On Saturday, October 10, the event gave attendees a chance to hear some of the story behind organising the Four Winds Festival, listen to music, eat locally-made food and admire the development of the site’s gardens. 

Also, performers for the next festival, held in Easter 2016, were announced.

These performers included violinist Jack Liebeck, cellist Li-Wei Qin, pianists Zubin Kanga and Alex Ranieri, Taikoz, Arcadia Wind Quintet, Ensemble Offspring, soul outfit Radical Son, Navarra String Quartet and tenor Andrew Goodwin.

During the festival launch, artistic director for the 2016 festival Paul Dean said it was an honour for him to put together amazing pieces of music with amazing artists for the stage.

He said the festival would give a chance to showcase the new Windsong Pavillion that had excellent acoustics.

“Having played in about every acoustic concert hall in the country, I urge you to believe that this is possibly the best in the country,” Mr Dean said to his audience.

The festival’s composer in residence and conductor, James Ledger, spoke at the launch from Perth through the Windsong’s new audio conferencing equipment.

He said there was a big divide between pop and classical music. 

“Classical music is seen as almost a museum piece,” Mr Ledger said.

“It’s got a lot of competition with film, other music… that wasn’t there 60 years ago.” 

However, he said festivals such as Four Winds provided opportunities to have new classical pieces written. 

“If music isn’t created, music will stop being performed,” Mr Ledger said.

“It’s almost a living thing, our musical history.

“I think it’s very important it keeps evolving, keeps getting written, otherwise it will just not get performed.” 

Performers on the day included Ensemble Offspring and 40 musicians for the finale, Candelo River Song.