“The performances are a revelation. […] Go, meanwhile, may be new to acting but inhabits her roles with an ease made all the more impressive by her ability to slip in and out of performance at the keyboard without missing a beat. Her playing moreover possesses a lightness and colour that recalls pianists like the Lithuanian-born American Nadia Reisenberg (1904-83)” - ArtsHub, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva. Read full review here
“Pianist, Aura Go, and actor, Jennifer Vuletic, are phenomenal. […] Go transitions from the piano to the stage with similar unrelenting energy and provides some truly exquisite renditions of the Preludes.” – Stage Whispers, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva. Read full review here
“Pianist turned actor Aura Go giving some superb accounts of these famous pieces scattered throughout the evening. Her playing is unremittingly warm-hearted and insightful, with her deep rich tonal qualities bringing all Chopin’s pathos and delicacy into bold relief. […] Her account of the C minor Prelude was especially memorable and captured wonderfully its elusively subtle simplicity. […] A tour de force.” – The Adelaide Advertiser, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva.
“This intriguing narrative and the eventual fate of the piano are effectively woven into a performance of the preludes, to which Go brings eloquence and energy in equal measure. In addition to her vibrant pianism, Go reveals a versatile stage presence taking on not only the role of Chopin, but several other cameos along the way.” – The Age, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva. Read full review here
“The theatrical show was held together by the golden thread of the Preludes, a theme and variations played with virtuosic artistry, tone and pathos by Go.” - The West Australian, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva.
“Go’s pianism ensured that the voicing always preserved a ringing melody line, wherever Chopin placed it across the keyboard. Poetry and passion was clearly maintained in this way. All the famous preludes were interpreted by Go here with edge-of-the-seat creativity. No 4 in E minor unfolded with delicacy and a requisite brief, big-picture arch. No 2 in A minor was stridently novel. A triumph of mood and colour was No 6 in B minor with its plaintive cello-like melody, played with heartbreaking focus.” - Sydney Arts Guide, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva. Read full review here
“While we knew brilliant pianist Aura Go would be performing the full set of Preludes, we were in awe of her depth of acting ability and personification of the varied roles she would play, and with a most remarkable partner in Jennifer Vuletic we were spellbound by the complex personal relationships presented in an emotionally engaging and musical perspective. […] Nobody in the audience dared to move, struck with the power of the scene and our dual engagement with admiration for Aura Go and Chopin the pianist. […[ This was a truly wonderful and special collaboration, extremely moving and deeply heartfelt by all who experienced this magical re-creation of the spirit of Chopin.” - Classic Melbourne, July 2023. Chopin’s Piano National Tour, Musica Viva. Read full review here
The Music Show, ABC Radio National – Interview with Aura Go on Chopin’s Piano: listen to the interview here
Lisa Illean’s new work arcing, stilling, bending, gathering to be premiered by Aura Go, Emma McGrath and musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music. Read story here
News: Aura Go and the Australian National Academy of Music premiere Lisa Illean’s arcing, stilling, bending, gathering in Melbourne. Read story here
“[A]s the sparkling runs of the piano kicked in it was obvious that Go was the perfect partner for these taxing works. The musical chemistry between the two was palpable, from the sunny Mozartian feel of the opening movement to the playful interplay of the second and the skipping finale.” - Limelight Magazine, March 2022. Beethoven: the complete sonatas for piano and cello with Timo-Veikko Valve. Sydney Opera House. Full review here
“Pianistic fireworks were taken to a new level with the world premiere of Crunch by Holly Harrison […] It was inventive, witty and invested with thrilling rhythmic dynamism and momentum. And Go and Kawabata were in their perfectly synchronized virtuosic element. For any member of the audience unfamiliar with Harrison’s work, this concert was something of a revelation.” - Classic Melbourne, December 2021. KIAZMA Piano Duo at Melbourne Recital Centre. Full review here
“Aura Go’s entrance to the stage for Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s Piano Concerto in C minor connected warmly with the audience, who appreciated the range of personality and expression in an authoritative performance. Her cadenzas in particular showed much nuance and tonal variation, complementing her precise and technical brilliance.” - Classic Melbourne, April 2021. Brothers Bach tour with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Full review here
Aura Go appointed lecturer and Coordinator of Piano at Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music in 2020, Monash University. Read more here
Video portrait for Musica Viva FutureMakers.
“The Dowland was cleverly paired with Thomas Adès’ 1992 piano work Darknesse Visible – which the composer described as “an explosion” of Dowland’s In Darknesse Let Mee Dwell – given a detailed, mesmerising reading here by Aura Go. With stabbing accents, shimmering textures and lute-like tremolos, Go commanding a mood at once vast and intimate with deft control and sensitivity.” - Limelight Magazine, August 2019. Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
Shamray and Go dialled up the virtuosic brilliance in Rachmaninoff's Suite No. 2 for two pianos. The duo's razor-sharp precision illuminated its scintillating passagework and dense, swirling textures: their fast tempos and strong dynamic contrasts generated thrilling power and urgency.” - The Australian, April 29 2019.
“It was a work that showcased all three musicians’ technical abilities but more so, Aura Go as a pianist of great subtleties.” - Limelight Magazine, April 2019. Musica Viva Festival, Concert 5. Read full review here
“From the boisterous fanfare of the opening, the pair embraced the powerful textures that can be drawn from two Steinways placed side by side, hints of playful repartee shining through Rachmaninov’s lush writing. The second movement’s waltz had a rippling energy – and some beautiful soft moments – while Go and Shamray captured the intense lyricism of the music in the Romance, and indeed, throughout the piece, before the mad fingers-flying dance of the Tarantella.” Limelight Magazine, April 2019. Musica Viva Festival, Concert 2. Read full review here
Artist Q&A ahead of Musica Viva Festival, April 2019
“Aura Go and Tomoe Kawabata of the Kiazma Piano Duo were proof of this in practice at their latest MRC outing. Beginning their all-Schubert program with the 8 Variations on an Original Theme, followed by the epically challenging Grand Duo Sonata, this intricately attuned pair shared a wonderfully responsive intimacy. More than just two musicians in tandem, this was a single interpretive vision at work, passionate yet detailed and carefully balanced.” - The Age, April 2019. Read full review here
Central Western Daily: Conservatorium welcomes acclaimed pianist, February 2019
“Her recent recital as part of the Sydney Opera House’s Crescendo series quickly demonstrated her potential and worth as an artist to foster innovative musical exchange in the decades ahead […] Bold and inspiring … innate storytelling.” - Sydney Arts Guide, October 2018. Solo recital debut at the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room “Crescendo” Series. Read full review here
Limelight Magazine Q&A ahead of Huntington Estate Music Festival, October 2018
"Virtuoso Aura Go, who has enriched Finnish musical life ever since her participation in the Maj Lind Competition in 2012, played with great temperament and courage and was precise and well-articulated in her interpretation." - Hufvudstadsbladet, November 2017. Read full review here (in Swedish)
“Australian pianist Aura Go performed Liszt and Berg with great insight and intensity.” – Hufvudstadsbladet, July 2017.
“Australian-born pianist Aura Go [...] communicated the entire program with commanding clarity and an impressive range of characters. She shaped Noctuelles and Oiseaux Tristes from Ravel’s Miroirs with a touchingly beautiful singing sound and a dazzling ability to elicit the multilayered textures.” – Rondo magazine, January 2017
"The most dedicated audience members stayed on for a precious event: Aura Go and Tomoe Kawabata’s late-night performance of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen for two pianos. [...] Go and Kawabata’s performance was positively ecstatic. Locked on to each other’s gaze across the bodies of the two grand pianos, sweat dripping onto the keyboards, each movement was a masterful, sensitive interpretation of Messiaen’s understanding of the polyvalent “Amen”. Returning to this work composed shortly after the Second World War, at the dawn of the experiments in form, rhythm, pitch, and timbre we call “contemporary music,” was the perfect nightcap for a thrilling festival." - Full review on Partial Durations, May 2016
May 2016: CutCommon interview about Messiaen's Visions de l'amen
"These two young pianists were positively riveting in a work that offered huge rewards for the listener. [...] profoundly moving, subtle and often exuberant interpretation of another Messiaen masterpiece." - Full review from Classic Melbourne, May 2016
Review of 'In My Beloved's Garden' in Kulttuurivihkot (in Finnish), here.
"Aura Go made a big impression, proving herself to be a great musician and brilliant pianist with an impressive dynamic range. Perhaps it was her ability to convey the scope and vary the expression of each work that impressed the most. At times she seemed to create an entire universe of hues within their frames.” – Hufvudstadsbladet, September 2012
"Pianist Aura Go is clearly passionate about this music. This was a program which was not only musically diverse but technically demanding, and Ms. Go’s ability to make a convincing argument for each piece was truly admirable. Perhaps Helsinki audiences can look forward to her as soloist in the piano concertos of Rautavaara, Lindberg, or Salonen?" - ResMusica.com | Rautavaara's World, October 2014. Read full review here.
"[Go's] own solo program two nights later was simply astonishing in its complexity and the demands it made on her musicality and virtuosity – not to mention her stamina. [...] In addition to her total commitment as a focused performer, whose every gesture seems to be part of an elastic musical continuum, her virtuosity also enabled an exploration of pretty well every sonic possibility that a piano has to offer. [...] In a piano recital of enormous variety, you could not have found a more eloquent exponent of new music." - Classic Melbourne | Metropolis New Music Festival, April 2014. Read full review here.
Artshub article, Metropolis festival 2014
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1, September 2013. Read review here.
Sydney Morning Herald: New Duo Shine in Stirring Recital. Full review here.