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Time Out Sydney loves hearing about new experiences in the city. In fact, we were one of the original supporters of the Live at Yours concert series, which began as intimate 20-person concerts. Vladimir Fanshil, a Ukrainian-born Australian conductor and artistic director, and his wife Eleanor Lyons, a soprano, began the series together in 2020, and have since expanded it to a range of venues across Australia.
A recent study by Live Performance Australia shows that in 2024, revenue for Australia’s classical music grew 14.5 per cent, and attendance was up 7.6 per cent, hitting highs not seen for nearly a decade. The growth was attributed to unique experiences of classical music, like Live at Yours, and music that included popular or other music as part of the program. Another study by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2022 found 65 per cent of people under 35 regularly listened to orchestral music, which is more than their parents' generation.
Vladimir is embracing this heightened interest from young people in classical music with both hands, welcoming them to his inventive, intimate and exciting concert experience that challenges the notions of what a classical performance can be. We sat down to talk to Vladimir about what the future of classical music performance looks like with Live at Yours.
Live at Yours has a large audience of young people, around 30 per cent of all ticket sales. Tell us about how you support young people to come along to your concerts.
There are a few barriers, I think, stopping young audiences from attending traditional classical concerts.
The first and most obvious is price. Once we started doing $30 under 30s tickets, we immediately saw an uptick in demand. We also have $20 children’s tickets, to encourage the Eastern European tradition that I really love of grandparents going with their grandkids to concerts.
Secondly, I think that the classical concert format [is a barrier]. I’m a classical conductor and I find it boring going to concerts because the format is so stuffy and people are stuck in a museum-style of music experience that is off-putting [to new audiences], they’re scared of clapping between movements! I tell my audiences when I’m conducting, for example, that Mozart would write to his father about how excited he was when he had to repeat the first movement of his symphony twice because he got so much applause for it. Our goal is to weave this kind of feeling, clapping, and reacting into our concerts. We allow drinks into our concerts, we do theatrical lighting which lends itself to the imagination because dreaming happens at night, you know?
We also have no interval, and artists are free to interact with audience members. Towards the end we always have a Q&A and get the artist to share a bit of their personal story. I also find it really important to give back to young people, most of the artists we get now are international and we ensure that they do masterclasses as part of their tours.
Tell us more about how your format is different to more traditional, stuffy formats?
Well, all of those things I’ve mentioned, plus we give artists more freedom with programs. Our next artist, Lucas Debargue, plays jazz, he composes, and he’s a classical pianist. His story is just remarkable because he was working in supermarkets and doing a philosophy degree, played in rock bands, and made money in jazz clubs. Then at 21 he started doing classical music seriously, and at 24 had overnight success in the Tchaikovsky Competition. It’s the sort of stuff of dreams, but with him, I just said, do what you want.
My philosophy is that actually performing should be a much more relevant and living, breathing thing that’s really unexpected and spontaneous. Beethoven used to walk into a room and just dazzle people with his ability to improvise. So, when Lucas and Simon Tedeschi [Australian pianist] who will be hosting Lucas’s performance said that they wanted to improvise together, I said, of course. The artists are absolutely free to completely change the program even after it has been published on the website, and even when they arrive to perform. It should reflect the moment.
That’s so exciting! You’ve also got [queer countertenor] Maayan Licht performing later this year, tell us about him.
Well, Maayan is a social media sensation. He’s this very extroverted gay countertenor. I’m excited about him because we are going to experiment with a late-night concert with him starting at around 9.30pm. He’s someone who is really pushing boundaries, so he’ll sing baroque, coloratura, very fancy stuff. He’ll also sing Beyonce, some things from Carmen and some other pop stuff because he’s really into pop. For him, there’s no differentiation between rock, pop and classical. So he’ll be doing some surprises as well during his tour.
I think this is the way of the future, I want excitement [in classical music] like we have in the footy or we have in sport. I want people to walk away with a feeling of lightness, of spontaneity, of anything’s possible, of yes, I can’t listen to this on Spotify.
And what would you say to someone who might never have been to a classical concert in their lives about coming to Live at Yours?
The only rule is you have to be open to feel. That’s it. If you don’t like it, good. If you love it, express it. If you feel something, let it wash over you. And continuing to come along [to different concerts] is what will develop your taste, no two people have to have the same taste. It’s like, how do you get good at swimming? Get in the pool.
So just dive in! Dive in, no rules, no rules at all. Come, and be open to feel.
Live at Yours runs four flagship tours a year across Australia, including Brisbane, Castlemaine, Toorak, Sydney and Adelaide. Find tickets and information at their website here.
French pianist Lucas Debargue kicks off his tour in Brisbane on May 28, 2026, then arrives in Sydney on June 3. Find info on the rest of the tour here.
Countertenor or “sopranista” Maayan Licht kicks off his tour “Coloratura Queen” in Sydney on August 11 and 12 2026. Find info on the rest of the tour here.
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