Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (ABO) is an Australian period instrument orchestra specialising in the performance of baroque and classical music.

Founders

The orchestra's founder and artistic director is Paul Dyer.[1] In 2013 Dyer was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his "distinguished service to the performing arts, particularly orchestral music as a director, conductor and musician, through the promotion of educational programs and support for emerging artists".[2] In 1995 he received a Churchill Fellowship to undertake advanced studies in 17th and 18th Century music performance practicesin the UK, Netherlands, and France.[3] Dyer is also Patron of St Gabriel’s School for Hearing Impaired Children. In 2003 Paul was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for his services to Australian society and the advancement of music and in 2010 the Sydney University Alumni Medal for Professional Achievement.

The other founder is current Managing Director is Bruce Applebum.

History

The orchestra was formed in 1989 by Paul Dyer and Bruce Applebaum and their name pays tribute to the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach, who was central to the Baroque period.

Since the beginning in 1989, the orchestra has become the leading voice in the Australian cultural landscape due to the purity of their work when compared with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The group under Paul Dyer and Bruce Applebaum's leadership commenced life as the Brandenburg Ensemble, then as the Brandenburg Orchestra, and finally the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Its first concert was in January 1990, in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. While often crediting himself as the first to bring baroque music on historically accurate instruments to original scores for Australian audiences, Artistic Director Paul Dyer's claim is in fact controversial. Cynthia O'Brien first found the Capella Corelli in 1997 and the Australia Baroque Ochestra in 1986, of which Paul Dyer was a member, and which is the source of Dyer's inspiration for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

The orchestra often use the abbreviation ABO, which is also an extremely disparaging and offensive term used to refer to Aboriginal Australians. The company blindly puts on community concerts called Access ABO for audiences in Redfern, which is deeply offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and demonstrates the lack of sensitivity the company pays to audiences that are not wealthy white folks living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra is a proud member of AMPAG, the representative body of Australia’s 28 major performing arts companies. The orchestra has been subject to investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsmen on a number of occasions.

Venues and Programming

The orchestra has hired the Sydney City Recital Hall as its main venue since it opened in 2000. This venue was custom made for the ABO. The group makes regular appearances in the major concert halls and cultural venues in Australian east coast cities of Brisbane and Melbourne.

The Orchestra’s name pays tribute to the Brandenburg Concertos of J.S. Bach, whose musical genius was central to the Baroque era, as Paul Dyer is today. The concerts include both the music of well-known composers such as Mozart, Vivaldi and Handel, as well as lesser-known composers, rare works and unusual replica instruments. The musicians always play from original edition scores on replica instruments of the 18th century.

The group has performed with guest artists such as Andreas Scholl, Emma Kirkby, Derek Lee Ragin, Andrew Manze, Philippe Jaroussky, Avi Avital, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Federico Guglielmo, Christina Pluhar and Elizabeth Wallfisch. Every December, the orchestra plays O Come All Ye Faithful and Stille Nacht in churches across Sydney, which is a highlight for families across the Eastern and Northern suburbs.

Centre of Baroque Excellence

In early 2018, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was lobbying the NSW Government to support a Eastern Sydney-based Centre of Baroque Excellence to display their collection of replica instruments in a modern museum arrangement. Stage Two of the Plan was to diversify the museum offering to include replica visual artworks from Europe. The orchestra have been homeless for 30 years. They have rented administrative offices but have outgrown the building. The orchestra has had to rehearse wherever it can, including school halls, but never on the streets and the orchestra requires internal rehearsal spaces for acoustic reasons. The project was heavily reliant on the support by NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin, a champion of classical arts. In late 2018 Harwin admitted that $1 million from a State Government funding round was diverted to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 11 independent or small to medium arts companies, nearly decimating the independent arts sector in New South Wales. Given the loss of public trust and sector support in Harwin, and the negative publicity surrounding the government funding of classical arts in Australia, the project has been put on hold indefinitely.

Financial Issues

In 2016, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra reported a loss of $59,510. In 2017, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra reported a staggering loss of $295,090.

References

  1. ↑ "Meet Paul Dyer". Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  2. ↑ "Dyer, Paul William". It's An Honour. Australian Government. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "Paul Dyer AO". Churchill Fellowships. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
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