Beloved animated children’s show Avatar: The Last Airbender has received the live music treatment with Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert presented by North Street.
Held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert visited highlights from the award-winning series with Jeremy Zuckerman’s original score, conducted by Sara Duhig with the Stage and Screen Orchestra, and special guest soloists Xueyan Chen performing on the Guzheng and Hong Wang performing on the Erhu, plus on traditional Chinese wind instruments.
First premiering in 2005, Avatar: The Last Airbender quickly captured the hearts and attention of kids and teens across the world. Set in an Asian-inspired world where some people have the ability to telekinetically manipulate one of the four elements; earth, water, fire, and air, through a practice known as “bending”. The “Avatar” is the only person who can bend all four elements, and is therefore responsible for maintaining balance and harmony among the four nations.
Following twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last surviving Air Bender, his friends Katara and Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe, and Toph from the Earth Kingdom, help Aang master the four elements, escape capture by exiled Fire Nation prince Zuko, and prevent the Fire Lord Ozai from conquering the world.
Fans of the series came out in full force for Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert, filling the halls of the Plenary theatre space. A true testament to the show’s impact, as much of the audience was made up of adults. Some were even dressed in outfits that displayed their affiliation with their favourite nation, while others were in cosplay as the characters from the series.
The setting for the evening had the orchestra seated under a projector screen and bathed in blue, red, green, and orange, to represent each of the four nations. Introducing the show, conductor Sara Duhig led a call and response with the Melbourne audience, encouraging for “Water Benders”, “Earth Benders”, “Fire Benders” and “Air Benders” to make themselves known, garnering lively cheers as people announced their allegiances.
With a run-time of just over 2-hours, Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert begins with tales from the show’s first “book”, including the first meeting between Aang, Katara and Sokka, the introduction of the Kiyoshi Warriors, and Zuko’s dogged pursuit of the Avatar, before moving on to Book Two and Book Three. To move through the show’s three seasons, Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert showcased only vignettes rather than full episodes, showing key moments from across the beloved show’s 61 episodes, with each segment introduced by a title screen and a change in spotlight colour.
Despite the sheer number of segments shown throughout the night, there were a handful that received uproariously loud applause; as the orchestra progressed through Book Three, the final duel between Zuko, Katara, and Zuko’s sister Azula caused the audience to erupt, and the energy carried through to Aang’s final battle with Fire Lord Ozai and the encore performance of the song ‘Secret Tunnel’ from the Book Two episode The Cave of Two Lovers. While I greatly enjoyed the atmosphere in the venue during these moments, my favourite was the time given to Zuko’s uncle General Iroh.
Fans of the show will remember the Book Two episode The Tales of Ba Sing Se and the emotionally charged segment, The Tale of Iroh. In the segment, Iroh wanders around the Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se, helping various citizens before venturing to the outskirts of the city where he sets up a shrine to his son Lu Ten who died during an unsuccessful siege. The moment when the orchestra performed Iroh’s song ‘Leaves from the Vine’ I felt my throat tighten and tears threaten to fall, and based on the sniffles I heard around me, I knew I wasn’t the only one.
Led by Duhig, the orchestra were in excellent form throughout the night, incorporating vocalists into the ensemble as well as some seemingly pre-recorded tracks to cover instruments that weren’t playable. Some small audio feedback issues during tuning and the beginning of Book Three were the only noticeable problems and thankfully only occurred twice.
Soloist Hong Wang stole the show in many ways, sitting to the Duhig’s right in a bright pink shirt, and exhibited his exceptional skills as a multi-instrumentalist, playing upwards of four instruments throughout concert. Wang, who specialises in traditional Chinese instruments, is credited with participating in the studio recordings of 60-episodes of sequel series, The Legend of Korra, as well as the 2023 Netflix live action adaptation of the original series. Hearing and seeing him smoothly change between instruments was uniquely impressive, and as a former band kid, it made me miss my own orchestra days.
The enchanting evening of experiencing Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert consisted of a fun-filled display of musical talent and exemplary animation, perfect for fans, regardless of whether kids or adults of all ages.
Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert was performed at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre‘s Plenary on Friday the 11th and Saturday the 12th of April.
For more information, ticketing and tour dates, visit:
https://www.avatarinconcert.com
https://www.mcec.com.au/whats-on/2025/04/avatar-the-last-airbender-in-concert
Photography supplied.
