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 22 March 2026

3 pm – 4 pm

Lauriston Chapel at Langley Estate

Songs for the Centuries!

Merlyn Quaife AM (Soprano)

Thomas Heywood (Organ & Piano)

Bendigo's (and Australia's!) own 'fearless Soprano' Merlyn Quaife AM returns to Langley for an unforgettable afternoon - this time with Thomas Heywood accompanying on both the magnificent 1875 pipe organ and the beautiful Yamaha C7X grand piano (not at the same time)!

The program, selected by Merlyn for this special occasion, is unique - including not one, not two, but three world premieres by the Australian composer Roger Heagney (who will be in attendance).

Songs for the Centuries also features a fascinating tour of vocal highlights from 1602 to 2025: over four centuries of song!

From Monteverdi to Caccini - as well as the famous Ave Maria 'attributed' to Caccini - but actually composed around 1970 by a Soviet composer!

Thomas will also put the glorious 1875 pipe organ through its paces with some contrasting solos from the pens of Sir Edward Elgar and John E. West, and this remarkable afternoon concludes with a complete performance of one of Mozart's most famous pieces: Exsultate, jubilate - with 'the' Alleluia finishing with 'the' Top C!

This will be an afternoon to remember, all in the delightful ambience and acoustic of the 1873 Lauriston Chapel at Langley. 

And, after the concert, you can join Merlyn, Thomas and composer Roger Heagney in the Langley Hall mansion for the usual post-concert refreshments (assuming Roger won't have had to escape through a window à la Stravinsky after the premiere of The Rite of Spring)!

As well as extraordinary music, this is going to be an afternoon of discovery and fun.

After all, to quote Merlyn herself: 'Friends around the world are the musician's greatest asset!'

Tickets available at
www.trybooking.com/DJIFB

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
SONGS FOR THE CENTURIES!

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)
Amarilli, mia bella [My lovely Amaryllis]

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Lasciatemi morire [Arianna's Lament] from Lamento d’Arianna, SV 22

Tommaso Giordani (c.1733-1806)
Caro mio ben [Thou, all my bliss]

Alessandro Stradella (1643-1682)
Pietà, Signore [Have pity, Lord]

Vladimir Vavilov (1925-1973) [attr. Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)]
Ave Maria

John E. West (1863-1929)
Festal Song
Organ solo

Roger Heagney (b.1942)
* World Premiere Performance *
Three Songs
i. Those Who Carry
ii. A Prayer that Will Be Answered
iii. The Other World

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), trans. Charles John ‘C.J.’ Grey (1849-1923)
Salut d’amour, Op. 12
Organ solo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Exsultate, jubilate [Exult, rejoice], K. 165
i. Exsultate jubilate
ii. Fulget amica dies
iii. Tu virginum corona
iv. Alleluja

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

‘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.

Tickets available at
www.trybooking.com/DJYTP

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.

MORE CONCERTS AND EVENTS COMING SOON