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Crossing Boundaries Through Musical Excellence

Young Artist Exchange provides high quality creative arts education to young musicians, dancers and artists alike.  Ensemble-in-Residence Artists By Any Other Name, presents workshops and performances that explore accessible themes and provide an opportunity for kids to find their voice and express their creativity. Designed to ignite a passion for art and encourage a sense of curiosity, Young Artist Exchange programs are structured, supportive, and, most of all, FUN!

Young Artist Exchange uses music to connect across cultures by bringing together students and teachers from around the world, with a mission to foster global citizenship.   Young Artist Exchange builds confidence and inspires creative expression in children. Many of the teaching artists we work with are passionate educators committed to helping kids engage with the performing arts. With their help, we facilitate workshops which culminate in the young participants staging their own public performance.

Young Artist Exchange presents: Guardians of the Sea

Beneath the waves, every creature has a voice. This July, we are the ones to tell their story.

This July, invite your child to step away from screens and dive into an extraordinary creative journey. Young Artist Exchange presents a premium workshop where digital art, music, and performance collide on a world-class stage.

Through the story of Guardians of the Sea, students will explore a "day in the life" of marine creatures, building deep creative confidence, public speaking skills, and a passion for protecting our planet.

We tailor the program to your child's unique strengths. Our workshop features two parallel pathways that come together for the grand finale:

🎭 The Storyteller-Music Track (Open to All Levels)

• The Focus: Confidence building and public speaking.

• The Experience: Perfect for students looking to find their voice. Through engaging speech, drama, and communication exercises, students master vocal projection, stage presence, and teamwork in a highly supportive environment.

• The Music Element: Any student on this track who has musical experience will be assigned appropriate, comfortable parts to participate musically in the live performance.

🎻 The Musician-Artist Track (Intermediate to Advanced)

• The Focus: High-level ensemble collaboration and performance.

• The Experience: Designed specifically for students who already play an instrument. Our directors custom-tailor the musical score to match the students' capabilities, allowing them to lead the live instrumental landscapes of the show.

• Easy Placement: No stressful auditions! Simply send us a short video of your child playing, and our directors will place them in the perfect musical group.

🌟 The Solo Spotlight Opportunity Advanced musicians can apply to perform an exclusive pre-show solo on the main stage prior to the ensemble performance. (Note: A $300 AUD additional performance fee applies, and selection is subject to director approval via your placement video).

The Grand Finale: A Professional Stage Experience

The week culminates in a live production of Echoes of the Sea at The Lounge, Chatswood Concourse. This final showcase brings together every element of the students' creative work on a professional stage:

• Digital Art Backdrop: We are utilizing the theatre’s massive projection screen to showcase our students' visual art. Every child's drawings and paintings of the ocean world will be electronically integrated and projected live to create the production’s backdrop.

• Wearable Art & Design: Every performer becomes a designer, hand-crafting their own custom marine headdress and props to bring their character to life on stage.

• The Live Performance: From the live instrumental score to the confident public speaking of our narrators, our storytellers and musicians join forces to perform together. It is a complete celebration of their creative growth.

Key Program Information

• Workshop Dates: Tuesday, 14th July – Thursday, 16th July 2026

• Workshop Hours: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm daily

• Workshop Location: JPI Education CBD Campus

• Workshop Fee: $990

• Grand Finale Performance: 2pm | Friday, 17th July 2026 at The Lounge, Chatswood Concourse (Also featuring special pre-show Solo Musical Spotlights)

For enquiries please email yae@abaon.org.au or fill out our enquiry form: yaecew2026.paperform.co
*Student placement is based on experience and video submission (if required) and at the discretion of the creative director.

YAE 2022, Voices of Feathered Friends

In 2022, Young Artist Exchange (in collaboration with JPI Education’s Writing Stars program) brought to life a musical dramatic play - Voices of Feathered Friends. The series of short stories was written by students of JPI Education’s Writing Stars program with each story featuring a bird that faced loss of habitat due to human impact or climate change. During the workshop, storyteller students created their costumes and sets, and honed their speech, drama, and performance skills. For music students, the workshop centred around music ideation, performance and ensemble skills as they performed music throughout the play.

Voices of Feathered Friends encouraged the next generation to embrace living in harmony with nature.

YAE 2019, The Planetarium

Adelaide and Sydney

“The ancient Romans told stories to explain the world around them. These stories told of the rising and setting of the sun, the wind and the waves, the seasons, and even why battles were won or lost.”

In 2019, Young Artist Exchange celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing with The Planetarium Creative Experiences Workshop and performance in Adelaide and Sydney. The Planetarium was an exploration of our solar system and the Roman mythology that shaped how we understand it. Students learnt choreography, music, and made their own costumes and props, which culminated in a student-faculty public performance at Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Grainger Studio and the Concourse Theatre in Chatswood (Sydney).

Internationally renowned Artists By Any Other Name brought their original production Elements Of to Australia. Elements Of is an immersive exploration of the latent emotions in the seemingly mundane. It combines live chamber music and original modern dance with shifting lights and sets, to bring focus to often over-looked elements; inviting you to experience the performance, yourself, and your environment in unexpected new ways.

A big thank you to our sponsors and partners for Young Artist Exchange 2019:

YAE 2018, Toybox

Adelaide and Sydney

Young Artist Exchange expanded its Creative Experience Workshops to Adelaide and Sydney. Ensemble-in-residence Artists By Any Other Name taught a curriculum centred around a re-imagined Debussy's La Boîte a Joujoux (Toybox) with a new narrative and choreography. The student-faculty public performance was held at Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Grainger Studio and Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Verbrugghen Hall. YAE students also had opportunity to perform their discipline of choice as a solo or duet at these venues. Artists By Any Other Name performed at the Starlight Express Room at the Children’s Hospital in Randwick and presented their interdisciplinary concert ‘The Travellers’ at Elder Hall (Elder Conservatorium of Music, Adelaide) and Verbrugghen Hall (Sydney Conservatorium of Music).  In The Travellers, Artists By Any Other Name uses tango to explore the journey of departure and coming to terms with new realities. In the 19th century, lower-class immigrant communities in the Rioplatense region of Argentina and Uruguay found expressions like sorrow and longing for connection through tango music and dance. The production is inspired by the emotions and experiences that surround immigration, lost heritage and quests for love and belonging.

YAE 2017, South Australia

In July 2017, the inaugural Young Artist Exchange was held in South Australia. The festival began with a 4 day Introductory Musical Experiences workshop where students made costumes and learnt musical concepts, choreography and performance skills.  IME students performed alongside Artists By Any Other Name in a special performance of Debussy's La Boîte a Joujoux (Toybox) at the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's Grainger Studio. Artists By Any Other Name performed in the Starlight Express Room at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide which was also broadcast to the wards. In a fundraiser at the Adelaide Town Hall, Young Artist Exchange raised over $5000 for the Starlight Children's Foundation. The YAE extension brought Artists By Any Other Name to the Limestone Coast region where they presented over 10 lecture demonstrations and workshops to the local community. Two very special performances were held at the Tantanoola Caves where Artists By Any Other Name performed 'Fractals in the Dark' for an invitation only audience.