The best gigs to see in Sydney this winter

Sydneysiders have seen the contours of the Opera House sails a thousand times. They're a truly iconic strand of the city's DNA, but as familiar as the building's exterior is, plenty of spaces within the architectural marvel remain hidden. Like winning a golden ticket, Nooks and Crannies unlocks these secret spaces. In a series of intimate gigs, musicians are placed in lesser-known spots within the Opera House and respond accordingly, with their music. Featuring indie music big hitters of the calibre of Courtney Barnett, Camp Cope and The National, you can binge all this gold on the Opera House's Stream platform. Think of it like a special edition of Rage with site-specific music videos filmed in hidden corners of a famous Sydney landmark.  The first volume features Swedish guitar whisperer José González and Melbourne future-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote. Round two features hypnotic soul-folk artist Moses Sumney in the orchestra pit of the Joan Sutherland Theatre, playing his enchanting hit ‘Don't Bother Calling’. Next singer-songwriter and producer Kelsey Lu plays a stripped back, minimal version of her pulsating, Jamie xx co-produced track ‘Foreign Car’ under the laser lights of the Studio in the belly of the Opera House. US cult rockers The National play 'Hard To Find' from their Grammy Award winning album, Sleep Well Beast, under the Opera House sails in the Utzon Room. Melbourne trio Camp Cope bring forth their scathing critique of indie rock’s virtue signalling issues with

The music festival circuit is looking pretty different after 2020. All of last year's chaos aside, Australia is welcoming a new touring festival that leans into the heavier genres in 2021, and it’s called Full Tilt. Headed up by Sydney’s Aria-winning metalcore band Northlane, this all-Aussie festival is giving us similar vibes to dearly departed tours like Taste of Chaos from our emo youths. Joining Northlane are fellow heavy-hitting bands Hands Like Houses and In Hearts Wake, punk rockers Frenzal Rhomb, deathcore masters Thy Art Is Murder and ska punk outfit the Bennies, with Luca Brasi, Slowly Slowly, Make Them Suffer, Press Club, Alpha Wolf, Thornhill, RedHook and Closure rounding out the line-up. Full Tilt comes to Bella Vista Farm in Sydney on Saturday, July 31, with dates in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, too. Aside from the live music, there will be DJs spinning between sets, market stalls, and a variety of food trucks with vegetarian, vegan and meat options.  Tickets are on sale now, starting at $108.15. Get yours here.

Forget the year the never really was, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has dropped its 2021 program and they are not mucking around. From Rachmaninov to Radiohead, there’s something for everyone to unwind to after the year that was. We’ve picked out a handful of our favourite to whet your classical appetites. It all kicks off at Sydney Town Hall with Romance Begins (February 10-13), a new rendition of Tchaikovsky’s dreamy ‘Violin Concerto’ as performed by Mr swish Ray Chen. He won hearts and minds performing the very same piece in the in the Queen Elisabeth Competition a decade ago, launching him into international stardom. Chen will also string us along with Dvořák’s ‘New World Symphony’, which helped propelled Neil Armstrong onto the moon. Then let chief conductor designate Simone Young get you in synch with the majesty of Beethoven – including snippets from his opera, Fidelio – in Great Minds (February 18-20). And as if that’s not an exciting enough start to a brand new (and hopefully much better) year, David Drury will take to the town hall’s mighty organ to play ‘Water’ in Reflections Of Light. It's a piece written by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, as inspired by Philip Larkin’s poem. Drury will also perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘Symphony No.3’. Movie lovers will dig A Window To The Soul (April 22) with conductor Benjamin Northey leading the SSO through film composer Max Richter’s ‘On the Nature of Daylight’, which you can hear in both Martin Scorsese’s Shutter