Friends of CPO

Would you like to become a Friend of the CPO? Support the orchestra through an annual subscription or a lifetime membership.

Friends are provided with:

• early access to ticket sales including at least a 10% discount

• exclusive CPO Friends merchandise on initial sign-up

• regular updates on the orchestra

• photo opportunities at concerts

• an invitation to attend one rehearsal per concert

• the option to be acknowledged on the CPO website

Register your interest at www.cpo.org.au

Here’s something new for our treasured friends and supporters, both young and young-at-heart… FREE mini collector pins! We currently have limited stock of your favourite concert and character mini buttons from our massive 2022 Season events, and we’ll issue a new pin for each show this year. We also have an exclusive design available only to ‘Friends of CPO’ members.

How many will you collect? Visit our merchandise stand and kick off your collection today with a button for ‘Stolen Works of Art’!

Individual limits may apply.

Xylophone, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone… what’s the difference?

All these instruments belong to the tuned percussion family and consist of a series of horizontally laid bars that are struck with mallets to generate sound. The lengths of the bars are varied to produce different pitches.

The xylophone (‘xylo’ from the Ancient Greek for wood) uses wooden bars, whereas a glockenspiel uses metal ones. Marimbas (wooden bars) and vibraphones (metal bars) have added resonator tubes suspended perpendicularly below each bar which amplify certain aspects of the sound, producing fuller and richer tones. Spinning disks in the tubes of vibraphones create a vibrating, tremolo effect. It also has a sustain pedal similar to a piano, allowing notes to be muted or ring on. Click the YouTube links below to see and hear these instruments being played!