Music

Sonic Spaces event Hyde Park Barracks
Various dates
Performance

Sonic Spaces

Sonic Spaces returns for 2025 with an exciting new series of music performances, held in one of the city’s most unique venues

Friday 7 February 6.30pm–7.30pm
[Sydney from the north shore], Joseph Lycett, 1827.

Hearing the music of early New South Wales

A new website documents an exciting partnership between Museums of History NSW and the University of Sydney in an exploration of Indigenous song and European settler vocal and instrumental music in early colonial NSW

Donors enjoying the 'Syrens of Sydney' concert
Latest News

The Syrens of Sydney: a bespoke donor experience

On a perfect autumn afternoon in late May, donors were immersed in the musical world of the Wentworths and their contemporaries at the 'Syrens of Sydney' concert held at Vaucluse House

A mannequin dressed in an elaborate Renaissance-style stage costume stands in a large Perspex-fronted display case . On the rear wall a small screen is showing a scene from the opera Lucrezia Borgia where Dame Joan Sutherland is wearing the same costume.

Dressing Joan Sutherland

One of the most spectacular costumes on display in the exhibition The People’s House: Sydney Opera House at 50 is an extraordinary Renaissance dress designed by Kristian Fredrikson and worn by Dame Joan Sutherland in the part of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia

Harold Blair sings at a piano played by Marjorie Lawrence
First Nations

Paving the way ... Harold Blair: The first Aboriginal opera singer

A short documentary that offers a glimpse into the life of Harold Blair, a world-renowned tenor, family man and political campaigner who sought social justice and human rights for Australia’s First Nations people

Todd Duncan (baritone) with Harold Blair, c.1950s
First Nations

Harold Blair, trailblazer

Wulli Wulli tenor Harold Blair AM was Australia’s first professionally trained Aboriginal opera singer

Concert at Elizabeth Bay House
Latest News

Scenes that are Brightest

Annual Giving Donor Concert, Sunday 12 February

Rolled piece of music on wooden scroll.
WW1

The Allies in camp music roll

Rouse Hill house boasts a fine pianola, a player piano, which came into the house just a few years before the outbreak of World War I

Stitched cover of song book with blue and red printed design and words Our Boys.
WW1

Our Boys: patriotic sheet music

The song, written by a young Sydney woman named Evelyn Greig, was one of more than 500 patriotic songs published in Australia during World War I