Rachmaninov and Weinberg

RACHMANINOV & WEINBERG

16–18 MAY

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

ARTISTS

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Renes conductor*

Tine Thing Helseth trumpet^

PROGRAM

SHOSTAKOVICH Festive Overture [7']

WEINBERG Trumpet Concerto^ [24']

– Interval –

RACHMANINOV Symphony No.3 [38']

Our musical Acknowledgment of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, will be performed at these concerts.

* Due to personal circumstances, Jonathon Heyward is unable to conduct as originally scheduled.

^ Appearing 16 & 18 May only

CONCERT EVENTS

PRE-CONCERT TALKS

Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with Dr John Gabriel.

16 May at 6.45pm

17 May at 10.15am

18 May at 6.45pm Stalls Foyer on Level 2, Hamer Hall

These concerts may be recorded for future broadcast on MSO.LIVE

Duration

17 May: 1 hour, no interval.

16 & 18 May: 1 hour 40 minutes including interval. Timings listed are approximate.

In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone.

ACKNOWLEDGING COUNTRY

In the first project of its kind in Australia, the MSO has developed a musical Acknowledgment of Country with music composed by Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, featuring Indigenous languages from across Victoria. Generously supported by Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Commonwealth Government through the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, the MSO is working in partnership with Short Black Opera and Indigenous language custodians who are generously sharing their cultural knowledge.

The Acknowledgement of Country allows us to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we perform in the language of that country and in the orchestral language of music.

Long Time Living Here

As a Yorta Yorta/Yuin composer the responsibility I carry to assist the MSO in delivering a respectful acknowledgement of country is a privilege which I take very seriously. I have a duty of care to my ancestors and to the ancestors on whose land the MSO works and performs. This new work [2024] will become the second in a suite of compositions I am creating for the MSO, known simply as Long Time Living Here.

As MSO continues to grow its knowledge and understanding of what it means to truly honour the First people of this land, the musical acknowledgment of country will serve to bring those on stage and those in the audience together in a moment of recognition as as we celebrate the longest continuing cultures in the world.

– Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Committed to shaping and serving the state it inhabits, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s preeminent orchestra and a cornerstone of Victoria’s rich, cultural heritage.

Each year, the MSO and MSO Chorus present more than 180 public events across live performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, and via its online concert hall, MSO.LIVE, engaging an audience of more than five million people in 56 countries. In 2024 the organisation will release its first two albums on the newly established MSO recording label.

With an international reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the MSO works with culturally diverse and First Nations artists to build community and deliver music to people across Melbourne, the state of Victoria and around the world.

In 2024, Jaime Martín leads the Orchestra for his third year as MSO Chief Conductor. Maestro Martín leads an Artistic Family that includes Principal Conductor Benjamin Northey, Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss, MSO Chorus Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Composer in Residence Katy Abbott, Artist in Residence Erin Helyard, MSO First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, Young Cybec Young Composer in Residence Naomi Dodd, and Artist in Association Christian Li.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the people of the Eastern Kulin Nations, on whose un‑ceded lands we honour the continuation of the oldest music practice in the world.

MUSICIANS PERFORMING IN THIS CONCERT

FIRST VIOLINS

Tair Khisambeev

Acting Associate Concertmaster

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Anne-Marie Johnson

Acting Assistant Concertmaster

David Horowicz#

Peter Fellin

Deborah Goodall

Karla Hanna

Lorraine Hook

Kirstin Kenny

Eleanor Mancini

Anne Neil#

Mark Mogilevski

Anna Skalova

Kathryn Taylor

Emily Beauchamp*

Jos Jonker*

Oksana Thompson*

SECOND VIOLINS

Matthew Tomkins

Principal

The Gross Foundation#

Monica Curro

Assistant Principal Dr Mary Jane Gething AO#

Mary Allison

Isin Cakmakçioglu

Tiffany Cheng

Glenn Sedgwick#

Freya Franzen

Cong Gu

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield#

Andrew Hall

Robert Macindoe

Isy Wasserman

Philippa West

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Patrick Wong

Roger Young

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#

Jacqueline Edwards*

VIOLAS

Christopher Moore

Principal

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Lauren Brigden

Katharine Brockman

Anthony Chataway

The late Dr Elizabeth E Lewis AM#

William Clark

Aidan Filshie

Jenny Khafagi

Fiona Sargeant

Ceridwen Davies°

Karen Columbine*

Isabel Morse*

CELLOS

David Berlin

Principal

Rachael Tobin

Associate Principal Anonymous#

Rohan de Korte

Andrew Dudgeon AM#

Rebecca Proietto

Peter T Kempen AM#

Angela Sargeant

Caleb Wong

Alexandra Partridge°

Jonathan Chim*

Anna Pokorny*

DOUBLE BASSES

Stephen Newton

Acting Associate Principal

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser#

Rohan Dasika

Acting Assistant Principal

Benjamin Hanlon

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio#

Suzanne Lee

Caitlin Bass°

Emma Sullivan°

Luca Arcaro*

Correct as of 1 May 2024

Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website

FLUTES

Prudence Davis Principal Anonymous#

Wendy Clarke

Associate Principal

Sarah Beggs

PICCOLO

Andrew Macleod Principal

OBOES

Michael Pisani

Acting Associate Principal

Ann Blackburn

COR ANGLAIS

Rachel Curkpatrick° Acting Principal

CLARINETS

Philip Arkinstall Associate Principal

Craig Hill

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher# Oliver Crofts*

BASS CLARINET

Jon Craven Principal

BASSOONS

Jack Schiller

Principal

Dr Harry Imber#

Elise Millman

Associate Principal

Natasha Thomas

Patricia Nilsson and Dr Martin Tymms#

CONTRABASSOON

Brock Imison Principal

HORNS

Nicolas Fleury Principal

Margaret Jackson AC#

Andrew Young* Guest Associate Principal

Saul Lewis

Principal Third

The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall#

Abbey Edlin

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM#

Rachel Shaw

Gary McPherson#

Rebecca Luton*

TRUMPETS

Owen Morris Principal

Rosie Turner

John and Diana Frew#

Adam Davis^

TROMBONES

Mark Davidson Principal

Richard Shirley

Mike Szabo Principal Bass Trombone

TUBA

Timothy Buzbee Principal

TIMPANI

Matthew Thomas Principal

PERCUSSION

Shaun Trubiano Principal

John Arcaro

Tim and Lyn Edward#

Robert Cossom

Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#

Greg Sully*

Hugh Tidy*

HARP

Yinuo Mu Principal

CELESTE

Louisa Breen*

* Denotes Guest Musician

^ Denotes MSO Academy

° Denotes Contract Musician

# Position supported by

LAWRENCE RENES CONDUCTOR

Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes garners acclaim in both operatic and symphonic realms for his remarkable talent in balancing orchestra and singers, delivering performances brimming with passion, nuance, and style.

The 23/24 season brings Lawrence Renes around the world, with dates with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Regio di Torino, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Auckland Philharmonic.

Formerly Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, his repertoire there ranged from Mozart through to the 21st Century. An energetic champion of contemporary repertoire, he is particularly associated with the music of John Adams (having conducted productions of Nixon in China at San Francisco Opera and Doctor Atomic at both English National Opera and De Nederlandse Opera and orchestral works with London and Hong Kong philharmonic orchestras, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra) but also with George Benjamin, Mark Anthony Turnage, Guillaume Connesson and Robin de Raaff.

TINE THING HELSETH TRUMPET

Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth has championed trumpet repertoire amongst audiences on six continents, meriting the highest critical praise for her soulful, lyrical sound and collaborative approach to music-making. Tine’s everexpanding repertoire ranges from the classical period to contemporary works and new commissions. In 2023, Tine was appointed the Artistic Director of Risør Chamber Music Festival with which she has been associated for over a decade. She also continues tour internationally with her ten-piece, all-female brass ensemble tenThing which she founded in 2007.

She is the recipient of numerous awards for her work in classical music, including the 2013 Echo Klassik “Newcomer of the Year” Award; the second prize in the 2006 Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, to which Tine returned to serve as juror for the 2016 competition; and, in 2007, she was the first ever classical artist to win “Newcomer of the Year” at the Norwegian GRAMMY® Awards (Spellemannprisen).

She maintains an active presence in the recording studio and has released over ten albums to date. She resides in Oslo and maintains a dynamic role in her community as a regular TV and radio presenter, and as a Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

featuring the MSO Chorus and much-loved soloists

Siobhan Stagg and Roderick Williams

29–31 AUGUST

PROGRAM NOTES

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975)

Festive Overture, Op.96

In 1947 things seemed to be going well. Shostakovich regained a professorship at the Leningrad Conservatory, was elected Chair of the Leningrad branch of the Composers’ Union and was named a People’s Artist. As the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Revolution approached, he let it be known that he had composed a Festive Overture for the occasion.

If so, no-one heard it. The piece was never seen, let alone performed at the time. Moreover, Stalin’s henchman Zhdanov had quietly begun his investigation into the ‘shortcomings’ of contemporary Soviet music which would lead, the following year, to the denunciation of a number of composers, Shostakovich among them.

Seven years later, though, Shostakovich was asked—at the very last minute— to compose a short work to open the Bolshoi Theatre’s celebration of the 37th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. He might of course have been tempted to dust off the piece that he composed, (if indeed he had) in 1947, but contemporary accounts have him sending the piece, by courier, as sections of it were complete, with the ink still literally wet.

By 1954, Stalin was no longer among those present, and while Khrushchev would not make his famous ‘secret’ speech denouncing his predecessor’s enormities until 1956, it is hard not hear a sense of massive relief in a work such as this. Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, completed at the time, tests the limits of ‘socialist realism’; the Festive Overture approaches something like untrammelled joy. Perhaps Shostakovich, like Clarence

Darrow, ‘never killed a man, but read some obituaries with great pleasure.’

A brass fanfare of long notes followed by triplets soon involves the whole orchestra, rising in pitch and dynamics before a faster section, in which Shostakovich channels the madcap humour of Rossini—short, repeated motifs, on or off the beat, ‘oompah’ bass line, an irresistible increase in noise and excitement. A contrasting horn melody briefly asserts its dignity, before a louche clarinet line resumes the comic music. This reaches a massive brassy climax, before a slow and stately version of the fanfare returns, capped by a fast and furious coda.

Gordon Kerry © 2024

MIECZYSŁAW WEINBERG (1919–1996)

Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, Op.94 (1967)

I. Etudes

II. Episodes

III. Fanfares

Tine Thing Helseth trumpet

If we cast our minds back to twentiethcentury Soviet music, Mieczysław Weinberg is not a name that typically rings with familiarity. Restored from semiobscurity only in recent years, Weinberg was, in fact, one of the most prolific and well-respected of Soviet composers. By all standards, his was a remarkable life and one beset by personal tragedy. After Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, his mother and sister were (unknown to him at the time) murdered in the Trawniki concentration camp while he undertook a 17-day journey to Minsk. In the 1950s, Weinberg’s father-in-law was murdered and he himself placed under house arrest as his eclectic modernist style and Jewish identity raised alarm bells with Soviet authorities.

Yet the richness of Weinberg’s life was matched by the vast scale of his musical output: his oeuvre teems with no fewer than 22 symphonies, 17 string quartets, seven operas, and incidental music to 65 films. While his musical voice was influenced by various mentors, including Vasily Zolotarev and Nikolai Myaskovsky, it was his discovery of the music of Dmitri Shostakovich that proved most impactful. He had met Shostakovich, 13 years his senior, after relocating to Moscow in 1940, and while Weinberg never formally took lessons with him, he considered himself Shostakovich’s ‘pupil’. Shostakovich, in turn, became a lifelong advocate for Weinberg, describing him as ‘a fine composer, a good man with upright character, but definitely too modest.’ Alongside composition, they made fruitful work of their respective careers as pianists, recording a four-part piano arrangement of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 in 1954.

After the misery of the Stalin years, Weinberg’s compositional career took off in the 1950s and peaked in the 1960s, which Weinberg later considered his ‘stellar years’. The Trumpet Concerto, written in 1967, is a touchstone work of this period—a concerto which the British musicologist David Fanning deems ‘one of the most intriguing and elusive … since the concertos of Haydn and Hummel.’ The first movement, Etudes, most closely resembles Shostakovich’s musical language in its cutting wit and grotesque irony. Weinberg brings folk influences together with modernist techniques such as pointillism, in which single notes serve as discrete melodic material. The trumpet’s lively solo line is taken up and expanded by a carnivalesque orchestral interlude, marked by dancing violins and haughty percussion.

The second and longest movement, Episodes, paints an altogether bleaker picture. Here, the trumpet is cast in a more introspective role. Like the fourth movement, Fears, of Shostakovich’s

Symphony No.13 Babi Yar (written five years earlier in 1962), Episodes seems unmistakably to evoke the lingering trauma of the Soviet past; spacious melodies and sparse orchestral textures suggest an eerily desolate scene. As if trying to break out of its own shell, the dark-hued score develops into a confident middle section only to withdraw again. This time, a slithering flute solo converses with a muted fanfare in the solo trumpet, leading into the third movement, Fanfares.

In a manner typical of post-modernist music from the 1960s, an eccentric opening cadenza presents a range of quotations: what appears to be the opening of Mahler’s Symphony No.5 turns into an altered quotation of the Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while other allusions include Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas The Tale of Tsar Saltan and The Golden Cockerel, the “Chœur des gamins” from Bizet’s Carmen, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka. All of these quotations blend with figures from the opening Etudes, allowing Weinberg to cleverly tie together the concerto’s largescale structure. Melodically, however, the material in Fanfares never quite seems to get off the ground, Weinberg dotting the score with musical fragments until signing off with a brusque tutti slap.

The concerto was written for and dedicated to the Russian virtuoso Timofey Dokshitser, who gave the first performance on January 6, 1968 with the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Kondrashin. While it has enjoyed few performances in the decades since, its recent revival reveals a work that compellingly explores the trumpet’s expressive and technical scope. © Adam Weitzer 2024

SERGEI RACHMANINOV (1873–1943)

Symphony No.3 in A minor, Op.44

I. Lento – Allegro moderato

II. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro vivace – Tempo come prima

III. Allegro

If you were to identify the primary emotion in Rachmaninov’s most popular works you might nominate ‘romantic melancholy’, but that is not at all the overriding feeling in his third symphony. This suave, relatively astringent piece was his first symphonic essay after 27 years, years which represented tumultuous changes in his life; while any composer’s musical development is complex to trace, Rachmaninov’s was irrevocably altered by personal upheaval and a major alteration of his musical objectives.

The Op.39 Etudes tableaux of 1917, his last major work for solo piano before leaving Russia, point the way towards a newer style—inimitably rhapsodic, but much broader in its emotional implications, particularly in fleet-footed musical settings, than in many of his earlier works. Yet a considerable span of years would elapse before he would follow this new direction more fully.

He was 44 years old that year. His decision to settle in the United States with his family after the Russian revolution meant a dramatic flight from his homeland, the subsequent loss of his estates and Russian income, and a seismic career shift in creative priorities from composer/pianist/conductor to concert pianist. The massive effort involved was simply not conducive to compositional creativity: the discipline required to learn new repertoire, maintain his performing career, and keep up his high standards on a frenetic touring schedule, while acclimatising to life in a new country, left him frequently exhausted. He made it known that he

was incapable of composition. ‘How can I compose without melody?’ he told his friend, fellow composer Nicholas Medtner. To another correspondent he wrote: ‘To begin something new seems unattainably difficult.’

Yet beneath this façade of despair he never gave up entirely on the idea of returning to composition, and in the 1925–26 concert season allowed himself a sabbatical. Always paranoically insecure about his own music, Rachmaninov began work on his fourth piano concerto in secret during this self-imposed exile from the concert platform. But the failure of this new work with public and critics on its premiere in 1927 led to another long period of silence, broken four years later with the Variations on a Theme of Corelli, his first solo piano work composed in the West. This too failed to find an audience. He finally created a piece of great public and critical appeal in 1934, with his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and, on a rare compositional ‘high’, began work on the third symphony in June 1935.

Stravinsky once described Rachmaninov as a ‘very old’ composer. Yet the third symphony demonstrates the work of what you might call a progressive conservative. Had he repeated himself—created replicas of his old pre-revolutionary ‘hits’ such as the Second and Third piano concertos—his American audiences would probably have been delighted at just how ‘very old’ he was. But he did not. He re-thought his musical language in a manner that, unfortunately, alienated audiences and critics. The supple, gently pulsating melody which opens this symphony’s first movement, for example, is a case study of the subtleties in the work that puzzled its first audiences and annoyed critics.

The twin gods of contemporary music, Stravinsky and Schoenberg, had made the critical fraternity impatient

with a composer who used a highly chromatic tonal idiom to convey emotional expression, no matter how subtly. The passage that leads to the next major melodic idea suggests that we are going to be treated to a fullblown romantic ‘love theme’. But the gently lyrical, artfully shaped theme we hear confounds these expectations. The development section likewise, with the thematic fragments darting hither and thither with great rhythmic freedom between the bassoons, the percussion, muted trumpets and the strings, is hardly the Rachmaninov of old. Still, it seems nobody was listening. Following its premiere in Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski in 1936, the piece received reviews ranging from the hostile to the polite; then, after its London premiere a few months later, the critic Richard Capell wrote that Rachmaninov was building palaces that nobody wanted to live in.

While Rachmaninov was not interested in being ‘up to date’, and often expressed disdain for new music, the third symphony illustrates that he had his own internal impulses that made it impossible for him to stagnate. He constructs the first movement in a highly conventional sonata form—he even marks in an exposition repeat (not always observed). His innovations here lie in the newer, subtler quality of his harmonic ideas, a much greater freedom in his writing for the woodwind, brass and percussion instruments (and the interplay he creates between them), and a tendency to be less rhapsodic than before and more concise.

The second movement is a different matter. Here Rachmaninov telescopes the idea of slow movement and scherzo together with great beauty and vividness, beginning with a rhapsodic succession of short lyrical ideas— a Bardic transformation of the first movement’s main theme for solo horn

with harp accompaniment, then the ‘slow’ movement’s main theme for solo violin, which is in turn given to the flute, to be worked out passionately by the strings. It might appear at first hearing that he divides the movement neatly in half, as a scurrying passage on the strings introduces a figure of martial demeanour (that actually alternates between duple and triple metre.) But the lyrical music returns by way of a brilliant tremolo passage. There is tremendous passion here, yet coloured with instrumentation of great clarity and precision. This transparency of sound, which now seems so captivating in Rachmaninov’s later music, seemed only to bewilder the work’s first audiences. After all, he was not really a ‘modern’ composer, was he?

The finale of the second symphony found Rachmaninov in unbuttoned mood and the third symphony’s finale opens in the same spirit. But the succession of ideas is rapid and restless, now wildly romantic (a gorgeous lyrical theme for strings divisi) now gently comic (a characterful bassoon solo), now propulsive (a dashing fugue). It soon becomes clear that rhythmic drive and orchestral virtuosity are Rachmaninov’s great interests here. In fact, you might leave this concert remembering how much swiftly moving music the symphony contains relative to its length; the third movement’s final pages, for example, rhythmically scintillating and scored with enormous skill, are a superb demonstration of how vital a composer Rachmaninov was in his 60s. It was his tragedy to be writing this piece at so unresponsive a historical moment; four years would pass before he could summon the courage to bring another major work, his Symphonic Dances, before the public.

© Phillip Sametz 2003/2019

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Guests of Note DINNER SERIES

We warmly invite you to share an intimate evening of conversation, fine food, wine – and of course music! – with some of the biggest superstars from our 2024 Season. Best of all, every ticket raises funds to support the Orchestra’s core artistic program – helping the MSO continue presenting the best artists, thrilling repertoire, and worldclass orchestral performances.

COMING UP

An evening with Jaime Martín & William Barton

Saturday 6 July 2024

An evening with Roderick Williams & Siobhan Stagg

Friday 30 August 2024

For more information and to book your ticket, please scan the QR code or email MSO Philanthropy team at philanthropy@mso.com.au

SUPPORTERS

MSO PATRON

Her Excellency Professor, the Honourable

Margaret Gardner AC, Governor of Victoria

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE

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The Gross Foundation

Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio

Harold Mitchell Foundation

Lady Primrose Potter AC CMRI

Cybec Foundation

The Pratt Foundation

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Anonymous (1)

ARTIST CHAIR BENEFACTORS

Concertmaster Chair

David Li AM and Angela Li

Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair

Leonard Weiss

Cybec Foundation

Acting Associate Concertmaster

Tair Khisambeev

Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio

Cybec Young Composer in Residence

Naomi Dodd

Cybec Foundation

PROGRAM BENEFACTORS

Now & Forever Fund: International Engagement Gandel Foundation

Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program Cybec Foundation

Digital Transformation Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment

First Nations Emerging Artist Program

The Ullmer Family Foundation

East meets West The Li Family Trust, National Foundation for Australia-China Relations

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Mary Gaidzkar

Simon Gaites

Anthony Garvey and Estelle O’Callaghan

David I Gibbs AM and Susie O’Neill

Sonia Gilderdale

Dr Celia Godfrey

Dr Marged Goode

Hilary Hall, in memory of Wilma Collie

David Hardy

Tilda and the late Brian Haughney

Cathy Henry

Dr Jennifer Henry

Anthony and Karen Ho

Rod Home

Lorraine Hook

Jenny and Peter Hordern

Katherine Horwood

Penelope Hughes

Jordan Janssen

Shyama Jayaswal

Basil and Rita Jenkins

Jane Jenkins

Emma Johnson

Wendy Johnson

Sue Johnston

John Kaufman

Angela Kayser

Drs Bruce and Natalie Kellett

Dr Anne Kennedy

Akira Kikkawa

Dr Judith Kinnear

Dr Richard Knafelc and Mr Grevis Beard

Tim Knaggs

Professor David Knowles and

Dr Anne McLachlan

Dr Jerry Koliha and Marlene Krelle

Jane Kunstler

Kerry Landman

Janet and Ross Lapworth

Bryan Lawrence

Lesley McMullin Foundation

Dr Jenny Lewis

Phil Lewis

Dr Kin Liu

Andrew Lockwood

Elizabeth H Loftus

Chris and Anna Long

John MacLeod

Wayne McDonald and Kay Schroer

Lois McKay

Dr Eric Meadows

Professor Geoffrey Metz

Sylvia Miller

Ian Morrey and Geoffrey Minter

Dr Anthony and Dr Anna Morton

Barry Mowszowski

Dr Judith S Nimmo

Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James

Susan Pelka

Ian Penboss

Kerryn Pratchett

Peter Priest

John Prokupets

Professor Charles Qin OAM and Kate Ritchie

Roger Parker and Ruth Parker

Dr Peter Rogers and Cathy Rogers OAM

Dr Ronald and Elizabeth Rosanove

Marie Rowland

Viorica Samson

Marshall Segan in memory of

Berek Segan OBE and Marysia Segan

P Shore

Janet and Alex Starr

Dr Peter Strickland

Dr Joel Symons and Liora Symons

Russell Taylor and Tara Obeyesekere

Geoffrey Thomlinson

Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher

Andrew and Penny Torok

Christina Turner

Ann and Larry Turner

Sandra and the late Leon Velik

Jayde Walker

Edward and Paddy White

Nic and Ann Willcock

Lorraine Woolley

Dr Kelly and Dr Heathcote Wright

George Yeung

Demetrio Zema

Anonymous (13)

OVERTURE PATRONS $500+

Jane Allan and Mark Redmond

Mario M Anders

Jenny Anderson

Dr Judith Armstrong and Robyn Dalziel

Doris Au

Lyn Bailey

Mr Robin Batterham

Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk

Dr William Birch AM

Richard Bolitho

Dr Robert Brook

Elizabeth Brown

Roger and Coll Buckle

Daniel Bushaway

Jungpin Chen

Dr John Collins

Gregory Crew

Sue Cummings

Oliver and Matilda Daly

Suzanne Dembo

Carol des Cognets

Bruce Dudon

Margaret Flatman

Brian Florence

M C Friday

David and Geraldine Glenny

Hugo and Diane Goetze

Louise Gourlay OAM

Christine Grenda

Dawn Hales

George Hampel AM KC and

Felicity Hampel AM SC

John Hill

William Holder

Gillian Horwood

Noelle Howell and Judy Clezy

Oliver Hutton

Rob Jackson

Irene Kearsey & Michael Ridley

John Keys

Lesley King

Dr Kim Langfield-Smith

Pauline and David Lawton

Paschalina Leach

Kay Liu

David Loggia

Helen Maclean

Eleanor & Phillip Mancini

Joy Manners

Dr Morris and Helen Margolis

Sandra Masel in memory of Leigh Masel

Janice Mayfield

Gail McKay

Shirley A McKenzie

Alan Meads and Sandra Boon

Adrian and Louise Nelson

Marian Neumann

Ed Newbigin

Valerie Newman

Amanda O’Brien

Brendan O’Donnell

Jillian Pappas

Phil Parker

Sarah Patterson

The Hon Chris Pearce and Andrea Pearce

William Ramirez

Geoffrey Ravenscroft

Dr Christopher Rees

Professor John Rickard

Michael Riordan and Geoffrey Bush

Fred and Patricia Russell

Carolyn Sanders

Dr Marc Saunders

Dr Nora Scheinkestel

Julia Schlapp

Hon Jim Short and Jan Rothwell Short

Madeline Soloveychik

Tom Sykes

Allison Taylor

Reverend Angela Thomas

Mely Tjandra

Chris and Helen Trueman

Rosemary Warnock

Amanda Watson

Michael Whishaw

Deborah and Dr Kevin Whithear OAM

Charles and Jill Wright

Anonymous (13)

FUTURE MSO ($1,000+)

Justine Battistella

Shayna Burns

Jessica Agoston Cleary

Alexandra Champion de Crespigny

Josh Chye

Barry Mowszowski

Jayde Walker

Demetrio Zema

MSO GUARDIANS

Jenny Anderson

David Angelovich

Lesley Bawden

Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk

Joyce Bown

Patricia A Breslin

Jenny Brukner and the late John Brukner

Peter A Caldwell

Luci and Ron Chambers

Sandra Dent

Sophie E Dougall in memory of Libby Harold

Alan Egan JP

Gunta Eglite

Marguerite Garnon-Williams

Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade

Louis J Hamon OAM

Charles Hardman and Julianne Bambacas

Carol Hay

Dr Jennifer Henry

Graham Hogarth

Rod Home

Lyndon Horsburgh

Katherine Horwood

Tony Howe

Lindsay and Michael Jacombs

John Jones

Pauline and David Lawton

Robyn and Maurice Lichter

Christopher Menz and Peter Rose

Cameron Mowat

Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James

David Orr

Matthew O’Sullivan

Rosia Pasteur

Penny Rawlins

Margaret Riches

Anne Roussac-Hoyne and Neil Roussac

Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead

Anne Kieni Serpell and Andrew Serpell

Jennifer Shepherd

Suzette Sherazee

Professors Gabriela and George Stephenson

Pamela Swansson

Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock

Peter and the late Elizabeth Turner

Michael Ullmer AO

The Hon Rosemary Varty

Francis Vergona

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke

Mark Young

Anonymous (23)

The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates:

Norma Ruth Atwell

Angela Beagley

Barbara Bobbe

Michael Francois Boyt

Christine Mary Bridgart

Margaret Anne Brien

Ken Bullen

Deidre and Malcolm Carkeek

The Cuming Bequest

Margaret Davies

Blair Doig Dixon

Neilma Gantner

Angela Felicity Glover

The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC

Derek John Grantham

Delina Victoria Schembri-Hardy

Enid Florence Hookey

Gwen Hunt

Family and Friends of James Jacoby

Audrey Jenkins

Joan Jones

Pauline Marie Johnston

Christine Mary Kellam

C P Kemp

Jennifer Selina Laurent

Sylvia Rose Lavelle

Peter Forbes MacLaren

Joan Winsome Maslen

Lorraine Maxine Meldrum

Prof Andrew McCredie

Jean Moore

Joan P Robinson

Maxwell and Jill Schultz

Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE

Marion A I H M Spence

Molly Stephens

Gwennyth St John

Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian

Jennifer May Teague

Elisabeth Turner

Albert Henry Ullin

Jean Tweedie

Herta and Fred B Vogel

Daphne White

Joyce Winsome Woodroffe

Dorothy Wood

COMMISSIONING CIRCLE

Cecilie Hall and the Late Hon Michael Watt KC

Tim and Lyn Edward

Weis Family

FIRST NATIONS CIRCLE

John and Lorraine Bates

Colin Golvan AM KC and Dr Deborah Golvan

Sascha O. Becker

Maestro Jaime Martín

Elizabeth Proust AO and Brian Lawrence

Guy Ross

The Kate and Stephen Shelmerdine Family

Foundation

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

ADOPT A MUSICIAN

Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson

Peter Edwards

Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan

Roger Young

Andrew Dudgeon AM

Rohan de Korte, Philippa West

Tim and Lyn Edward

John Arcaro

Dr John and Diana Frew

Rosie Turner

Sophie Galaise and Clarence Fraser

Stephen Newton

Dr Mary-Jane Gething AO

Monica Curro

The Gross Foundation

Matthew Tomkins

Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade

Robert Cossom

Cecilie Hall and the late Hon Michael Watt KC

Saul Lewis

Nereda Hanlon and Michael Hanlon AM

Abbey Edlin

David Horowicz

Anne Marie Johnson

Dr Harry Imber

Sarah Curro, Jack Schiller

Margaret Jackson AC

Nicolas Fleury

Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio

Elina Fashki, Benjamin Hanlon, Tair Khisambeev, Christopher Moore

Peter T Kempen AM

Rebecca Proietto

The late Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM

Anthony Chataway

Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher

Craig Hill

Gary McPherson

Rachel Shaw

Anne Neil

Eleanor Mancini

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield

Cong Gu

Patricia Nilsson and Dr Martin Tymms

Natasha Thomas

Andrew and Judy Rogers

Michelle Wood

Glenn Sedgwick

Tiffany Cheng, Shane Hooton

Anonymous

Prudence Davis

Anonymous

Rachael Tobin

HONORARY APPOINTMENTS

Life Members

John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC

Sir Elton John CBE

Lady Primrose Potter AC CMRI

Jeanne Pratt AC

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

Anonymous

MSO Ambassador

Geoffrey Rush AC

The MSO honours the memory of Life Members

The late Marc Besen AC and the late Eva Besen AO

John Brockman OAM

The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC

Harold Mitchell AC

Roger Riordan AM

Ila Vanrenen

MSO ARTISTIC FAMILY

Jaime Martín

Chief Conductor

Benjamin Northey

Principal Conductor

Artistic Advisor – Learning and Engagement

Leonard Weiss

Cybec Assistant Conductor

Sir Andrew Davis CBE †

Conductor Laureate (2013–2024)

Hiroyuki Iwaki †

Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

MSO Chorus Director

Erin Helyard

Artist in Residence

Karen Kyriakou

Artist in Residence, Learning and Engagement

Christian Li

Young Artist in Association

Katy Abbott

Composer in Residence

Naomi Dodd

Cybec Young Composer in Residence

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO

First Nations Creative Chair

Xian Zhang

East meets West Ambassador

Artistic Ambassadors

Tan Dun

Lu Siqing

MSO BOARD

Chairman

David Li AM

Co-Deputy Chairs

Margaret Jackson AC

Di Jameson OAM

Managing Director

Sophie Galaise

Board Directors

Shane Buggle

Andrew Dudgeon AM

Martin Foley

Lorraine Hook

Gary McPherson

Farrel Meltzer

Edgar Myer

Glenn Sedgwick

Mary Waldron

Company Secretary

Demetrio Zema

The MSO relies on your ongoing philanthropic support to sustain our artists, and support access, education, community engagement and more. We invite our supporters to get close to the MSO through a range of special events.

The MSO welcomes your support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible, and supporters are recognised as follows:

$500+ (Overture)

$1,000+ (Player)

$2,500+ (Associate)

$5,000+ (Principal)

$10,000+ (Maestro)

$20,000+ (Impresario)

$50,000+ (Virtuoso)

$100,000+ (Platinum)

Thank you to our Partners

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM PARTNER VENUE PARTNER

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

PREMIER PARTNERS

EDUCATION PARTNERS

ORCHESTRAL TRAINING PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS

The Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation, The Angior Family Foundation, Flora & Frank Leith Trust, Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment, Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund