Grand Organ Festival 3–5 September 2026 Melbourne Town Hall
Contents Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Acknowledging Country Your MSO photo feature
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120 Years of the MSO at the Melbourne Town Hall
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Organ Gala 3, 5 September
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Duruflé’s Requiem 4 September
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Organ Recital: Joseph Nolan 5 September
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MSO 2026 Season
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Acknowledging Country
The MSO has developed a musical Acknowledgement of Country with composer James Henry to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land through the language of orchestral music. James Henry’s position is supported by Cybec Foundation
About Acknowledgement ‘I wrote this piece to reflect the complex journey toward the recognition of Aboriginal people as the traditional custodians of the land. It opens with rhythms inspired by the character of traditional songs found across many parts of Australia. From this texture, a melody emerges, representing the long period during which Aboriginal ownership of land was disregarded. The piece traces both progress and setbacks over time. ‘With the passing of the Victorian Statewide Treaty Bill, there is a renewed sense of optimism among many Aboriginal Victorians. Through Acknowledgement, I seek to convey a feeling of determination and resilience, reflecting the ongoing work to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal people, and to deepen respect for and awareness of our distinct culture, history and enduring connection to Country.’ James Henry 2025–2026 Cybec First Nations Composer in Residence
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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s preeminent orchestra, dedicated to creating meaningful experiences that transcend borders and connect communities. Through the shared language of music, the MSO performs to the highest standard, enriching lives and inspiring audiences across the globe. Woven into the cultural fabric of Victoria for 120 years, the MSO reaches five million people annually through performances and TV, radio and online broadcasts, as well as critically acclaimed recordings on its newly established label. Jaime Martín continues as the MSO Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor in 2026, leading a diverse and richly talented Artistic Family.
with the ABC, the MSO’s performances in the Classic 100 in Concert reach more than a million Australians each year. The first Australian orchestra to perform overseas (1965) and at Carnegie Hall (1970), the MSO has a proud history of international touring that has taken it to China, Indonesia, Singapore, Europe and the UK. Driven by the belief that music is a universal right, the MSO also brings music to all corners of the community, ensuring that everyone can share in the transformative power of music. Whether performing on world stages or in the heart of Victoria, the MSO transforms its mission and vision into reality – enriching lives and creating cultural connections through the unparalleled beauty of music.
The MSO regularly presents exceptional artists from across the globe in mainstage programming and special events, as well as reaching beyond the customary classical audience with contemporary collaborations. And through a partnership
MSO 2026 Season
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Musicians performing in the Organ Gala program First Violins
Second Violins
Cellos
Natalie Chee Concertmaster Peter Edwards
Matthew Tomkins Principal
The Gross Foundation*
David Berlin Principal Rachael Tobin
Sarah Curro
Associate Principal
Principal First Violin Dr Harry Imber *
Anne-Marie Johnson David Horowicz*
Kirstin Kenny Michelle Ruffolo
Diane and Stephen Fisher *
Anna Skálová Kathryn Taylor Zoe Black† Jacqueline Edwards† Dabin Huh† Michael Loftus-Hills† Miranda Matheson† Rollin Zhao†
Jos Jonker
Mary Allison Emily Beauchamp Isin Cakmakçioglu Tiffany Cheng Val Dyke*
Freya Franzen Cong Gu Andrew Hall Robert Macindoe Philippa West Roger Young Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan*
Clare Carrick†
Violas Christopher Moore Principal Michael Grolid Associate Principal
Katharine Brockman William Clark
Associate Principal
Rebecca Proietto
Peter T Kempen AM *
Ariel Volovelsky Caleb Wong
Rosemary Meagher and the late Douglas Meagher *
Michelle Wood
Andrew and Theresa Dyer *
Kalina Krusteva† Alexandra Partridge†
Double Basses Jonathon Coco Principal Rohan Dasika
Acting Associate Principal
Benjamin Hanlon
Acting Assistant Principal
Aurora Henrich Suzanne Lee Stephen Newton
Morris and Helen Margolis*
Aidan Filshie
Suzie and Edgar Myer *
Gabrielle Halloran Patricia Nilsson
Jenny Khafagi
Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson*
Jamie Miles MSO Academy Robert Salzer Foundation* Fiona Sargeant Ceridwen Davies† Sandra Ionescu†
Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website mso.com.au/behind-the-music/meet-the-musicians 6
Grand Organ Festival
Flutes
Horns
Timpani
Prudence Davis Principal
Lucie Krysatis† Associate
Matthew Thomas Principal
Wendy Clarke
Saul Lewis Principal Third Cecilie Halland and the late Hon. Michael Watt KC *
Jean Hadges*
Associate Principal
Sarah Beggs
Piccolo Andrew Macleod Principal
Oboes Emmanuel Cassimatis† Rachel Curkpatrick†
Cor Anglais Michael Pisani Principal
Clarinets David Thomas Principal Oliver Crofts†
Bass Clarinet Jonathan Craven Principal
Principal
Josiah Kop
Kim and Robert Gearon*
Shaun Trubiano Principal John Arcaro Tim and Lyn Edward*
Robert Cossom
Rachel Shaw
Dr Clem Gruen and Dr Rhyl Wade*
Trumpets
Hugh Tidy† Eugene Ughetti†
Gary McPherson*
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal Glenn Sedgwick*
Rosie Turner
Dr John and Diana Frew *
Trombones José Milton Vieira Principal Richard Shirley
Bass Trombone
Bassoons
Michael Szabo Principal
Jack Schiller Principal Dr Harry Imber *
Timothy Buzbee Principal
Hayden Burge MSO Academy
Percussion
Harp Yinuo Mu Principal
Pianos Aidan Boase† Louisa Breen†
Organ Joseph Nolan†
Tuba
Robert Salzer Foundation*
Natasha Thomas Patricia Nilsson*
Contrabassoon Brock Imison Principal
* Position supported by † MSO guest musician MSO 2026 Season
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120 Years of the MSO at the Melbourne Town Hall
The MSO’s first concert, with an ensemble of 73 musicians, took place on 11 December 1906 (right) with a program including Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. The ‘able and energetic’ Alberto Zelman was again conducting on 25 June 1913 (above) in a program with Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony. By 1936 (facing page, centre) school groups were flocking to the Melbourne Town Hall to hear the MSO, now performing under the auspices of the ABC. And in the 1970s, John Hopkins introduced the Prom Concerts (below), bringing a new sense of adventure to the orchestra’s seasons.
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Even after the Melbourne Concert Hall (now Hamer Hall) opened in 1982, the MSO maintained a presence at its original home, the Melbourne Town Hall. Above: Jaime Martín and the MSO acknowledge applause after Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony in July 2025. Below: Richard Gill conducting the orchestra for a Triva Night event in 2014.
MSO 2026 Season
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ORGAN GALA | 3, 5 September
Organ Gala Thursday 3 September at 7:30pm Saturday 5 September at 2:00pm Melbourne Town Hall
Artists Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Emilia Hoving conductor Joseph Nolan organ
Program Ginastera Four Dances from Estancia [12’] Bizet Carmen: Suite No. 1 [14’] Arturo Márquez Danzón No. 2 [10’] interval
Fe. Mendelssohn Nocturne from A Midsummer Night’s Dream [7’] Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (‘Organ’ Symphony) [36’]
Running time: 2 hours, including a 20-minute interval. Timings listed are approximate. MSO 2026 Season
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PHOTO: LAURA OJA
Emilia Hoving conductor Emilia Hoving is Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a popular guest conductor throughout the UK and in Europe. She made her Australasian debut with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2023, followed in 2025 by debuts with the Tasmanian and New Zealand symphony orchestras. In addition to her MSO debut, 2026–27 season highlights include engagements with the Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Netherlands Radio and Turku philharmonic orchestras, and BBC Scottish, Swedish Radio, Malmö, Lahti, Stavanger and Trondheim symphony orchestras. Next year she makes her Orchestre national de l’Île-de-France debut at the Philharmonie de Paris, and will conduct the modern premiere of Augusta Holmes’s Ode triomphale with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. In recent seasons she has also conducted the Bamberg Symphony; Philharmonia Orchestra; Belgian National Orchestra; the Netherlands Radio, Helsinki, Royal Stockholm, Strasbourg and Nagoya 12
philharmonic orchestra; the Gothenburg and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras; and Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. She made her mainstage opera debut in 2025 with The Magic Flute (Opera North). A champion of music by living composers, she has conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the Nordic Music Days festival and has been involved with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s revival of works by neglected 20th-century Finnish composers. Emilia Hoving studied at the Sibelius Academy with Sakari Oramo and Atso Almila, having begun conducting studies in 2015 with Jorma Panula. Early posts as assistant to Hannu Lintu (Finnish Radio Symphony, 2019) and Mikko Franck (Radio France, 2020–22) led to important shortnotice engagements, notably taking over a concert with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France in the Berlin Philharmonie at only a few hours’ notice, and in 2021 she won the Finnish Critics’ Association ‘Spurs’ award for artistic breakthrough by a newcomer. Grand Organ Festival
PHOTO: RUSSELL BARTON
Joseph Nolan organ British Australian organist Joseph Nolan has been praised by Gramophone for his ‘towering technique, vivid virtuosity, and inspired interpretive insight’ and he is renowned for his benchmark interpretations of Widor’s organ music. He has performed and recorded on many of the world’s great organs, including the Cavaillé-Coll organ at La Madeleine (Paris), Saint-Sulpice (Paris), Berliner Dom (Germany), Saint-Sernin (Toulouse), SaintFrancois-de-Sales (Lyon), St Bavo (Haarlem), and Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (Paris), where Duruflé was organist. Last year, he recorded The Complete Alkan Organ Works over four nights at Église Saint-Martin in Dudelange, Luxembourg. The first volume, released in March, was acclaimed for its ‘death-defying virtuosity’ (The Guardian). Joseph is in high demand as a soloist. He made his Sydney Opera House debut in 2017 in a recital for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, followed by Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.3 with the SSO and David Robertson in 2019. With the MSO he MSO 2026 Season
performed in the premiere of Mary Finsterer’s Stabat Mater at St Patrick’s Cathedral (2024), and he has appeared in two residencies at the Melbourne Town Hall: the Widor Project (2017) and the Vierne Project (2023). He has also performed as a soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Adelaide, Queensland, West Australian, Canberra and New Zealand symphony orchestras, and in 2025 made his Singapore Symphony Orchestra solo recital debut. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, Joseph studied in Paris with the legendary Marie-Claire Alain. He was then appointed to Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in 2004, and in 2008, he became Master of Music at St George’s Cathedral in Perth. He has also conducted the WASO and the NZSO. In 2016, the Government of France awarded him the medal of Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres for services to French music. He also holds a Doctor of Letters, conferred by the University of Western Australia in 2018. 13
About the music Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983)
Four Dances from Estancia Los trabajadores agrícolas (The Land Workers) Danza del trigo (Wheat Dance) Los Peones de hacienda (The Cattle Men) Danza final – Malambo As a young composer, Alberto Ginastera had made a splash with the Argentinean public when Juan José Castro (later Chief Conductor of the MSO) directed a performance of a suite from the ballet Panambí. Five years later, in 1941, Lincoln Kirstein commissioned Ginastera to compose a one-act ballet for his American Ballet Caravan, due to make a tour of Argentina. This was to be Estancia. The Caravan was dissolved the following year and the proposed staging (with choreography by George Balanchine) did not take place, but Ginastera developed this four-movement concert suite, which was premiered to acclaim in 1943, cementing his reputation as an interpreter of Argentine culture and character. (Estancia was eventually staged in 1952 at the Teatro Colón with choreography by Michel Borovsky.) Estancia was overtly nationalistic in its celebration of the gauchos – Argentinean cowboys, magnificent horsemen of the pampas, who led their lives according to a great unwritten code of honour. Set on an estancia or ranch, the ballet’s scenario follows the course of a single day. Into this setting comes a city boy who falls for a local farm girl and must prove himself by beating the gauchos at their own game.
dance rhythms to evoke the world of the gaucho. The first dance introduces a propulsive, virtuoso energy of the ballet. The contemplative mood and soaring melodic lines of the Wheat Dance provide contrast and convey the solitude and immensity of the pampas. The Cattle Men suggests the hypnotic rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and the finale, a malambo, evokes the virility of the gauchos. In the malambo of folk tradition, gauchos compete to show their strength with increasingly athletic steps and the display of the choreography is of more interest than the music, but in Ginastera’s hands the red-blooded competitiveness of the genre entered the music itself. Adapted from a note by Yvonne Frindle © 2011
The ballet’s score is dominated by folk and popular influences, as had been Panambí, and Ginastera uses guitar effects and virile 14
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Georges Bizet (1838–1875)
Carmen: Suite No. 1 Prélude – Aragonaise Intermezzo Séguedille Les Dragons d’Alcala Les Toréadors For his last opera, Carmen, Bizet chose a disturbingly realistic story by Prosper Merimée. Audiences in 1875 were shocked to see women fighting and smoking, not to mention the onstage murder of the heroine. Carmen ran for 45 performances, a succès de scandale, but was declared a failure. Bizet himself died on the night of the 33rd performance and so did not live to see the opera take its place as one of the most popular in the repertoire, its title character becoming a universal symbol of the femme fatale. In Seville, Carmen – a bohémienne or Romany woman – is arrested for causing a disturbance among the women at the cigarette factory where she works. She persuades Don José to help her escape and he falls for her, abandoning career and duty to follow her and a band of smugglers, only to be thrown over in favour of the bullfighter Escamillo. When she refuses to return to him, Don José stabs her in a fit of passion. Bizet never visited Spain but, like so many French composers, he captured the Spanish local colour in brilliant music full of drama and vitality. Following Bizet’s death, his friend Ernest Guiraud compiled two concert suites of highlights from Carmen.
from the ominous tremolos that begin the Act I Prélude to the vibrant, dancing Aragonaise, which is heard before Act IV as the town square fills with people anticipating the spectacle of the bullfight. The remaining entr’actes are equally atmospheric: in the Intermezzo (Act III) a flute and harp create a wistful mood, while The Dragoons of Alcala (Act II) has a brisk, military character with side drum underpinning solos for woodwinds. The Séguedille is adapted from the captivating aria in which Carmen sings her way out of prison by promising Don José she will dance the Spanish seguidilla just for him. The suite ends with Les Toréadors and the virile march tune associated with Don José’s rival, Escamillo. Yvonne Frindle © 2019
The first suite features the preludes or entr’actes that Bizet wrote to precede each of the four acts. These set the scene, MSO 2026 Season
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Arturo Márquez (born 1950)
Danzón No. 2 The danzón originated in Cuba in the 19th century, but has its roots in the French contredanse, brought to the island from nearby Haiti, and the African-inflected rhythms of the home-grown habañera. It became very popular in the dance halls of Cuba and Mexico, though by the late 20th century it had become very much an old-time ballroom dance, supplanted by its ‘descendants’ such as the mambo. The implicit nostalgia for the past is cultivated by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez in several danzónes for various instrumental combinations. As he notes, the danzón is ‘a genre which old Mexican people continue to dance with a touch of nostalgia and a jubilant escape towards their own emotional world’. Márquez was inspired to compose his second danzón (his first for orchestra) after a trip to Mexico City and Veracruz with dancer Irene Martinez and painter Andrés Fonseca. The danzón has a very formal choreography, involving precise steps on the syncopations, or off-beats, of the bar, 16
with punctuating sections where the dancers pause while a musical transition is played. This formality is reflected in the overall structure of the music, which Márquez uses as the basis for his orchestral work: danzónes are in rondo form (with a recurring ‘chorus’), further divided into two distinct sections. The dance has two beats to the bar, and makes much use of rhythmic patterns such as the cinquillo, a one-bar ‘cell’ with strong syncopation. In traditional dance halls, wind instruments play increasingly ornate figurations over these rhythmic motifs. Danzón No.2 evokes something of this in the opening clarinet solo, whose melody is then passed to the oboe. The work is, of course, a symphonic poem – not a dance track – so its shifts of register are exaggerated, building to frenetic climaxes that are then contrasted with quiet lyricism. The orchestration is richly coloured, with bright wind solos, opulent string textures and driving rhythmic passages that might nod to such Americans as John Adams. Márquez describes the piece as ‘a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music’. Adapted from a note by Gordon Kerry © 2011/2013 Grand Organ Festival
Watercolour by John Simmons depicting a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1873)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
Nocturne from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61 Felix Mendelssohn was brought up on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream – his family would entertain themselves with readings of the play, taking turns in all the parts from Peasblossom to Hermia and Helena. And one day, when he was 17, he decided he’d go into the garden and ‘dream there’ music for his ‘favourite among old Will’s beloved plays’. The result – a 12-minute overture – is an undisputed masterpiece, in which, as his sister Fanny recalled, he made the play his own, ‘almost recreating the characters which had sprung from Shakespeare’s exhaustless genius’. The overture was the miraculous work of a teenager. It was followed by what could be considered an even greater miracle: 17 years later Mendelssohn returned to the dream and recaptured its spirit, this time to write incidental music that would accompany a German production of the play. As Fanny reported from the royal command premiere in Potsdam: ‘The Midsummer Night’s Dream has been dreamt in the Neue Palais.… It was MSO 2026 Season
wonderfully beautiful, and the music especially is the most magical thing you will ever hear.’ Where the overture had been composed for concert performance – a musical ‘imitation’ of the play – the new music needed to function as a kind of soundtrack, underscoring and supporting the staged drama. In its complete form, the incidental music includes songs, choruses and many short pieces, known as melodramas, intended to be played under specific sections of spoken text. But it also featured four delectable orchestral numbers – preludes and interludes to cover scene changes and set the mood – which are often performed as a suite. Of these, the Nocturne (‘night music’) provided a serene transition between Acts III and IV. In the play, mischief is worked and restoration achieved while the characters (mortal and fairy) are asleep in the forest, and so Mendelssohn’s writes ‘luminescent’ music in which a solo horn breathes a heart-stopping lullaby for the four wandering lovers. From a note by Yvonne Frindle © 2012 The MSO first performed the Nocturne in its second concert ever on 18 October 1907 at the Melbourne Town Hall.
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It was commissioned and first performed under the composer’s baton by the London Philharmonic Society in 1886. During the composition Saint-Saëns’ old friend Liszt visited him and admired the score, which Saint-Saëns dedicated to him; sadly, Liszt died before the continental premiere, inspiring Saint-Saëns to rededicate the symphony to his memory. Liszt had been a great mentor ever since 1857 when, hearing Saint-Saëns improvising at the organ of the Madeleine church, he had declared the young Frenchman to be ‘the finest organist in the world’. Saint-Saëns for his part fought for the due recognition of the older man as composer as well as pianist, leading Debussy grudgingly to admit, ‘we are indebted to him for having recognized the tumultuous genius of Liszt’.
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1928)
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 (‘Organ’ Symphony) I.
Adagio – Allegro moderato – Poco adagio II. Allegro moderato – Presto – Maestoso – Allegro
In 1887 Charles Gounod heard the Parisian premiere of Saint-Saëns’ ‘Symphony No. 3 in C minor, with Organ and Two Pianos’ and famously gushed, ‘there goes the French Beethoven’. Hyperbole, of course, but the work has remained hugely popular ever since. The reasons for its continued currency are easy to find: Saint-Saëns believed that ‘the time has come for the symphony to benefit by the progress of modern instrumentation’ and his orchestration is masterly, with a dramatic range of sounds from the diaphanous to the massive. The ‘Organ’ Symphony is, moreover, replete with memorable tunes and intricate counterpoint, traversing an emotional landscape from deepest melancholy to sheer joy. 18
Perhaps, though, there is more than just hyperbole to the Beethoven comparison. Like many a symphony of Beethoven’s, especially the Fifth, the ‘Organ’ Symphony begins in darkness and turbulence and only toward the end does it reach the bright affirmation of C major. And like Beethoven in the Fifth, Saint-Saëns is remarkably economical with his thematic material: it is possible to trace almost all those melodies back to the motifs heard in the work’s introduction and the opening of the following Allegro moderato. How the composer elaborates these into such a contrasting abundance of melodies is by the principle of thematic transformation developed by Liszt. In his program note for the first performance, Saint-Saëns wrote that: this symphony is divided into two parts. Nevertheless, it embraces in principle the four traditional movements, but the first is altered in its development to serve as the introduction to the Poco adagio, and the scherzo is connected by the same process to the finale.
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In other words, the four movements are grouped in pairs, with the main dramatic weight carried by the second of each. The opening Adagio is deliberately vague in direction, containing almost inconsequential motifs that, as we have noted, become transformed in the course of the work. The static nature of the introduction enhances the release of energy in the Allegro moderato whose febrile theme begins with the same notes as the plainchant for the ‘Dies irae’. Saint‑Saëns had, after all, been trained as a church musician and taught at the École Niedermeyer, a school whose founder was an authority on how ‘modern harmony is submitted to the form of the ancient modes’. This fast music, however, seems to peter out, subsiding into the beautifully sombre and emotionally searching Poco adagio. It is here that the organ makes an appearance, providing a velvet backdrop for the questing second theme of the movement. Part II opens with a turbulent scherzo punctuated by timpani. It too builds in sound and fury but mysteriously winds down to a quiet, simple texture built on another chant-like motif. Only now does Saint-Saëns unleash the full power of the organ. A shattering C major chord opens onto a world of sparkling piano figurations, chorale melodies and an overpoweringly joyful final peroration.
From the organ console… Gounod might have declared Saint-Saëns the French Beethoven, but Joseph Nolan detects a hint of a ‘French Tchaikovsky’ as well. ‘It’s got melody, it’s got rhythm… and there simply isn’t a weak moment. The Third Symphony is one of the finest crafted pieces of music ever written.’ Given its nickname, you could be forgiven for thinking of the Third Symphony as a kind of organ concerto, but in fact the organ doesn’t have a soloistic or virtuoso part, despite its importance in the overall orchestral sound. That said, the part is not without its challenges. As Joseph explains: ‘The organ part might seem easy – and it’s not that hard technically. In truth, it’s the pianists who have a really hard time, with so many fast notes to play! But whenever you’re playing within an ensemble, with a really top conductor and orchestra, the blending, the following, the listening, is not so easy. It’s not just a matter of playing the notes, it’s almost like being an orchestral player and a soloist at the same time.’
Gordon Kerry © 2009
If I had words… If you’ve seen the movie Babe, you’ll recognise the grand theme that dominates the finale of the Organ Symphony. But Nigel Westlake’s soundtrack doesn’t quote Saint-Saëns directly. The melody comes to us courtesy of Farmer Hoggett, when he sings to the distraught pig a pop song from 1977, ‘If I had words’. The farmer would have known it well, this melding of Saint-Saëns with a reggae beat reached No. 3 in the charts in the UK (No. 24 here in Australia). Westlake’s genius was to turn the whole thing into a dance, with a trio of squeaky mice playing the role of chorus. MSO 2026 Season
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Friday 4 September at 7:30pm Melbourne Town Hall
DURUFLÉ’S REQUIEM | 4 September
Duruflé’s Requiem
Artists Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus Warren Trevelyan-Jones conductor Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano Simon Meadows baritone Joseph Nolan organ
Program Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine [6’] Duruflé Four Motets on Gregorian Themes [9’] Duruflé Requiem [41’] Joseph Nolan’s biography can be found on page 13.
Running time: 1 hour without interval. Timings listed are approximate. MSO 2026 Season
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PHOTO: LAURA MANARITI
The MSO Chorus performing Bach’s St John Passion in the 2024 Baroque Fest (above), and the TSO Chorus performing in Hobart in the orchestra’s Obscura series in 2024.
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PHOTO: LAURA MANARITI
Warren Trevelyan-Jones conductor and chorus director Warren Trevelyan-Jones is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. Chorus Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2017, in 2024 he was also appointed Chorus Master of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. From 2008 to 2024 he was Head of Music at St James’, King Street in Sydney, and under his leadership, the Choir of St James’ gained an international reputation through its choral services, orchestral masses, concerts, recordings, and touring, as well as the commissioning of new works.
Consort, the Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars and the Taverner Choir, Consort and Players. He has appeared on more 60 recordings and numerous TV and radio broadcasts, and in many of the worlds’ leading music festivals and concert halls. Warren is a co-founder of the Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, he founded the Gramophone Award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. He is also an experienced singing teacher and qualified music therapist.
Before relocating to Australia in 2008, he enjoyed an extensive career as a vocal soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, including nine years in the Choir of Westminster Abbey, and regular work with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale (Ghent), the Kings Consort, Dunedin
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PHOTO: ALI LAMEI
Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano Born in Adelaide, mezzo-soprano SallyAnne Russell is one of Australia’s most distinguished vocal artists. Internationally acclaimed and an award-winning performer, she has appeared on leading concert platforms and operatic stages in 27 countries, earning recognition for the richness, versatility and dramatic depth of her artistry. She has more than 80 operatic roles in her repertoire, ranging from Baroque to contemporary works, and her concert repertoire encompasses the great sacred and operatic masterworks, including Handel, Bach, Mozart, Duruflé, Britten and Wagner. Her extensive discography includes more than 40 audio and video recordings with leading labels including ABC Classic, Chandos, Move Records, Toccata Classics, Naxos and Decca. Sally-Anne has appeared with major festivals, opera companies, symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout Australia and New Zealand, and international highlights include performances at the Carmel Bach Festival, 24
Washington National Opera, Oper der Stadt Köln and Festival dei Due Mondi in Italy, as well as recital tours throughout Singapore, Japan, Canada and Europe. Recent and forthcoming engagements include Bach’s St Matthew Passion, St John Passion and B minor Mass, Mozart’s Requiem and Great C minor Mass, Duruflé’s Requiem, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wagner’s Ring cycle, recitals featuring Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne, and most recently Handel’s Serse. Beyond the stage, Sally-Anne is dedicated to artistic leadership and mentorship. She is Co-Artistic Director of the Albury Chamber Music Festival, serves on the International Artistic Council of Canada’s Kathaumixw Festival, and chairs the Australian chapter of the Belvedere International Singing Competition in Vienna
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Simon Meadows baritone Award-winning Australian baritone Simon Meadows enjoys a busy opera and concert career throughout Europe, Asia and Australasia. Most recently he has appeared for Opera Australia in Turandot, The Drover’s Wife and Rigoletto, and will return to sing the title role of The Barber of Seville for the Melbourne season in November, as well as several productions in 2027. In addition to the MSO, earlier this year he sang Duruflé’s Requiem with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and next week he will sing Mozart’s Requiem with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. His many previous appearances for OA have included title roles in The Barber of Seville and Gianni Schicchi, Michele (Il tabarro), Telramund (Lohengrin), the Count (The Marriage of Figaro), Yamadori (Madama Butterfly), the Gaoler (Tosca) and the Lieutenant in The Rabbits by Kate Miller-Heidke. In 2025 he sang the High Priest in Samson et Dalila for Melbourne Opera, having previously sung the title roles in Macbeth and The Barber of Seville, Alberich in MSO 2026 Season
Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Escamillo in Carmen and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, among others. For Victorian Opera, he has sung Priam in Simon Bruckard’s Cassandra, Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, Orest’s Tutor in Elektra, First Nazarene in Salome and Jimmy in Stuart Greenbaum’s Parrot Factory. Other highlights include the world premiere of Richard Mills’s song cycle In Tempore Bello (2019) and Fauré’s Requiem (in Stephen Baynes’s Requiem for the Australian Ballet, 2011). Also a celebrated concert artist, Simon has sung the bass solos in Schubert’s Mass in G (Wexford, Ireland), Brahms’s A German Requiem (Romsey Abbey, UK and MSO), Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), Carmina Burana and A Sea Symphony (Royal Melbourne Philharmonic), Judas Maccabaeus (Heidelberg Choral Society), The Creation (St James’ King Street, Sydney), Serenade to Music (Victorian Opera), and Messiah (Melbourne Bach Choir).
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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus Celebrating more than 60 years of creating inspiring musical moments, the MSO Chorus gives voice to the Orchestra’s choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus has performed with the finest conductors including Jaime Martín, Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Xian Zhang, Nodoko Okisawa and Simon Halsey. Committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire, the MSO
Chorus has commissioned works such as Brett Dean’s Katz und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Chant, and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Lamentations, and its recordings have received critical acclaim. The Chorus has performed across Brazil and at the Cultura Inglese Festival in São Paolo, with the Australian Ballet and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.
Sopranos
Kristine Hensel Helen Hill Julie Lotherington Helen MacLean Christina McCowan Rosemary McKelvie Charlottte Midson Natasha Pracejus Alison Ralph Kate Rice Helen Rommelaar Kerry Roulston Annie Runnalls Lisa Savige Carol Silberberg Jill Thomas Libby Timcke Jenny Vallins
Shirin Albert Helena Balazs Aviva Barazani Tina Battaglia Giselle Baulch Eva Butcher Gabrielle Connell Michelle de Courcy Veryan Croggon Emily Cunningham Samantha Davies Keren Evans Laura Fahey Rita Fitzgerald Catherine Folley Susan Fone Carolyn Francis Nicole Free Karina Gough Penny Huggett Gina Humphries Phoebe Irawan Tania Jacobs Gwen Kennelly Judy Longbottom Hannah Macmillan Caitlin Noble Susie Novella Julie O’Reilly Katherine O’Shea
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Karin Otto Amanda Powell Jo Robin Elizabeth Rusli Jodi Samartgis Fiona Seers Jemima Sim Ellie Sykes Tracey Thorpe Tracy Videon Ariane Vrisakis Agnes Widjaja
Altos
Ruth Anderson Cecilia Bjorkegren Kate Bramley Jane Brodie Alexandra Chubaty Juliarna Clark Andrea CliffordJones Marie Connett Mari Eleanor-Rapp Dionysia Evitaputri Lisa Faulks Jill Giese Debbie Griffiths Madeleine Halls Ros Harbison Jennifer Henry
Tenors
Kent Borchard Steve Burnett James Dipnall Lyndon Horsburgh Fergus Inder Michael Mobach Marko Monsalud Jean-Francois Ravat Linton Roe Cleve Schupp Robert Simpson
Eric Slotsve Cameron Tait Brad Warburton Stewart Webb Stephen Wood
Basses
Richard Allison Kevin Barrell Ted Davies Peter Deane Simon Evans Luke Hales Andrew Ham John Hunt Jordan Janssen Roderick Lee Gary Levy Tim March Douglas McQueenThomson Stephen Pyk Joshua Teng Caleb Triscari Raoul Zambelli
Grand Organ Festival
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus The TSO Chorus was established in 1992 to present concert performances of opera but quickly broadened its repertoire to perform major choral works with the TSO, including the choral symphonies of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Mahler, the requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Fauré, and the masses of Haydn, Puccini and Schubert. As Tasmania’s premier vocal ensemble, the Chorus has also established itself as a creative force in its own right, presenting cutting edge a cappella programs for festivals, recitals and regional tours. The Chorus collaborates
The Chorus has also developed a strong relationship with chorus director Simon Halsey, who travels to Tasmania for annual projects. In 2025, the TSO Chorus performed Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus as part of a highly successful UK tour that also included performances in Gloucester Cathedral, Worcester Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
Sopranos
Tenors
Chris Coombe Felicity Gifford Yuliana Hammond Lauren Hill Bernadette Large Loretta Lohberger Alison McHenry Erin Murphy Joy Tattam
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Altos
Claire Blichfeldt Sally Brown Carmelita Coen Beth Coombe Makayla Davis Elizabeth Eden Ann Godber Sue Harradence Mary Harwood Mary McArthur Caroline Miller Sally Mollison Amy Richardson Louise Rigozzi Gillian von Bertouch Beth Warren Andrea Wild
regularly with other Australian symphony orchestras and has participated in Mitsing concerts in Berlin and Barcelona.
Helen Chick Michael Kregor Tony Marshall Dianne O’Toole James PowellDavies Peter Tattam
Basses
Geoffrey Attwater John Ballard Timothy Begbie Peter Cretan Jack Delaney Reg Marron Michael Muldoon David Ovens Tony Parker Philip Ridyard
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About the music Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11
PHOTO: CHARLES REUTLINGER (BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE)
Apart from his Requiem (a kind of silent presence in this concert, since it provided a template for the requiem by Maurice Duruflé), this canticle is the best-known of Fauré’s small output of sacred choral works. It is a student piece, composed when he was 19 or 20 years old, and still a student at the École Niedermeyer, where Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the faculty. This training in church music had qualified him for the position of organist for the Church of Saint-Sauveur in Rennes, where the Cantique de Jean Racine probably received its first performance on the occasion of the blessing of the new organ on 4 August 1866.
The words are the first three (of four) verses from one of the prayers translated from the Latin Breviary by the great poet and playwright Jean Racine, published in 1688. Racine – who was brought up in the Jansenist circles which stressed salvation by grace alone, moral rigor and simplicity – remained an equivocal figure for orthodox Catholics. Fauré, an unbeliever, may have been in sympathy with the lyrical simplicity of Racine’s words, and the limpidity of his diction. Many years later, when a cleric had suggested to his publisher that this Cantique… be provided with different words, Fauré responded ‘Racine suffices, since it was Racine who inspired it’. In its original form, for choir with organ, this was Fauré’s graduation piece for the École in 1865, and was probably the work that won him the ‘premier prix’ (first prize) in composition. (He revised the accompaniment for organ and string quintet for the premiere in the following year, and in 1905–06 he orchestrated it, adding woodwinds and horns.) Fauré’s first essay in writing for four-part chorus, the Cantique de Jean Racine shows great assurance, and in spite of obvious debts to the sacred music of Charles Gounod, its sureness of linear construction and harmonic poise prefigure the mature Fauré. The fervour and gravity of the music made a great impression, not least on Marcel Proust, who refers to Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine in his novel A la recherche du temps perdu. David Garrett © 2020/2026
Gabriel Fauré in the uniform of the École Niedermeyer (1864). 28
Grand Organ Festival
Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986)
Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens (Four Motets on Gregorian Themes), Op. 10 Ubi caritas et amor Tota pulchra es Tu es Petrus Tantum ergo Maurice Duruflé was a virtuoso organist – among other things, he played the premiere of Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. But the key to his own music, a small output of great discretion and refinement, lies in his role as organist of the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, in the university quarter of Paris. Here he extended the tradition – inherited from his mentors Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne – of a liturgical music grounded in plainchant. In the days before the purifying of Gregorian chant through the influence of the monks of Solesmes, French church organists were expected to harmonise the chants they accompanied. Duruflé, influenced by Solesmes, harmonises the chant with more awareness of its modal basis than, say, Fauré, and this can be heard in both his Requiem (1947) and the Four Motets on Gregorian Themes (1960), composed for unaccompanied chorus. Introducing each of the motets with the plainsong theme from which it is derived, Duruflé harks back to the Christian master-composers of the Renaissance who used the chant as the basis for polyphony. At the same time, he explores the harmonic implications of the chants with an awareness of the sophisticated discoveries of modern composers whose
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music he admired, such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and his own composition teacher Paul Dukas. Duruflé’s Four Motets never forget their liturgical purpose, which illuminates text and music. All four motets are intended to be sung in Vespers services. ‘Ubi caritas’ is an antiphon sung on Maundy Thursday during the ceremony of the washing of the feet, a symbol of Christ as suffering servant. Duruflé’s setting is meditative, flowing in a constant rhythm, mostly with one note to each syllable, until the vocalise on ‘Amen’. ‘Tota pulchra es, Maria’ is an antiphon for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. An invocation to the Virgin, it is sung by female voices which it takes quite high in their range, in its sprightly, yet soft and feminine jubilation. ‘Tu es Petrus’ is sung on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, of whom St Peter was traditionally the first. This is a short, strong setting of the text containing Jesus’ famous pun: You are Peter [petros] and on this rock [petra] I will build my church. It symbolises the building of the Church in a canon, with strong entries affirming the word ‘Tu’. The text of ‘Tantum ergo’ is the last two verses of Thomas Aquinas’s hymn Pange lingua (‘Of the glorious body telling, O my tongue, its mysteries sing’), for the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament (Corpus Christi), to be sung kneeling if the Sacrament is exposed. Prayerfully meditative, this is the longest of the motets, and its concluding ‘Amen’ gathers up the feeling of all four, when they are sung sequentially. David Garrett © 2004/2026
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Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986)
Requiem, Op. 9 (1948 version) Of all French composers since Fauré, Maurice Duruflé may be said to have the most ‘Fauré-like’ musical temperament, in which delicacy, refinement and subtle expression do not preclude underlying strength. It’s not surprising, then, that of Duruflé’s very small number of published works, the one that is best known is a Requiem setting in which he followed Fauré closely in his selection of texts from the Mass for the Dead. Like Fauré, Duruflé omits the Dies Irae (while retaining its concluding Pie Jesu) and borrows the Libera me and In Paradisum from the Burial Service. Somewhat puzzlingly – given the number of similarities – Duruflé denied he was influenced by Fauré’s Requiem. In addition to the choice of texts and allocation of the solos, Duruflé also makes plainchant the basis of everything in his Requiem. (A sometimes overlooked aspect of Fauré’s Requiem is its basis in harmonised chant.) Duruflé does not deny himself the modern harmonic and textural inventions of Fauré, of Debussy, and especially of his own composition teacher Dukas, but even the material in his Requiem which does not quote chant directly is inspired by it. Since Fauré’s Requiem, completed in the 1880s, the chant itself had undergone purification, through a return to its original form, thanks to the work of the Benedictine monks of Solesmes. Duruflé respected their work, trying to feel the style of the Gregorian themes, and doing his best ‘to reconcile as far as possible the Gregorian rhythmic patterns, as fixed by the Benedictines of Solesmes, with the demands of the modern bar-structure’. Meanwhile, the instrumental accompaniment, Duruflé explained, comes in only to support and comment. Writing about the original version, accompanied 30
by orchestra and organ, he said: ‘The organ has a merely episodic role: it intervenes, not to support the choirs, but only to underline certain accents, or momentarily to disguise any orchestral tone that sounds too human. It represents the notion of tranquillity, faith and hope.’ The Requiem began life, however, not as a choral work but as an organ work. Early in World War II, Duruflé had begun a suite of organ pieces based on plainchant themes associated with the Mass for the Dead, only to find the chants could not be separated from the Latin texts that gave them their ‘suppleness and lightness of expression’. Then, in 1941, he was commissioned by the war-time Vichy government to compose a symphonic poem. But he continued working on the ‘plainsong suite’ – now a Requiem with voices – and in 1948 was able to persuade the post-war government to accept it in place of the symphonic poem. The meditative atmosphere of the Requiem never forgets its liturgical purpose, indeed Duruflé indicates that the form of each piece is generally inspired by the relevant liturgical form, and in most cases the plainchant is heard from one voice before it is adorned. This gives the music a natural flow, as well as rhythmic freedom. For example, in the Introit, the men announce the plainchant theme note for note, answered by the women. In the Kyrie, which follows without a break, the organ announces the sustained cantus firmus melody with colours chosen to evoke the trumpets and trombones of the original scoring. Beginning with an organ prelude, the Domine Jesu Christe has an affinity with Fauré’s setting. When the idea of ‘holy light’ changes the mood, the harmonies and textures remind us that Duruflé is a post-impressionist, but a more traditional one than fellow Dukas pupil Messiaen. Like Fauré, Duruflé gives the ‘Hostias’ section to the baritone soloist. Grand Organ Festival
PHOTO: DURUFLÉ PLAYING AN UNIDENTIFIED ORGAN
The Sanctus is a moto perpetuo for the organist, into which the triple cries of ‘Sanctus’ and the ‘Hosanna’, for the voices, are built to a climax in violent rhythms. The Benedictus returns to monodic chant, to the same accompaniment – a single statement. Pie Jesu is a solo for high voice, as in Fauré. The effect is simple but moving, and as richly harmonised as the Gregorian melodies can be without losing their timeless resonances. In the Agnus Dei, with its gently rocking accompaniment, an expressive counter melody from the organ is woven around the plainsong. The Lux Aeterna maintains the tranquil mood and, like the Sanctus, begins with an organ prelude. When the opening ‘Requiem æternam’ text returns it’s sung as a monotone chant over a moving organ accompaniment, first by the sopranos and tenors, then altos and basses. The bursting of the judgement day into the Libera me provides, as in Fauré, the most dramatic moment of this Requiem, and again the baritone takes the lead, personifying the fear and anguish. With Fauré’s In Paradisum as an obvious model, Duruflé achieves something similar but subtly different – an ethereal mist with the organ’s Voix Céleste stop suggesting angels in music that leads to a calm and spiritual peace. David Garrett © 2008/2026 The original version of Duruflé’s Requiem, accompanied by orchestra and organ, was heard in 1947 in Paris, first on the radio, and then in concert, conducted by Roger Désormière. Duruflé then made two further versions, one with accompaniment for organ alone in 1948, heard in this performance, and in 1961 a version for organ and string quintet with optional harp, trumpets and timpani.
MSO 2026 Season
From the organ console… ‘I’m obviously going to sound biased,’ says Joseph Nolan, ‘but for my money the best version of the Duruflé Requiem is the organ version. If you look at the nature of the composition, it’s plainsong – that’s the heart of it. So to have huge orchestral colours zinging along doesn’t seem very idiomatic.’ ‘I was fortunate enough to record on Duruflé’s organ at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, which was rebuilt in the neoclassical style under his supervision in 1956. It has such amazing attack. So when you play the Duruflé Requiem on that it really snarls in the reeds.’ Playing the composer’s instrument can be a mixed blessing, however. ‘It’s a real curate’s egg – both wonderful and awful. It can sometimes be difficult to play repertoire elsewhere after you’ve done that – a bit like returning to economy after flying business class.’
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Grand Organ Festival
Saturday 5 September at 6:30pm Melbourne Town Hall
ORGAN RECITAL: JOSEPH NOLAN | 5 September
Organ Recital: Joseph Nolan
Artist Joseph Nolan organ
Program Guilmant Organ Sonata No. 1 [23’] Widor Organ Symphony No. 5 [35’] Joseph Nolan’s biography can be found on page 13.
Running time: 1 hour and 10 minutes without interval. Timings listed are approximate. MSO 2026 Season
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PHOTO: BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE
Charles-Marie Widor (left) with Alexandre Guilmant in 1895
About the music Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911)
Organ Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 42 Introduction (Largo e maestoso – Allegro) Pastorale (Andante quasi Allegretto) Finale (Allegro assai – Andante maestoso – Tempo Primo) For 30 years, Alexandre Guilmant served as organist of La Trinité in Paris, later succeeded by Olivier Messiaen. A celebrated virtuoso with an international reputation, particularly in the United States, Guilmant composed eight organ sonatas, of which the first and fifth remain the best known. The First Sonata combines lyrical invention with remarkable rhythmic vitality. Its opening movement begins in the stately manner of a French overture 34
before launching into a vigorous fugue (Allegro), whose two principal themes are developed and combined with increasing intensity, culminating in a powerful climax. The Pastorale provides a striking contrast, with tranquil textures and the Vox Humana tremulant evoking the distant sound of a shepherd’s flock. The Finale then bursts into motion with a relentless moto perpetuo. At its centre, the momentum is suspended by a chorale (Andante maestoso), though the restless energy continues as the moto perpetuo shifts to the pedals. The movement gathers force, recalling the opening theme and weaving it into an exhilarating contrapuntal texture. The sonata ultimately demonstrates Guilmant’s imaginative fusion of French tradition, symphonic breadth, and dramatic brilliance.
Grand Organ Festival
Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937)
Organ Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 42 No. 1 I. Allegro vivace II. Allegro cantabile III. Andantino quais allegretto IV. Adagio V. Toccata (Allegro) Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphony No.5 in F major stands among the most celebrated works in the French organ repertoire. Composed in 1879 and later revised, it demonstrates Widor’s remarkable ability to transform the organ into a vast symphonic instrument, combining orchestral colour, rhythmic energy, and architectural breadth. The symphony opens with the famous Allegro vivace, whose driving rhythms and brilliant textures immediately recall the style of Schumann. The contrasting inner movements explore a wide range of expression, with strong echoes of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, chorale writing, and sudden tempestuous episodes. Mendelssohn’s influence is particularly apparent in the delightful Adagio, where mellifluous string registrations in the manuals accompany a lyrical bel canto melody, played at 4′ pitch in the pedals. Throughout, Widor exploits the organ’s contrasting registrations to create a remarkably rich sonic palette. The celebrated Toccata has become one of the most recognisable pieces in the organ repertoire. Its flowing semiquaver accompaniment supports a broad, triumphant melody, creating exhilarating momentum. The tempo remains fiercely debated, partly because of Widor’s recording at Saint-Sulpice, made when he was 90 and suffering from severe arthritis in his hands.
From the organ console… ‘There’s no getting away from it,’ says Joseph Nolan, ‘the Melbourne Town Hall organ is overwhelming in its size and power. It has a magnificent facade – you look at it and you’re awestruck. “Imposing” would be a good word.’ ‘It’s very much in the American style. [The organ was refurbished by the Ohio organ company Schantz in 1999–2001.] So it’s not surprising that it’s well suited to American repertoire like Charles Ives. And of course the French Romantic repertoire, so long as you’re choosing the right stops. The secret to how well an organ sounds is not what you actually pull out, it’s what you don’t use. With an organ like this, if you’re not careful you can just keep adding and adding and the sound becomes loud and brutal. But in fact it’s a very wide-ranging instrument that’s capable of going from extremes of pianissimo, almost inaudible, to extremes of fortissimo. And there’s so much potential in between – it’s all about colour and restraint.’ ‘I know the Melbourne Town Hall organ well. I performed the complete Widor organ symphonies here over the period of a week in 2017 and then the Vierne symphonies in 2023. But if I were new to the organ, I’d generally need about nine hours to get a good handle on the instrument and the acoustic. A lot of people forget that with an organ 50 per cent of its success or failure rests with the acoustic. This organ is in a town hall, not a cathedral, so the delay isn’t quite as long, maybe only about a second or a second-and-a-half. But this is great, as you can hear a lot of detail, which is the easiest thing to lose on an organ, particularly when the music is dense.’
Notes by Joseph Nolan © 2026
MSO 2026 Season
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7 – 21 November Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne Melbourne Recital Centre
Brahms Festival Two weeks dedicated to the life journey of a remarkable musician – at once a vulnerable human being and a masterful composer, always wearing his heart on his manuscript-smudging sleeve. Hear all four symphonies and the two piano concertos when the MSO and Chief Conductor Jaime Martín are joined by pianist Denis Kozhukhin. Ein deutsches Requiem with bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and the MSO Chorus provides a gala conclusion.
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Symphony No. 1 Piano Concerto No. 1
7 November
Chamber Music by Brahms with Natalie Chee (violin), Nicolas Fleury (horn) and Denis Kozhukhin (piano)
10 November
Symphony No. 2 Piano Concerto No. 2
12 November
Symphony No. 3 Symphony No. 4
14 November
Spring Gala: A German Requiem
19 & 21 November
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Artist Chair Benefactors Cybec Assistant Conductor Chair Daniel Corvaia Cybec Foundation
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Toby Duffy Jane Edmanson OAM Ron Elisha Vivien and Jack Fajgenbaum Brian Florence Nadine Fogale M C Friday Nikki Gaskell Dr Julia Gellatly David and Geraldine Glenny Hugo and Diane Goetze Eva Gory The late George Hampel AM KC and Felicity Hampel AM SC Dr Neville Hathaway Geoff Hayes Alison Heard Dr Jennifer Henry C M Herd Endowment William Holder Oliver Hutton and Weiyang Li Rob Jackson Shyama Jayaswal Chris and Merryl Jessup Karen Johnson Tony and Nathalie Johnson Linda Jones John Keys Lesley King Dr Judith Kinnear Heather Law Peter Letts Andrew Levy Sarah and Andrew Lindsay Elena Lovu Mr Wilson Lui Janice Mayfield Dr James McComish Joel McGuinness Gail McKay Jennifer McKean Shirley A McKenzie Richard McNeill Alison Milne Professor Heather Mitchell Lisa Mitchell Joan Mullumby Yoko Murakoshi Rebecca-Kate Nayton Adrian and Louise Nelson Marian Neumann
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Ed Newbigin Valerie Newman Amanda O’Brien John O’Toole Phil Parker The Hon Chris Pearce and Andrea Pearce Jason Peart Sienna di Pietro and Lewis Pierce Geoffrey Ravenscroft Ian Reddoch Dr Christopher Rees Fred and Patricia Russell Grant Samphier Julia Schlapp Faye Simpson Irene Sutton Rosemary Swift Tom Sykes Allison Taylor Hugh and Elizabeth Taylor Lily Tell Serey Thir Geoffrey Thomlinson Wendy Thorpe OAM Mely Tjandra Sally and Adrian Wallis Rosemary Warnock Amanda Wasilewski Amanda Watson Shirley and Peter Watson Brian and Leanne Whiter Deborah and Dr Kevin Whithear OAM David Willersdorf AM and Linda Willersdorf Charles and Jill Wright Richard Ye Anonymous (13)
MSO Guardians
Jenny Anderson David Angelovich Lesley Bawden Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk Tarna Bibron Joyce Bown Patricia A Breslin B J Brown Jannie Brown Jenny Brukner and the late John Brukner Sarah Bullen Georgie and Phil Burg Peter A Caldwell
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Peter Cameron and Craig Moffatt Luci and Ron Chambers Roger Chao Sandra Dent James Dipnall Sophie E Dougall in memory of Libby Harold Val Dyke 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 David Horowicz Lyndon Horsburgh Katherine Horwood Tony Howe Lindsay Wynne Jacombs Michael Christopher Scott Jacombs John Jones Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow Pauline and David Lawton Robyn and Maurice Lichter Christopher Menz and Peter Rose Dr Helen MacLean Andrea McCall Cameron Mowat Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James David Orr Matthew O’Sullivan Rosia Pasteur Kerryn Pratchett 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 Frank Tisher OAM and Dr Miriam Tisher Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock Christina Helen Turner Michael Ullmer AO The Hon Rosemary Varty Francis Vergona Grand Organ Festival
Mr Steve Vertigan and Ms Yolande van Oosten Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman Robert Weiss and Jacqueline Orian Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke Mark Young Anonymous (18) 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 Elizabeth Ann Cousins 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 George and Grace Kass Christine Mary Kellam C P Kemp Jennifer Selina Laurent Sylvia Rose Lavelle Dr Elizabeth Ann Lewis AM Peter Forbes MacLaren Joan Winsome Maslen Lorraine Maxine Meldrum Professor 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 MSO 2026 Season
Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian Jennifer May Teague Elisabeth Turner Albert Henry Ullin Cecilia Edith Umber Jean Tweedie Herta and Fred B Vogel Diana Whitehead Dorothy Wood Joyce Winsome Woodroffe The MSO honours the memory of Life Members The late Marc Besen AC and the late Eva Besen AO John Brockman OAM The Hon Alan Goldberg AO QC Bertha Jorgensen MBE Harold Mitchell AC Roger Riordan AM Ila Vanrenen Listing current as of 30 July 2026 The MSO relies on the generosity of our community to help us enrich lives through music, foster artistic excellence, and reach new audiences. Thank you for your support.
♡
Chair Sponsors – supporting the beating heart of the MSO.
2025 Europe Tour Circle patrons – elevating the MSO on the world stage.
☼
First Nations Circle patrons – supporting First Nations artist development and performance initiatives.
♫
Commissioning Circle patrons – contributing to the evolution of our beloved art form.
∞
Future MSO patrons – the next generation of giving.
The MSO welcomes support at any level. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.
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MSO Family MSO Board
MSO Artistic Family
MSO Staff
Chair Edgar Myer
Jaime Martín Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor
Richard Wigley Chief Executive Officer
Benjamin Northey Principal Guest Conductor
ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
Co-Deputy Chairs Martin Foley Farrel Meltzer Board Directors Shane Buggle Tony Grybowski Lorraine Hook Chris Howlett Joel McGuinness Gary McPherson Lisa Mitchell Meredith Schilling SC Mary Waldron Company Secretary Randal Williams
Daniel Corvaia Cybec Assistant Conductor Sir Andrew Davis CBE † Conductor Laureate (2013–2024) Hiroyuki Iwaki † Conductor Laureate (1974–2006) Warren Trevelyan-Jones MSO Chorus Director Karen Kyriakou Artist in Residence – Learning and Engagement Christian Li Young Artist in Association Joe Chindamo Composer in Residence Andrew Aronowicz Cybec Young Composer in Residence James Henry Cybec First Nations Composer in Residence Xian Zhang, Lu Siqing, Tan Dun Artistic Ambassadors
Simonette Turner Director of Orchestra & Operations Meg Bowker Orchestra Manager Ffion Edwards Orchestra Manager Callum Moncrieff Head of Operations Jy Etherington Production Lead Andrew Robinson Production Lead Nicholas Cooper Operations Lead Katharine Bartholomeusz-Plows Head of Artistic Planning Keturah Haisman Artistic & Engagement Manager Veronika Reeves Artistic Administrator Julia Potter Artistic Coordinator Kate Rockstrom Principal Librarian Jennifer Collins Orchestra Librarian Megan Baker Chorus Administrator
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Grand Organ Festival
Nicholas Bochner Head of Learning & Engagement Elizabeth Dedman Learning & Engagement Lead Fergus Inder Jams Program Coordinator Erika Noguchi Executive Producer, MSO Presents Rebecca Moore Associate Producer, MSO Presents Monica Curro MSO+ Creative Director Emma Wigley MSO+ Producer Sally Hern Head of Digital Experience Casual Production Staff Anita, Aurora, Campbell, Jenny, Jess, Lauren, Lewis, Liz, Lindsay, Lucca, Manny, Matthew, Matthieu, Millie, Ned, Steven DEVELOPMENT & REACH Suzanne Dembo Chief Operating Officer Lisa Drew Assistant to the COOr Caroline Buckley Director of Strategic Priorities Allison Blahna Director of Development Charlotte Crocker Philanthropy Programs Lead
MSO 2026 Season
Isobel Lake Grants & Reporting Lead
Ben Wallace Box Office Manager
Keith Clancy Donor Liaison
Nicole Rees CRM & insights Manager
Nellie McLean Head of Partnerships
Sam Harvey CRM & Data Specialist
Nina Dubecki Events & Partnerships Lead
Marta Arquero Ticketing & Customer Experience Coordinator
Jayde Walker Director of Brand & Communications Phil Paschke Senior Manager, Content & Digital Samantha Meuleman Digital Content Lead Prue Bassett Publicity Manager Beckie Peel Social Media Coordinator Dylan Stewart Director of Marketing, Insights & Customer Experience Sarah Rozycki Head of Marketing Laura Mitton Campaign Marketing Manager Claudia Biaggini Senior Marketing Coordinator
Box Office Attendants Angela, Ashley, Bec, Bradd, Christine, Emil, Jessica, Josh, Kara, Kez, Leah, Lucy, Maeve, Sasha, Stephanie FINANCE & PEOPLE AND CULTURE Anita Drake Chief Financial Officer Sonia Yakub Senior Management Accountant (on leave) Laura Estupiñan Accountant Marilen Manalo Assistant Accountant Matthew Bagi Project Officer Holly Wighton People & Culture Lead Jess Kirkman Payroll Officer
Leah Toyne Marketing Administrator Alison Kearney Customer Experience Manager
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Thank You to Our Partners Principal Partner
Major Government Partners
Major Partner
Supporting Government Partners
Supporting Partners
Paul Noonan, Keypoint Law
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Grand Organ Festival
Training and Education Partners
Trusts and Foundations
Freemasons Foundation Victoria
The Ledger Charitable Trust
Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment
Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund
Broadcast and Production Partners
Venue Partners
MSO 2026 Season
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