Category: News

3BBR will be at the 2025 Warragul Show and we’ll broadcast live on Friday night 28th February. At 6:00pm Paul Strickland presents West Gippsland Week engaging with members of our community, and David Gilbert follows with his C120 Mixtape from 8:00pm until 10.

Come along on Friday or Saturday and say hello, grab some Merch to support your genuine community voice in West Gippsland, and find out more about grass roots radio!

3BBR 103.1FM, live from Logan Park at the Warragul Showgrounds this Friday 6:00-10:00pm.

Some exciting new programs arrive in 2025, and we’ve shuffled some others to make way!

• Wed 9pm / Sounds of the Underground with Marni — Bringing you little heard music from Melbourne, Sydney, the “Granite Belt”, Portland and all around the world. Featuring interviews and live performances, bringing the underground music scene to Gippsland.
• Wed 1pm / Gavin’s Feel Good Mix — Gavin is back to brighten up your Wednesday with a range of popular music from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s right through to today.
• Sat 3pm / The AU Eclectic — Ash Sambrooks presents a new Australian music show featuring interviews with emerging artists while genre-hopping across indie, post-punk, electronic, ambient, experimental, and all the in-betweens.
• Tues 10:30am / The Wire Weekly — A digest of independent news and current affairs produced for Australia’s Community Radio Network.
• Tues night @midnight / Ultima Thule — Late night chill; ambient and electronic music with George Cruikshank.
• Wed night @midnight / Live from Studio 3 — Studio performances from Three D Radio in Adelaide.

Programs changing timeslot:

• BLUES, ROOTS & BOOTS, moves from 5pm Tues to 9am Tues.
• IT’S TIME, moves from 9am Tues to 5pm Tues (swapped with Blue Roots ‘n’ Boots).
• MUSIC FOR BEACHES, moves from 6pm Thurs to 10pm Wed.
• SMOOTH & COOL, RARE & SPICY (replay) moves from Wed 9-11pm to Thurs 9-11pm
• HOT, SWEET & JAZZY, moves earlier from Thurs 10pm to 6pm.
• A JAZZ HOUR, moves one hour earlier to 8pm Thur.
• JAZZ JUST FOR YOU (replay) on Sunday night moves one hour earlier to 10pm.
• THE BREEZE, moves from 8pm Thurs to 11pm Sun.
• 45RPM (replay) moves earlier to 12 noon Sat
• THRU-TRAFFIC moves to 2pm Sat

Our full schedule is at https://3bbrfm.org.au/guide
Download a PDF copy of the new schedule to keep or print.

---

As always, if you have feedback about our schedule, please get in touch.  Visit our contact page for the many ways you can do that. 

Guitarist and composer Robbie Melville with cellist Zoe Knighton recently presented an unusual and original mix of music performance and storytelling.

“The Village Square” tells of love and loss, misfortune and mirth, the graceful and grotesque; evocative, enchanting and above all human.

3BBR was there to record their recent intimate performance at Yarragon Studio, and it was heard in the 3BBR-FM Concert Hall on Sunday 2nd February from 2:00pm.

Missed the live broadcast?  3BBR Concert Hall programs are available on our website as audio-on-demand for 8 weeks after broadcast.

West Gippsland Community Radio 3BBR-FM, supporting local live performance.

During January the 3BBR-FM Concert Hall is revisiting highlights of local concerts recorded during 2024, from the Yarragon Studio and Wesley of Warragul.

On Sunday 26 January at 2pm highlights include;

• a piano recital by Georgina Lewis with guest saxophonist, Niels Bijl
• the inaugural concert by the Reeds Bending wind ensemble at the Yarragon Studio ‘Winter Feast’
• the Invictus String Quartet in a selection of Tangos from Argentina
• members of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, premiering a new work, ‘Quintettsatz’ by pianist/composer, Stefan Cassomenos, plus a movement from the Hummel Piano Quintet

On Sunday 19 January at 2pm highlights included performances from;

• the first Yarragon Studio Festival at St Jarleth’s Church, with Niels Bijl – saxophone, Kyla Matsura-Miller – violin, Eliza Shepherd – flute and Stephen Cuttriss playing bandoneon,
• The Contra Guitar Duo,
• Pianist Joshua Hooke,
• Brian Chapman and Friends in the Mendelssohn Piano Trio in D.

Relive the amazing talents of Australia’s finest musicians in these exclusive 3BBR-FM local concert recordings, broadcast in the 3BBR-FM Concert Hall in 2024. Listen live on 103.1FM or streaming, or later on-demand.

3BBR-FM proudly supporting Local Fine Music Concerts.

In a highly anticipated concert by one of Australia’s finest symphony orchestras, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with the West Gippsland Chorale, performed Handel’s greatest oratorio, ‘Messiah’ at the West Gippsland Arts Centre on Friday 6th December.

In this sold-out performance, music lovers in Warragul witnessed an inspirational performance, one worthy of any major world concert hall.

3BBR-FM was there to record this major concert event, and the first of a series of performances of Messiah in regional Victorian centres prior to the Hamer Hall concerts in Melbourne. It was broadcast in the 3BBR FM Concert Hall at 2pm on Sunday 22nd December.

The highly acclaimed Australian conductor, MSO Artist-in-Residence, and baroque music specialist Erin Helyard conducted from the harpsichord with an energy and spirit rarely witnessed in the annual Messiah performances, creating a truly memorable start to the Christmas Season.

It was heart-warming and a joy to see our own West Gippsland Chorale sharing the stage with the MSO Chorus, capping off a special 40th anniversary year for the Chorale.  What an honour for the Chorale to have this opportunity.  The smiling faces of the choristers made this palpable, with choral singing of the highest order.

An impressive cast of equally matched soloists, delivered their arias with perfect diction full of meaning, with ringing quality notes in every aria.  They are young Australian-based singers establishing domestic and international careers; Melbourne-based soprano Stacey Alleaume and tenor Michael Petrucelli, along with Sydney-based mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman and baritone David Greco.

The trumpet soloists in the final aria, ‘The trumpet shall sound’ was one of the most thrilling.

Conductor Erin Helyard said of this iconic work, which features one of the most famous pieces of Baroque choral music in the Hallelujah Chorus, “a wonderful evocation of Christmas”.

Messiah is a true masterpiece written more than 280 years ago yet still inspiring joy and wonder to all, from first-time listeners to the many who make the work a Christmas tradition.

This performance was produced and recorded by Garry Havrillay for 3BBR as a proud supporter of local fine music concerts.

A sublime jazz vocalist, with the golden touch of a legend at the piano features on Gippsland Live on Dec 11th & 13th.  This gorgeous and intimate concert was recorded exclusively by 3BBR at the Yarragon Studio on 17 November 2024.

Pianist and composer Tony Gould is one of Australia’s most respected musicians.  His career has embraced many styles of music, not least jazz and other improvisatory musics in addition to traditional and contemporary classical musics.  He gives many concerts each year and for many years he has been involved in an extraordinary number of recording projects both as pianist and composer and has been at the forefront of music education in Australia via various educational institutions in Melbourne and throughout Australia.

Born in Melbourne, Emma Gilmartin is fast gaining a reputation as one of ,Australia’s most talented jazz vocalists.  While her skill and training lies predominantly in Jazz and Latin styles, Emma Gilmartin is passionate about, and experienced in a variety of styles including Soul, Popular, and Celtic.  She has spent much of her musical life writing her own music in Melbourne.

Listen back to Gippsland Live from Wednesday 11th & Friday 13th December.

Missed the broadcast?  Gippsland Live programs are available on our website as audio-on-demand for 8 weeks after broadcast.

West Gippsland Community Radio 3BBR-FM, supporting local live performance.

Listen back to the 3BBR-FM Concert Hall from Sun December 1st, presenting the recent Gippsland Symphony Orchestra concert under the direction of David Williams OAM, with guest soloist Niels Bijl on saxophones. 

Sergei Prokofiev – Selections from Romeo and Juliet Suite 1 & 2


This ballet composed in 1935-1936 is based on William Shakespeare’s play of the same name.  Prokofiev also arranged three orchestral suites and a set of ten piano pieces from the music for the ballet.  The GSO has selected from suites 1 and 2 for this performance: Montagues and Capulets, Madrigal, Minuet, Masks, Death of Tybalt, Friar Laurence, and Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb.  Prokofiev’s suites are some of the most memorable and dramatic moments from the ballet, capturing the essence of his powerful and evocative compositional style. The suites are often performed in concert and have become popular pieces in the orchestral repertoire.



Claude Debussy – Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra – soloist Niels Bijl


In 1901 American saxophonist Elise Hall had requested Claude Debussy to compose a piece for the saxophone, however, he didn’t take the commission seriously and looked scornfully on the abilities of Hall as a saxophonist and as such did not work on the commission for some time.  Hall made many trips to Paris to meet with Debussy and he eventually began to work on the piece and sent the score for saxophone and piano to Hall in 1911.  It was subsequently arranged for orchestra by Jean Roger-Ducasse in 1919.

ENCORE: Nick Russoniello — Dawn Searching


Soloist Niels Bijl

, saxophone

Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 4


This is a monumental work in the symphonic repertoire, composed in 1884-1885.  This highly regarded symphony explores emotional depth, structural coherence, and symphonic innovation, making it a cornerstone of Romantic symphonic repertoire.  After its premiere performance, the symphony received mixed reviews.  Listeners were challenged by the dense, rich textural colours and the complexity of its structures.  It is now viewed as the work of a genius and rightly celebrated as one of the great symphonic achievements, a work that combines romantic intellectualism and emotional expressionism.  The fourth symphony by Brahms places him in the vanguard of symphonic composers, a rightful heir to Beethoven’s crown.


This performance was recorded on the 10th November 2024 at the West Gippsland Arts Centre, Warragul by 3BBR.

Missed the broadcast? Listen back via our radio-on-demand service before 26 January 2025.

3BBR FM… proudly supporting local fine music.

Listen back to the 3BBR FM Concert Hall, as we proudly featured members of the MCO;  Sophie Rowell – violin,  Merewyn Bramble – viola,  Blair Harris – cello,  Emma Sullivan – double-bass,  with guest pianist/composer Stefan Cassomenos.

On Sunday 13th October, Joseph Baraké presented a dazzling concert of superb musicianship at Wesley of Warragul.  3BBR-FM was thrilled to be there to record it.

Not only was Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet, “The Trout” a highlight feature, but also the new composition by Stefan Cassomenos whose ‘Quintettsatz’ was truly captivating and certain to become a great hit.

In his pre-concert talk, Stefan explained how he came to write this most appealing composition and how he was inspired by Schubert’s music; a fascinating insight into the creative process.

This premiere in Warragul on September 22nd was the final performance in a Regional tour by members of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.

The concert opened with a movement from Hummel’s Piano Quintet written for the same 5 instruments as the Trout Quintet.

• Johann Hummel – Piano Quintet in D minor Op74, 1st movement
• Stefan Cassomenos – Quintettsatz
• Franz Schubert – Piano Quintet in A major D677, “The Trout”

Missed the broadcast? Listen back before 8th Dec 2024 via our radio-on-demand service. 

3BBR-FM… proudly supporting local fine music with exclusive concert recordings in West Gippsland.