In collaboration with Australian artist David Campbell, the Sydney Symphony will perform the opening concert of the newly built Sydney Coliseum Theatre, West HQ with a festive themed concert. The holiday season inspired program David Campbell with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Christmas at the Coliseum (12-13 Dec) marks the start of a two-year partnership between […]

At the end of 2018, the MSO secured an international distribution agreement with UNITEL, a leading producer and distributor of classical music for TV, DVD and Blu-Ray, cinema and new media. Starting in Season 2019, a selection of eight MSO concerts were distributed via UNITEL to media outlets throughout Europe, America and Asia. The agreement […]

Recently, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Principal Artistic Partner, the violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman, returned home after a two week tour to China and South Korea. Since returning, many of us at the ASO have been reflecting on what it takes to tour a symphony orchestra internationally. Where lay the challenges and what are […]

Compose – Symphony for Tomorrow connects secondary school students with professional composers and performers, providing opportunities to improve students’ knowledge and skills in composition for orchestra. The program aims to strengthen ties between young people in schools and the QSO and encourages them in their aspirations to become composers. Students from Brisbane Boys’ College, Mansfield State […]

TSO maintains its commitment to being an orchestra for all Tasmanians with a Northern Engagement Strategy. In 2020 the TSO will focus on deepening its engagement with Northern Tasmania through a structured, multiplatform program. Considering all key organisational areas from artistic presence, audience enjoyment and development through to community engagement, capacity building, learning resourcing and […]

Every year the West Australian Symphony Orchestra nurtures a new generation of young and emerging artists, assisting them in finding their pathway into the profession and helping to secure a bright future for music in Australia. WASO will invite West Australian-based musicians to be part of the inaugural Emerging Conductors program in 2020 as part […]

In April the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra used Aaron Copland’s ballet score Appalachian Spring as a catalyst for creating a new music-and-dance work under the guidance of internationally acclaimed Creative Director and guest artist Paul Rissmann, choreographer Carlie Angel and three ASO mentors. Over the six days of the project 20 secondary students (14 music, 6 […]

On Friday 21 June at 7pm, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will celebrate international Make Music Day with a free, global livestream of its Music of the Oud concert, featuring Egyptian-Australian oud (Egyptian lute) player Joseph Tawardros, live from the Sydney Opera House. Originally launched in 1982 as Fête de la Musique in France, Make Music Day is an annual […]

Delivering on its commitment to bring quality music education and concert experiences to regional Queensland, 14 musicians from Queensland Symphony Orchestra visited Gladstone during May to perform with more than 300 local high school and primary school students in the GEM Community Concert. This was QSO’s eighth year performing in Gladstone and the fifth Community […]

This February, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra undertook a major and historically significant Australian music recording project, a double CD recording of the orchestral works of the Olympic gold-medal-winning oarsman, noted pianist, deeply gifted composer and WWI soldier Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881-1916), who has been described as ‘Australia’s most important cultural loss of the Great War’. […]

Koorlangka is described as ‘a modern take on ancient music’, with all songs performed in Noongar language. A one-hour suite of lullabies and traditional stories exploring the theme of children and legacy, these thought-provoking and beautiful works delighted everyone in their debut at the 2019 Karijini Experience. West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s string quartet of Assistant […]

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is deeply committed to working side by side with Traditional Owners and increasing Australians’ experience of Indigenous cultures through meaningful, authentic and creative engagement. In 2019, the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages, the company is undertaking a number of exciting projects which have language at their core. Eumeralla: A war […]

On 17 November, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, joined by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Chamber Choir and the Conservatorium High School Chamber Choir, celebrated the life of the late music educator Richard Gill with a free concert open to the public at the Sydney Opera House. Together with Kim Williams, Australian media executive, a former […]

Queensland Symphony Orchestra was pleased to collaborate with Townsville’s community Barrier Reef Orchestra for its Stage & Screen concert, conducted by Richard Davis. With repertoire by composers such as Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Mozart and of course the legendary John Williams, this was a stimulating evening for both orchestra and audience. Richard Davis travelled to Townsville two […]

Since August 2016 the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra has actively expanded its audience base with an initiative known as TSO Live Sessions, concerts which target younger ticket buyers with little or no history of attending orchestral concerts. ‘Out of the concert hall and into the pub’ is one of the slogans that has been used to […]

Music is vital to our health and well-being, so let’s not forget those who bring music to life – from musicians to our behind-the-scenes staff, West Australian Symphony Orchestra is committed to bringing extraordinary music to the Western Australian community and their health and wellbeing is just as important to us as the performances they […]

This year the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has travelled to nine regional centres (Geelong, Wangaratta, Shepparton, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Mildura, Warragul, Bendigo and Ballarat) giving a total of 20 performances and 26 workshops for over 11,000 people. Highlights of the MSO’s regional engagement in 2018 include: A welcome return to Mildura after 25 years saw the MSO […]

Following an invitation from the Parliamentary Friends of Orchestral Music group, Symphony Services Australia secured members of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for four pop-up performances in Parliament House in late November. Musicians Emma Perkins, Gillian Braithwaite, Rosemary McGowran and David Sharp performed works by Elgar, Vivaldi, Graeme Koehne, Coldplay and The Beatles in the Marble […]

Original compositions by secondary school students were performed recently in Babinda and Trinity Beach as part of Cairns Festival’s Suburban Satellites program. The works were created under the direction of QSO cellist Craig Allister Young, and songwriters Donna Dyson and Tyrone Noonan. For the Symphony for Tomorrow project students were invited to collaborate on writing […]

2018 has been a period of organisational change for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, with both Chief Conductor and Managing Director concluding their longstanding roles with the organisation. The TSO’s current Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Marko Letonja, will come to the end of his seven-year tenure at the end of 2018. His successor will be […]

A world- class orchestra, deeply engaged in the community, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra has been inspiring and enriching the lives of West Australians from the centre of Perth to the furthest corners of the state since 1928. To celebrate WASO’s 90th Anniversary the full orchestra will hit the road in November to present sublime, […]

On 23 and 24 August an ensemble of eight musicians from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra took part in the 34th Harbin Summer Music Festival in China. On the program was The Bush Concert, an ASO-commissioned work for young people based on the book of the same name by Australian author Helga Visser. The story, about […]

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has signed a significant four-year partnership with the Singapore Symphony Group that will lead to joint orchestral performances, collaborations, exchange and concerts in both countries. Witnessing the signing of the MoU in Melbourne, Minister for Communications and the Arts Senator Mitch Fifield welcomed the partnership as significant for both nations: ‘This […]

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra led Australia’s flagship event in this year’s international Make Music Day with a free global livestream of its Verdi’s Requiem concert, direct from the Sydney Opera House. Held annually on 21 June, Make Music Day is a celebration of music involving 800 cities in 120 countries. Alongside the audience in the […]

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has announced a mighty 2017 season filled with extraordinary choral delights, dreamy orchestral nights, superstar music sensations and stories of romantic temptations! The new season will see 38 international guest artists performing in Melbourne with the MSO. Twelve of these artists will be visiting Australia for the first time and 21 […]

Sixteen high school students from remote communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory travelled to Sydney last month with the Cathy Freeman Foundation, thanks to support from SSO Premier Partner Credit Suisse. Hailing from Palm Island, Woorabinda, Galiwin’ku and Wurrumiyanga, the students visited the Sydney Opera House for a behind-the-scenes tour and window into daily […]

QSO’s Music Director, Alondra de la Parra, recently announced the 2017 Season for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Her international influence can be seen in the diverse program and star-studded roster of leading soloists and conductors, featuring many QSO exclusives and Australian debuts, in grand celebration of the Orchestra’s 70th anniversary year. In a significant international […]

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra partnered with the UTAS Conservatorium of Music and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) to create the Composers’ Project, an exciting new training initiative for composition students in grade 11/12. Nine Tasmanian high school students and six music teachers took part, guided by Dr Maria Grenfell, Co-ordinator of Composition and […]

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s first recording in seven years is a significant milestone. Titled Brahms: The Symphonies, the album features WASO and Principal Conductor Asher Fisch performing the complete cycle of all four of Brahms’ symphonies. These four symphonies are regarded as some of the most important works in the classical music canon, and […]

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s China engagement initiatives have been given a major boost with the announcement of a substantial financial gift over the next three years. ASO Managing Director, Vincent Ciccarello, said that thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Dr Sing Ping Ting, the orchestra will be able to undertake a range of activities focusing […]

  Fifty-five teachers from across NSW gave up one week of their holidays in January to participate in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s teacher training residency TunED-Up! at the ABC Centre in Sydney. Travelling from as far as South Tweed Heads, the teachers hailed from 41 schools including Cobar Public School, Ross Hill Public School and […]

  In another record-breaking year, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra has continued to set new standards in orchestral management, financial sustainability and artistic rigour. QSO once again achieved a surplus in 2015. Ticket sales for QSO mainstage concerts grew by 26% in 2015, including an increase of 45% in single ticket sales. Sales of subscription packages […]

  The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra inaugurated its Prison Outreach Program in 2015 with a series of activities involving inmates at the Ron Barwick Minimum Security Prison in Hobart. Musicians from the TSO conducted workshops in May and June involving prisoners and their families. This was a way of bringing music to the inmates and, at […]

  WASO’s Crescendo is an El Sistema-inspired music education program, providing free music lessons on a weekly basis to all Pre-primary, Year 1 and Year 2 students at two schools in Perth’s southern suburb of Kwinana. The El Sistema model, established by Venezuelan José Antonio Abreu in 1975, seeks to empower children from disadvantaged backgrounds […]

The first concert in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Great Classics 2016 series, Carter & Wagner, has been hailed as “beautiful”, “outstanding”, “fantastic” and “incredible”. Nicholas Carter stepped onto the Festival Theatre stage for his first concert as the ASO’s Principal Conductor to officially open the orchestra’s 80th anniversary season on Saturday 13 February. Carter’s inaugural […]

  Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up with music in their lives and with The Pizzicato Effect, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s community music program, music is far more than notes on a page. On 9 December, 163 students joined MSO musicians and Pizzicato Effect Teaching Artists in a concert celebrating the achievements of the […]