Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra
Former name South Australian Symphony Orchestra
Founded 1936
Principal conductor Nicholas Carter
Website www.aso.com.au

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra has a reputation for vitality and versatility. The internationally acclaimed orchestra is South Australia’s largest performing arts organization (employing 75 full-time musicians), established in 1936. For over 80 years, the ASO has been there to corroborate life and contribute to South Australia’s identity. Today the ASO plays a major role in Adelaide’s cultural and economic vibrancy, and enriches the community through more than 70 world-class performances to more than 90,000 diverse concertgoers each season. Delivering diverse and colourful programming with leading international and Australian musicians, it has also enjoyed hugely successful performances with artists such as The Angels, Ben Folds, Tim Minchin and the Hilltop Hoods.

Based in Adelaide, South Australia. Its primary performance venue is the Adelaide Town Hall, but the ASO also performs in other venues such as the Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide and its own Grainger Studio. The ASO provides the orchestral support for all productions of the State Opera of South Australia, as well as the Adelaide performances of the Australian Ballet. The orchestra is also a regular featured ensemble at the Adelaide Festival, and also appears as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival and WOMAdelaide.

History

In 1936 the South Australian Orchestra was supplanted by the 50-member Adelaide Symphony Orchestra led by William Cade, and sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.[1] The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55-member South Australian Symphony Orchestra, with Henry Krips as its resident conductor. The orchestra reverted to its original title, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in late 1975, and currently comprises 75 permanent members. Chief conductors of the orchestra have included Elyakum Shapirra, Piero Gamba, Albert Rosen, Nicholas Braithwaite, David Porcelijn and Arvo Volmer. The ASO's current Principal Conductor is Nicholas Carter, who began in the position in 2016. Nicholas is the youngest Principal Conductor in the orchestra’s history, and the first Australian conductor to be appointed to a Principal Conductor position with a major Australian orchestra in almost 30 years.

Artistic Leadership Team

In 2016 the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra formed its first Artistic Leadership Team, comprising its new Artist in Association, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor (the late), Sir Jeffrey Tate, and the orchestra’s own Principal Conductor, Nicholas Carter. In 2018 the orchestra’s Artistic Leadership Team evolved to include young violinist and the orchestra’s new Emerging Artist in Association, Grace Clifford, Australian composer and the orchestra’s new Composer in Association, Cathy Milliken, and British conductor and the orchestra’s new Principal Guest Conductor, Mark Wigglesworth. In 2019 the Artistic Leadership Team includes five members – Pinchas Zukerman, Cathy Milliken, Grace Clifford, Nicholas Carter and Mark Wigglesworth.

Achievements

The ASO's highlights have included its 1998 performances of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, the first Australian production since 1913[5] (although it was widely and erroneously claimed to be the first ever in Australia). The orchestra participated in the first fully Australian production of The Ring in 2004. In 2017 the orchestra was central in the Adelaide Festival’s staging of Barrie Kosky’s Saul – a production from Glyndebourne Opera in the UK, and again in 2018 for the Adelaide Festival’s Glyndebourne Opera production and Australian Premiere of composer Brett Dean’s new opera, Hamlet. These performances were received with critical acclaim and numerous Helpmann Awards.

In 2007, the orchestra partnered with Hilltop Hoods to prepare a re-orchestrated release of their album The Hard Road, titled The Hard Road: Restrung.[3] In 2015 the Hilltop Hoods collaborated for a second time with the 32-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the 20-piece Adelaide Chamber Singers Choir for their next re-orchestrated album titled Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung.[4] In February 2016, the Hilltop Hoods released their second album of reworked songs featuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Drinking from the Sun, Walking under Stars Restrung, which debuted at #1 in the charts.

In 2009 Premier and Arts Minister Mike Rann proposed and provided government funding to the ASO to commission a major orchestral work about climate change. The ASO's world premiere of Gerard Brophy's 'The Blue Thread', inspired by the River Murray, was performed at the Concert for the Earth at the Adelaide Town Hall on 27 November 2010.[6] The Rann government proposed and arranged funding for two further ASO commissions, the first an orchestral tribute to the cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, and the second commemorating the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli. The world premiere of 'Our Don' by Natalie Williams was performed by the ASO in August 2014.[7] The world premiere of an 'ANZAC Requiem' by composer Iain Grandage and librettist Kate Mulvany was performed on 22 April 2015.[8]

Recognition, Awards and International Tours

Principal Conductors

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Advertiser Off The Record: Orchestra now in baton race to replace young gun March 31, 2017 "Complicating matters in 32-year-old Carter’s case is the nature of his historic appointment – the first Australian to lead a state orchestra in 30 years and one of the youngest ever. In 2015, the ASO board recognised his youthful brilliance but, in an unusual move, also appointed old hands Jeffrey Tate and Pinchas Zukerman to help."
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