Concerts and Events at Langley

Enjoy unforgettable experiences in timeless spaces

Combining the unique character of Langley Estate with the owners’ 30-year international experience as touring solo musicians, Langley is also a magnificent performing arts venue.

Concert rooms, including the historic 1873 Lauriston Chapel complete with a magnificent pipe organ and concert grand piano, give the ‘Langley Magic’ to a wide variety of cultural events throughout the year.

2021 marked the formal beginning of a new era at Langley, when the Lauriston Chapel was launched as a concert venue. Since then, the yearly seasons at Langley continue to feature artists from around the world, with greatly varied programs, all suited to the intimate ambience of the historic chapel. The ‘meet the performers’ post-concert refreshments in the Langley Hall mansion have become an integral part of the series.

From classical chamber music concerts, solo pipe organ concerts, jazz evenings, solo song recitals, piano recitals and choral concerts to Deluxe High Teas, guided tours, open gardens and special events such as champagne, or food and wine, tastings, Langley will have something for you to enjoy as an audience member or participate in as a connoisseur!

Please contact Simone for further details about forthcoming concerts. We look forward to welcoming you soon!

Next Concerts and Events

Deluxe High Teas with Guided Tours

A sumptuous Traditional High Tea with a difference!

Featuring a Deluxe Menu from Bendigo’s own Whisk catering, a special performance by Thomas Heywood on the historic 1875 pipe organ in the Lauriston Chapel and an unforgettable guided tour of Langley Estate, including the Langley Hall mansion.

Sunday 3 May 2026

3 pm – 4.15 pm

Lauriston Chapel at Langley Estate

The Operatic Servant Girl

A World Premiere Performance 165 Years in the Making!

An excellent evening's entertainment by Charles Robert Thatcher (1831-1878)

Matilda Wilby (Soprano) – The Servant Girl
Peter Hunt (Baritone)
Peter Butler (Piano)

Directed by Merlyn Quaife AM
Proudly Presented by Langley Estate & Bendigo Fine Music
With GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE PETER RYALL TRUST

• SOLD OUT •

‘Confound that servant girl of mine! She’s opera mad. I allowed her to go out two evenings last week to see Trovatore and the Traviata and she’s been singing the music ever since instead of answering my questions on domestic affairs.’

Hidden away in the State Library of Victoria is the text of a little burlesque: a ‘Duologue’ titled ‘The Operatic Servant Gal’, dated August 1861 and written by Charles Robert Thatcher (1831-1878), a British entertainer who arrived at the Bendigo Goldfields in 1852.Described as a large, genial man, the ‘inimitable Thatcher’ established a reputation as an immensely popular entertainer and writer of topical ballads, a flautist and a singer.

With his wife, Madam Vitelli (Lydia Ann Day), and a pianist named Edward Salaman (who arrived in Bendigo with a Broadwood piano in 1854), Thatcher entertained local citizens and miners at Bendigo’s Shamrock Hotel and Lyceum Theatre. He usually set the humorous texts of his ballads to well-known tunes of the day. However, the music for ‘The Operatic Servant Girl’ is drawn largely from Verdi’s famous operas La Traviata and Il Trovatore.

This ‘Duologue’ tells the story of an opera-mad maid-servant Mary Trillett and her master, a music-teacher named Quaver, who finally succumbs to Mary’s pleas for him to teach her music and singing. Quaver decides not only to teach his servant, but also to take her as his wife!

The distinguished Elmore-born historian, Hugh Anderson AM, came across Thatcher’s little burlesque late in his life. Thatcher’s hand-written text was typed up, and the music of Verdi that had been chosen by Salaman became available as a type-set score. Hugh occasionally altered Thatcher’s text with repetitions and he added a third minor character.

No evidence that the work was performed in Bendigo has been found, although it was possibly heard in New Zealand when Thatcher and Madame Vitelli travelled there in December 1861.

Hugh Anderson’s 96-year-old widow, Dawn, entrusted his edition of The Operatic Servant Girl to musicologist Jan Stockigt, in the hope that a performance might eventuate. Research by Jan, and her colleague musicologist Kerry Murphy, of Thatcher’s original materials, as edited by Hugh Anderson AM for his final project, will be used by Merlyn Quaife AM who will fulfil Dawn’s wish to bring this long-forgotten entertainment to life.

For this world premiere performance, 165 years in the making, the roles will be played by goldfields identities Peter Hunt (Baritone) and the brilliant young soprano Matilda Wilby as the servant girl. They will be accompanied by Peter Butler (Piano).

Don’t miss this ’excellent entertainment’ - 1860s-style! - in the historic 1873 Lauriston Chapel at Langley Estate: the perfect atmosphere for bringing an extraordinary piece of Australian cultural history alive 165 years later!

After the concert, you can meet the performers and enjoy the usual post-concert refreshments served in the Langley Hall mansion.

• SOLD OUT •

Adults $50 / Concession $45

Bookings are essential to gain entry.
Doors open at 2.30 pm.

Please note: limited car parking for 23 cars is available onsite on a first-come, first-served basis;
please enter through the main car driveway gates at 484 Napier Street.
Otherwise, there is ample on-street free parking at the rear of the Estate in Dundas Street.

Saturday 16 May 2026

10.30 am – 11.30 am

Langley Estate

Guided Tour of Langley Estate

with Thomas Heywood

A guided tour of Bendigo's iconic Langley Estate mansion, chapel and gardens:

a goldfields landmark since 1904.

Come and experience the 'Langley Magic' with a guided tour of Langley Estate by the owners themselves, Thomas and Simone Heywood.

The Langley Hall mansion was built on the grandest scale in 1904 as the Bishop's Palace for Henry Langley, the first Anglican Bishop of Bendigo; the internal floor space alone covers over a quarter of an acre. The estate also houses the 1873 Lauriston Chapel, now a 100-seat concert room complete with its own newly installed 1875 pipe organ, as well as the 1936 Langley Manor and extensive landscaped gardens.

The estate has a long, varied and fascinating history: from the early Bishops (1904-1919) to over 800 ANZACs recovering from Gallipoli (1919-1926), from Governors-General, Premiers and other dignitaries who have visited and stayed at Langley, to the joie de vivre of the 1,500 infants who lived here during the estate’s time as a Toddlers’ Home (1932-1979).

The walls can't talk - but your tour guide Thomas Heywood can - on this unmissable tour!

Tickets available at
www.trybooking.com/DIQAA

Tickets $25

Bookings are essential to gain entry.
Please arrive by 10.30 am.

Please note: limited car parking for 23 cars is available onsite on a first-come, first-served basis;
please enter through the main car driveway gates at 484 Napier Street.
Otherwise, there is ample on-street free parking at the rear of the Estate in Dundas Street.

Sunday 24 May 2026

3 pm – 4 pm

Lauriston Chapel at Langley Estate

Gala Organ Concert

Thomas Heywood

Join us for a spectacular new program showcasing the 1875 George ‘Grandfather’ Fincham Pipe Organ in the 1873 Lauriston Chapel at Langley Estate.

The concert is a true ‘Gala’ - with not only ‘the’ Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach (the world’s most famous organ piece!) - but also Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, Chopin’s Military Polonaise and much more!

“Der australische Starorganist” Thomas, whose career has taken him over 1.2 million kilometres performing solo concerts around the world, from Windsor Castle to the largest pipe organ in New York City, has chosen a program to put the magnificent pipe organ at Langley through its paces!

The pipe organ was built in Melbourne in 1875 for the grand ballroom of ‘Findon’ in Kew - the mansion owned by the legendary 19th-century Australian banker and politician, the Hon. Henry ‘Money’ Miller. However, it was never installed in Miller's mansion and, instead, remained in Fincham’s Richmond organ factory as an exhibition instrument where it was regularly demonstrated and used for practice by a teenaged Dame Nellie Melba, who was having organ lessons at the time!

In 2024-25, the instrument was restored and enhanced by Daniel Bittner and his team at Australian Pipe Organs in Melbourne for installation in the Lauriston Chapel at Langley, and this incredible pipe organ now sounds as good as it looks!

And the spectacular gold on the facade pipes returned home as, believe it or not, the gold leaf sourced in 1875 came from the Bendigo goldfields!

Join us at Langley for this Gala Organ Concert as Thomas, “without argument one of the world's best concert organists”, showcases both the beauty and grandeur of this spectacular instrument in the Lauriston Chapel.

After the concert, you can also enjoy the usual post-concert refreshments served in the Langley Hall mansion.

Tickets available at
www.trybooking.com/DKJNM

Adults $50 / Concession $45

Bookings are essential to gain entry.
Doors open at 2.30 pm.

Please note: limited car parking for 23 cars is available onsite on a first-come, first-served basis;
please enter through the main car driveway gates at 484 Napier Street.
Otherwise, there is ample on-street free parking at the rear of the Estate in Dundas Street.

Full Program for THE
GALA ORGAN CONCERT

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), edited by Thomas Heywood (b.1974)
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Anatol Lyadov (1855-1914), transcribed by Thomas Heywood (b.1974)
A Musical Snuffbox, Op. 32

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), trans. Edward George Power Biggs (1906-1977)
Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351
i. Overture
ii. The Rejoicing
iii. The Peace
iv. Bourrée
v. Minuet Finale

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), trans. William Thomas Best (1826-1897)
Polonaise in A major [‘Military’ Polonaise], Op. 40 No. 1

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), trans. Edwin H. Lemare (1865-1934)
and Dr C.W. Pearce (1858-1928)
Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46
i. Introduction: Morning mood
ii. The Death of Åse
iii. Anitra’s Dance
iv. Trolddans – In the Hall of the Mountain King

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), trans. Edwin H. Lemare (1865-1934)
Humoreske, Op. 101 No. 7

Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
Carillon de Westminster from Pièces de Fantaisie – Troisième suite, Op. 54 No. 6

MORE CONCERTS AND EVENTS COMING SOON