation as a centre of arts and culture. The spectacular natural beauty of Tamborine Mountain will provide the perfect backdrop.”
But you don’t have to wait that long because SXS has music in store for you before then including, among other things, the concert Pearls on June 1 featuring local diva Nina Korbe.