Circa’s quest for world domination … from downtown Brisbane
Brisbane-based contemporary circus outfit Circa performs across the globe, with this year’s international and Australian programs presented under the banner of Circa Festival of Music.
When he sat down to look at his program for 2025, Yaron Lifschitz realised how crazy busy he has been. And will continue to be.
As the globetrotting artistic director of Brisbane-based contemporary circus outfit Circa, he is truly a global citizen, with Circa the most international of all Australian performing arts companies.
Who would have thought that a popular but provincial little company called Rock n Roll Circus would morph into the international sensation that is Circa. The company is now truly international, this year presenting the Circa Festival of Music, a world-first fusion of circus and classical music on a global stage.
The festival features a collection of new, reimagined and on-tour productions showcasing more than 100 performances of composers such as Ravel, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mahler, Purcell, Stravinsky, Arvo Part and Tchaikovsky. These performances will span prestigious venues across the world. As the company claims: “From a modest studio in Brisbane this is a coming-of-age moment for Circa, expanding Australia’s cultural footprint and extending the expressive possibilities of circus as an art form.”
Sitting down to go through the year ahead was bracing for Lifschitz. “People just don’t get the scale of what we do,” he says. “And when we put it all down, it was even a surprise for us. We thought – so that’s why we are tired.”
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As the creative lead of the company, Lifschitz is often in the air. Recently he was in Chile and before that upstate New York, which gave him proximity to the Big Apple. That was fortunate because it meant he could be on hand to receive one of the world’s most prestigious performing arts prizes, the Distinguished Artist Award, from the International Society for the Performing Arts, presented to him at a ceremony at The Times Center in New York City. Previous international recipients include Angelique Kidjo, Laurie Anderson, Pina Bausch and Aussies who have won including Jack Charles, Peter Sculthorpe and Mandaway Yunupingu.
Lifschitz is the first Queenslander to win the award (for those who might claim that he is from Sydney – he is – get over it, as he’s a Queenslander now and he identifies as one).
“To hail from Brisbane, to work in the medium of circus and to receive an award whose previous recipients have included Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Angelique Kidjo, Leonard Bernstein and Dame Joan Sutherland is as overwhelming as it is improbable,” he says. “It is testament to the superlative Circa team. I am honoured to win this award as a recognition of our work together, creating circus that moves the world.”
Around the world and back again with Circa
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Highlights of the 2025 Circa Festival of Music started with Beethoven 9 in Santiago, Chile, which has just wrapped. The company’s Daphnis and Chloe will be staged at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, in April. In May, Urlicht – Primal Light will be performed in Luxembourg, En Masse plays Paris in June and Orpheus and Eurydice, a collaboration with Opera Queensland, will play the Edinburgh International Festival. That’s just some of what they will be up to. But wait, there’s more, spanning several continents.
“We have a company of 30 fulltime and guest artists, and we are often doing three to four shows across the world at any one time,” Lifschitz explains. “We are among the most toured companies.”
And all this from little old Brisbane. Lifschitz can’t help but quote Barry Humphries’ famous dig: “Australia is the Brisbane of the world.” The meaning of that has certainly changed.
The travel might seem daunting but Lifschitz, who has three children – two with partner and colleague Libby McDonnell, who is head of engagement and design at Circa- loves it. With such a punishing schedule, it’s probably a good thing they both work at the same company.
And now the new Circa Festival of Music is underway.
“We decided to put together all the things we were doing and see how they hang together,” Lifschitz says. “Doing that, it looks bigger than all the other music festivals, so we thought we should tell people that.”
Circa has partnered with major orchestras here and abroad (including the London Philharmonic in the British capital). The company begins its Australian 2025 program in Brisbane, performing on stage with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for the much-anticipated Rite of Spring (Stravinsky’s masterpiece) in the QPAC Concert Hall, February 20-22. The company’s hugely popular and rather funny show Duck Pond (which has fun riffing on Swan Lake) is touring the country later in the year, beginning in Rockhampton in September.
We will see more of them this year in Brisbane, too, including at Brisbane Festival. In recent years Circa has performed more beyond Brisbane than at home, but that is changing thanks to a close alliance with QPAC. From their studio and headquarters at the Judith Wright Arts Centre in Fortitude Valley they are forging a plan for world domination. So far it seems to be working.
circa.org.au