UNDERGROUND MINE CONCERT

Ian Munro & Yasmin Rowe

Friday 9 October, 4pm-7pm
Central Deborah Gold Mine, Bendigo

Proudly Sponsored by Agnico Eagle and its Fosterville Gold Mine

Two hundred feet beneath Bendigo, two of Australia’s leading pianists will perform music from the era in which the city was transformed by gold.

Ian Munro and Yasmin Rowe will perform solo and duet works by Fauré, Horsley, Rachmaninoff and Dvořák.

The program draws on music composed during the second half of the nineteenth century, taking the audience back to the period of Bendigo’s gold rush in a setting that brings that history quite literally beneath their feet.

With an audience of just 60, it will be an unusually intimate performance.

Getting a piano underground

The concert begins long before the first note.

A piano will be lowered 200 feet, or 61 metres, into Central Deborah Gold Mine, then positioned and tuned underground for the performance.

The piano comes from Langley Estate and belonged to the mother of Bendigo Fine Music Artistic Director Thomas Heywood, a concert pianist and his first music teacher.

For one night only, it becomes part of another chapter in Bendigo’s story.

The artists

Ian Munro

Ian Munro is an acclaimed Australian pianist, composer and music educator whose career has taken him to more than 30 countries.

He has won major international prizes as both pianist and composer and recorded extensively for ABC Classics, Naxos, Hyperion and Tall Poppies.

Yasmin Rowe

Yasmin Rowe is a British concert pianist based in Melbourne who has performed across the UK, Australia and China, including at Wigmore Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre and Shanghai Concert Hall.

Her 2016 debut album was named a BBC Music Magazine Editor’s Choice.

Sunday 8 November 2026, 2pm
St Paul’s Cathedral, Bendigo

Bendigo Fine Music’s new Yamaha C7X will be officially launched with a special concert at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Purchased through the generosity of the community, the People’s Piano will have a permanent home at St Paul’s while remaining available for performances and musical activity across Greater Bendigo.

The launch concert will run from 2pm to 3pm, followed by a reception in the cathedral.

This is the first opportunity for audiences to hear the People’s Piano in its new home and to celebrate the community effort that made it possible.