Clarinet Quintets

CONCERT PROGRAM

Clarinet Quintets

21 May

Iwaki Auditorium, Southbank

Artists

David Thomas curator, clarinet and basset clarinet

Tair Khisambeev violin

Freya Franzen violin

Gabrielle Halloran viola

Rohan de Korte cello

Amos Roach yidaki

Program

MOZART Clarinet Quintet

SCULTHORPE String Quartet No.12 From Ubirr

– Interval –

LACHLAN SKIPWORTH Clarinet Quintet The Eternal

COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Clarinet Quintet

Running time: approximately 2 hours including interval

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

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

This concert may be recorded for future broadcast on MSO.LIVE

Acknowledging Country

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.

from a land which has been nurtured by the traditional owners for more than 2000 generations. When we acknowledge country we pay respect to the land and to the people in equal measure.

As a composer I have specialised in coupling the beauty and diversity of our Indigenous languages with the power and intensity of classical music. In order to compose the music for this Acknowledgement of Country Project I have had the great privilege of working with no fewer than eleven ancient languages from the state of Victoria, including the language of my late Grandmother, Yorta Yorta woman Frances McGee. I pay my deepest respects to the elders and ancestors who are represented in these songs of acknowledgement and to the language custodians who have shared their knowledge and expertise in providing each text.

I am so proud of the MSO for initiating this landmark project and grateful that they afforded me the opportunity to make this contribution to the ongoing quest of understanding our belonging in this land.

— Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Established in 1906, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s pre-eminent orchestra and a cornerstone of Victoria’s rich, cultural heritage.

Each year, the MSO engages with more than 5 million people, presenting in excess of 180 public events across live performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, and via its online concert hall, MSO.LIVE, with audiences in 56 countries.

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

In 2023, the MSO’s Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín continues an exciting new phase in the Orchestra’s history. Maestro Martín joins an Artistic Family that includes Principal Guest Conductor, Xian Zhang, Principal Conductor in Residence, Benjamin Northey, Conductor Laureate, Sir Andrew Davis CBE, Cybec Assistant Conductor Fellow, Carlo Antonioli, MSO Chorus Director, Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Soloist in Residence, Siobhan Stagg, Composer in Residence, Mary Finsterer, Ensemble in Residence, Gondwana Voices, Cybec Young Composer in Residence, Melissa Douglas and Young 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.

David Thomas curator, clarinet and basset clarinet

David Thomas has been the Principal Clarinet for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2000. Growing up in the Dandenong Ranges, David studied at the University of Melbourne with Phillip Miechel and later at the Vienna Conservatorium with Roger Salander. David has played as a member of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and is an ongoing member of the Australian World Orchestra. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Melbourne, West Australian, Sydney, Tasmanian and Darwin Symphony orchestras, in works by Mozart, Copland, Debussy, Francaix and Brett Dean amongst others. Concertos have been written for David by Australian composers Ross Edwards, Phillip Czaplowski and Nicholas Routley, and his CD recording of the Edwards Concerto with the MSO conducted by Arvo Volmer has been released by ABC Classics.

David is actively involved in training the next generation of classical musicians at the Australian National Academy of Music, where he is the principal teacher of clarinet and head of the woodwind department.

A note from the curator

Today’s programme ties together several threads in my own musical life. In the strange dark days of 2020, I performed several online chamber music concerts for Melbourne Digital Concert Hall with MSO colleagues including Tair, Freya, Gabby and Rohan – and we gave two performances of Mozart’s Quintet. Prior to the first performance, during the first big lockdown, we didn’t really have anywhere to rehearse, so we met on Zoom to talk through the fundamentals of tempo, bowings, and whatever stylistic issues we could discuss without actually playing together in the same room. That was followed by a couple of hurried rehearsals on the stage of the Atheneum before and between other groups’ concerts. It was a very strange thing on those occasions, to walk up to Collins St, instrument and music stand in hand, along almost deserted streets, going ‘to work’ at a time when that was an unusual, rather nerve-wracking and very special thing to do. I suspect some strong memories will resurface as we play for you today.

Regardless of the performance circumstances, it’s always interesting and rewarding to revisit a great piece of music with the same personnel. Each time you hope to move a little closer to the ideal of natural expression and communication: in other words, you hope to do more and more justice to the piece of music, and to your audience. That’s our lifelong quest, and there’s always more to learn and distil in one’s own relationship with the music, with colleagues, and with the instrument.

In the case of Mozart’s Quintet, the instrument I play is not one of the clarinets I usually play in the orchestra nor in other chamber music repertoire.

The basset clarinet is a weird extended version of a regular clarinet – a format dreamt up by Mozart’s clarinettist friend Anton Stadler, and immortalised solely through the two masterpieces Mozart wrote for him – today’s Quintet and the Clarinet Concerto K.622. We don’t tend to think of Mozart as an innovator or an experimenter, but he really was at the cutting edge of instruments and composition. Or put another way, he wrote very much ‘for the moment’ — if his clarinettist said “Hey, I’ve had this new instrument built with extra low notes” and if Mozart thought this idea made musical sense (it does) then he wrote for it, without thinking too much about whether other clarinettists would ever have the same instrument. If fact, the basset clarinet was effectively extinct from 1800 until the 1950s, during which time Mozart’s two big clarinet pieces were played not at all (for the first 50 years) and then exclusively on a standard A-clarinet without the extra low notes. Nowadays the situation has improved: you can buy a basset clarinet on special order from most of the major clarinet-makers, but it literally only still exists because of these two big pieces by Mozart, plus a small handful of new works. Incidentally, ‘basset clarinet’ is a modern, invented name: in Mozart’s day they had basset horns (not the same instrument: you hear those in his Requiem) but Stadler named his new invention simply a ‘bass clarinet’. By the time the instrument was revived, the ‘bass clarinet’ was a whole other thing, so a new name had to be found for our Mozart clarinet. I sometimes just think of it as the Crazy Clarinet, or the Delicious-Headache Clarinet.

Although I do relish every opportunity to play it, my basset clarinet spends a lot of its time packed away under

my bed – then before a performance such as today’s, I spend a few months reacquainting myself with it, checking that all those extra long keys still work properly (fingers crossed) and preparing reeds specifically for it. Mozart certainly knew what he was doing – both the Quintet and the Concerto are definitely well-served by having the proper instrument. The alternative is to play various phrases an octave too high, which messes with the character of the melodies and the relationship between the instruments – but the basset clarinet is an unwieldy beast, and not really suitable for ‘replacing’ the standard, shorter A-clarinet – and that’s why it remains an experiment repeated by very few subsequent composers. In the second half of today’s concert, I’ll return to a regular clarinet, which is not only much kinder to my right thumb and shoulder, but also more manoeuvrable and flexible in expression.

Mozart’s Quintet and Clarinet Concerto were the first real masterpieces composed in both those genres for the instrument. The next ‘great’ clarinet quintet was written by Brahms just over 100 years later. His Quintet is the elephant not in the room today: rather than pairing Mozart with Brahms, we’ll be performing a much less well-known quintet written soon after the Brahms and directly inspired by it (although in a sort of ‘reverse’ way, as described in the programme note below). I’ve known and loved Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet since I was a teenager, but this is the first time my colleagues and I have performed it – and it’s some time since it was performed in Melbourne. When he composed it, ColeridgeTaylor was a student and still finding his musical voice, so we hear a lot of echoes of other composers, particularly

Dvorak, but I think his gift for writing ‘once-heard-never-forgotten’ melodies (the slow movement here) and his equally advanced rhythmic imagination (especially in the Scherzo) set ColeridgeTaylor’s Quintet firmly in the “Why don’t we hear this piece more often?“ category. Maddeningly, the MSO just missed out performing another piece by Coleridge-Taylor in 2021: we had just finished rehearsing his wonderful orchestral Variations on an African Air with Ben Northey when the second big lock-down was called, and the concerts were cancelled.

After quite a bit of discussion in the planning of today’s programme, we all agreed to compliment these two ‘traditional’ quintets with two much more recent Australian pieces, each (becoming) a ‘classic’ in their own way. Sculthorpe’s Twelfth String Quartet, for which the composer wrote an optional but ‘intended’ part for yidaki or didgeridoo, was suggested by our Associate Concertmaster Tair, who since arriving in Australia just a few years ago is obviously relishing getting to know Australian repertoire. Lachlan Skipworth’s beautiful singlemovement Clarinet Quintet, also with an absolutely unique sound-world, is a piece I’ve known and admired since it first appeared six years ago. Both these Australian pieces show strikingly original and individual musical voices, and both remind us just how vital and enthralling our art form remains.

© David Thomas

Having a passion for travel, Tair has worked as an orchestral musician in many different countries, exploring the diversity of the world’s cultures and the performing arts inherent in every place he visited. Before he finally found his zen in Melbourne, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, worked several years in Russia, a few years in Japan, tried the rhythm of orchestras of England and Finland and took part in numerous festivals and competitions, both as a soloist and chamber musician.

A special place in Tair’s heart belongs to chamber music. In 2010 he helped found a piano quintet, which under his leadership travelled and performed throughout Russia and Europe for six years. Tair is happy that he found so many like-minded chamber music lovers among Melbourne musicians and particularly in the MSO.

Since starting at the Russian State Symphony Orchestra until now, Tair has been through it all with his wife, the great cellist Elina. Now they have dropped their anchor in Melbourne with confidence, rushing into the cultural beat of the city. So far no kangaroos have been injured on the road.

Position supported by Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

Freya Franzen began violin studies in Canberra at the age of six with Gillian Bailey-Graham, later continuing as a pre-tertiary student at the Canberra School of Music. In her final year of school, she was the recipient of the ACT Board of Secondary Studies

Recognition of Excellence Award for Performing Arts (Music). Studying under Associate Professor Goetz Richter and Mr Christopher Kimber, Freya completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, graduating with First Class Honours in 2008.

Freya was the Sydney Symphony Orchestra fellow in 2011, later holding a position as a member of the Second Violin section and performing as a soloist in Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for two violins.

In 2012, Freya travelled to London to complete a Masters of Music at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Stephaine Gonley. In 2014, Freya won her current position as a member of the Melbourne Symphony’s second violin section. Besides orchestral life, she regularly engages in chamber music and is a founding member of the upcoming Melbourne Ensemble.

Tair Khisambeev violin

Freya Franzen violin

Gabrielle Halloran studied viola at the VCA with Lawrie Jacks and at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Thomas Riebl. During her time in Salzburg, she performed in various chamber ensembles and was tutored by members of the Hagen Quartet. She gave chamber concerts in Paris for the Mozart Bicentenary in 1991 and toured Europe with Salzburg Sinfonietta.

In 1993 Gabby obtained a tutti position with the MSO. Gabby returned to Europe in 1996 on an MSO Friends study grant and attended summer schools in Salzburg (with Thomas Riebl) and Siena (with Yuri Bashmet). She also had lessons with David Takeno in London and Karen Tuttle in New York. Gabby is a regular performer with MSO Chamber Players and enjoys a busy musical life in Melbourne.

Rohan de Korte has been a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Cello section since 2009. Rohan chose to play the cello at the age of five because it was bigger than a violin and studied with Henry Wenig and Nelson Cooke before choosing musical studies in Europe over a career in basketball –the Chicago Bulls hadn’t called. Rohan studied in Croatia with Valter Despalj and at the Cologne Hochschule for Music with Claus Kanngiesser, and received chamber music lessons with the Alban Berg Quartett.

Returning to Australia in 2000 Rohan freelanced with the Sydney Symphony before becoming Associate Principal Cello of Orchestra Victoria. He plays a lot of chamber music with friends and has even tried composing; his debut piece, The Haunted House, is extremely popular with younger audiences. Rohan’s cello is a beautiful German instrument from 1720 and his favourite composer is Beethoven, although Mahler’s Ninth Symphony wins as his favourite piece. He has a lovely wife, Caroline, and three very rowdy sons who think that playing the cello is very funny yet interesting, and, after suffering a broken neck, Rohan has vowed never to try surfing again.

Position supported by Andrew Dudgeon AM

Gabrielle Halloran viola

Rohan de Korte cello

Amos Roach yidaki

Amos Roach is a proud Ngarrandjerri/ Djab Wurrung/Gunditj Mara man. His music presents a narrative of healing, told with song and dance. Amos’s voice travels between the Desert, the Riverland and the Saltwater to the city like smoke from a fire. Amos is a cultural practitioner. Traditional First Nations culture informs the fundamentals of his craft. His music is part of the song-line that connects people and Country. His dances reconnect country to culture. Everything Amos does is music. If he is not playing an instrument, he is listening and exploring new sounds. Australian Reggae imagines a fusion of traditional and contemporary indigenous music. Amos plays his own songs, founded in rhythm with the Yidaki and Flamenco influenced Rap music, family ballads and Rock that shakes the ground and compels us to dance. A lilt of smoke, the Riverland echoes and we can feel the sand and saltwater rushing through the veins of Amos’s voice as he carries the song lines from the desert to our ears.

Program Notes

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)

Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Menuetto

IV. Allegretto con variazioni

The clarinet emerged in roughly its modern form in the early 1700s, but it took nearly a century for it to become a regular presence in chamber music and the orchestra. When Mozart visited Mannheim in 1778, the instrument was still a novelty in its “famous court, whose rays like those of the sun illuminate the whole of Germany.” Mozart was impressed, writing to his father in Leipzig: “if only we had clarinets!” back home. (Meanwhile, he complained about the flute: “my mind gets easily dulled, as you know, when I’m supposed to write a lot for an instrument I can’t stand.”)

Three years later, Mozart would get his wish – though he was by then in Vienna, rather than in Leipzig. Anton Stadler, along with his brother Johann, had become the first fulltime clarinetists in the Viennese court orchestra. Mozart and Stadler belonged to the same Masonic lodge, and they became frequent collaborators through the 1780s and early ’90s. Stadler premiered Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio, the Clarinet Quintet, and the Clarinet Concerto, and he played in the pit for the operas Così fan tutte and La clemenza di Tito. After Mozart died in 1791, Joseph Haydn paid tribute to his young departed friend by including clarinets in final symphonies. And curiously, in the final accounting, Stadler was found to be one of very few people who owed Mozart money, rather than the other way around.

1789 was an unusually fallow year for Mozart, who was dealing with the poor health of his wife, Constanze; the death of their infant child (the second in two years); and various financial problems. The Clarinet Quintet was one of few bright spots. The idea of mixing a woodwind instrument with strings was not new – he had written four flute quartets and an oboe quartet years earlier – but those were mostly cheerful works in the light divertimento style. The clarinet quintet follows more closely his moody viola quintets of 1787.

Another clear influence on the quintet is opera – some of Mozart’s only other significant works from 1789 were a series of “insertion arias” he wrote for a revival of Le nozze di Figaro as well as another opera by his Spanish colleague Martín y Soler (it wasn’t unusual at the time for composers to write substitute arias for other people’s operas). The clarinet traces the contours of a lyric soprano, while the other instruments add a rich internal drama.

Mozart completed the clarinet quintet and entered it into his catalogue on September 29, 1789, and it was premiered just before Christmas on a fundraising concert for widows and orphans. Stadler played it on the basset-clarinet, a special instrument of his own invention with an extended lower range. He later lost the music –or perhaps refused to hand it over to Mozart’s widow – and only a version for standard clarinet survives. The original is reconstructed for this performance.

The first movement is built on a chorale-like melody that is quickly pushed forward. The second theme, accompanied by cello pizzicato, turns cold when the clarinet picks it up over sneaky syncopations. The slow movement is a clarinet aria, a longing love song sometimes duetted with violin over a bittersweet backdrop. The Menuetto

is interspersed with two Trios (the first for strings only); a curious unresolved dissonance appears in the second. The finale is a set of variations on a rather coy theme that comes back full circle after a brief, reflective Adagio.

PETER SCULTHORPE (1929–2014)

String Quartet No.12, From Ubirr

Peter Sculthorpe was perhaps the most prominent Australian composer of the late 20 th and early 21 st centuries. He was born in Launceston, Tasmania, studied at the University of Melbourne and later Oxford, and from 1964 taught at the University of Sydney. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977, an Order of Australia in 1990, elected one of Australia’s Living National Treasures in 1998, and received a Silver Jubilee Medal. He was especially interested in the Australian landscape, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and culture, environmentalism, and non-violence – all elements that are reflected in his music.

Sculthorpe’s String Quartet No.12, From Ubirr, was completed in 1994 and premiered by the Kronos Quartet and yidaki-player David Coulter at the Barbican in London. The music was adapted from an earlier orchestral work called Earth Cry (1986). In the program note for that piece, Sculthorpe wrote:

Whenever I have returned from abroad in recent years, this country has seemed to me to be one of the last places on earth where one could honestly write quick and joyous music. I decided, therefore, to write such a piece. Reflecting upon this, it soon became clear that it would be dishonest of me to write music that is altogether quick and joyous. We still lack a common cause, and the self-

interest of many has drained us of much of our energy. A bogus national identity and its commercialisation have obscured the true breadth of our culture. Most of the jubilation, I came to feel, awaits us in the future.

For the string quartet version with yidaki, he elaborated:

Ubirr is a large rocky outcrop in Kakadu National Park, in northern Australia. It houses some of the best and most varied Aboriginal rock painting in the country. Many of the paintings have been proven to be the earliest-known graphic expressions of the human race. They clearly demonstrate a caring relationship with the environment, and the Aboriginal belief that the land owns the people, not the people the land… It asks us to attune ourselves to the planet, to listen to the cry of the earth as the Aborigines have done for many thousand years. The work is a straightforward and melodious one. Its four parts are made up of quick, ritualistic music framed by a slower music of supplicatory nature, and an extended coda. The slow music is accompanied by a yidaki pitched to E, and the quick music by a second yidaki pitched to C. The instrument represents the sound of nature, of the earth itself.

LACHLAN SKIPWORTH (born 1982)

Clarinet Quintet The Eternal

Based in Perth, Lachlan Skipworth is an Australian composer of growing international acclaim. He trained as a clarinetist at the University of Western Australia, but turned to the shakuhachi – the bamboo flute – which he studied for three years in Japan. He has won the Paul Lowin Prize for orchestral composition, served as composer-inresidence with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and received commissions and performances from the Sydney Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Darwin Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus. He has released four albums, most recently Chamber Works Vol. II in 2022.

Skipworth wrote his Clarinet Quintet in 2016, and it was recorded for his first album of chamber works. In his own program note, he described:

My Clarinet Quintet offers a dystopian response to our current time through the deep sadness of its harmonic language and its drawn out melodic lines. The arch structure traces a questioning of the status quo in increasing degrees of urgency, falling back to a disturbed state of acceptance to end the work.

SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR (1875–1912)

Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op.10

I. Allegro energico

II. Larghetto affetuoso

III. Scherzo. Allegro leggiero

IV. Finale. Allegro agitato

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s name is a play on that of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, perhaps pointing to his mother’s artistic ambitions for her son. His father was Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, a Sierra Leonean physician who studied in London but returned to West Africa before Samuel was born. His mother, Alice Hare Martin, was a white Englishwoman, and unmarried. It must not have been easy for Coleridge-Taylor to grow up in working-class Victorian London as a mixed-race child of illegitimate birth, but he was eventually adopted by his mother’s husband, received violin lessons, and earned a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1890.

By age 16, Coleridge-Taylor was already composing, and soon joined the studio of Charles Villiers Stanford, where his fellow students included Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. He won a few prizes and obtained his first commission on the recommendation of Edward Elgar. He became interested in the United States, and some of his best-known pieces, such as Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, were based on American themes. He visited the U.S. three times, meeting President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House and touring with Harry Burleigh, the African-American singer and composer who had worked with Antonín Dvořák in New York.

For a moment around the turn of the 20 th century, Coleridge-Taylor was one of England’s best-known composers, with no shortage of performances, conducting appearances, teaching

posts, and publications. But he died unexpectedly from pneumonia at age 37, and his music apart from the cantata Hiawatha was mostly forgotten.

The Clarinet Quintet, Op.10, is one of his first mature pieces, dating from 1895, and it was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig in 1906. He wrote it in response to a challenge from Stanford, who remarked that it would be impossible to write a clarinet quintet without being influenced by Johannes Brahms. (Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, appeared in 1891, and was the most significant contribution to the genre since Mozart.)

Coleridge-Taylor instead took a detour by way of Dvořák, adopting a folksy verve. His quintet is geographically unplaceable – vaguely English, Bohemian, and American all the same – but delightfully unique, avoiding any Brahmsian nostalgia. “You’ve done it, my boy!” Stanford exclaimed.

The first movement is bold and breezy, with surprising punctuations and colorful shadings between the clarinet and strings. The second movement stretches out from a restful melody, drawing a pastoral scene. The Scherzo is in two time signatures at once – 3/4 and 9/8 – resulting in unpredictable cross-rhythms in a playful romp. The finale lays on the ostinatos, with little drumming figures in cello plucks and chug-chug-chugs in the inner strings. A climax and dramatic pause gives way to a murky moment of stasis – resolved by a Vivace coda.

Benjamin Pesetsky © 2023

My first experience with the MSO was when I was very young....We were taken to a school concert, in the Melbourne Town Hall, conducted by Sir Bernard Heinze.… and I can honestly say that the MSO has never been out of my life since.”

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Margaret and John Mason OAM

H E McKenzie

Dr Isabel McLean

Ian Merrylees

Patricia Nilsson

Dr Paul Nisselle AM and Sue Nisselle

Alan and Dorothy Pattison

Sue and Barry Peake

David and Nancy Price

Peter Priest

Ruth and Ralph Renard

Tom and Elizabeth Romanowski

Liliane Rusek and Alexander Ushakoff

Jeffrey Sher KC and Diana Sher OAM

Barry Spanger

Steinicke Family

Peter J Stirling

Jenny Tatchell

Clayton and Christina Thomas

Elaine Walters OAM

Janet Whiting AM

Nic and Ann Willcock

Anonymous (4)

PLAYER PATRONS $1,000+

Dr Sally Adams

Anita and Graham Anderson

Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Society

Geoffrey and Vivienne Baker

Michael Bowles and Alma Gill

Joyce Bown

Miranda Brockman

Nigel Broughton and Sheena Broughton

Suzie Brown OAM and the late Harvey Brown

Dr Robin Burns and Dr Roger Douglas

Ronald and Kate Burnstein

Kaye Cleary

John and Mandy Collins

Andrew Crockett AM and Pamela Crockett

Dr Daryl and Nola Daley

Panch Das and Laurel Young-Das

Michael Davies

Natasha Davies for the Trikojus Education Fund

Rick and Sue Deering

Suzanne Dembo

John and Anne Duncan

Jane Edmanson OAM

Diane Fisher

Grant Fisher and Helen Bird

Alex Forrest

Applebay Pty Ltd

David and Esther Frenkiel OAM

Anthony Garvey and Estelle O’Callaghan

David I Gibbs AM and Susie O’Neill

Sonia Gilderdale

Dr Celia Godfrey

Dr Marged Goode

Dr Sandra Hacker AO and Ian Kennedy AM

Dawn Hales

David Hardy

Tilda and the late Brian Haughney

Susan and Gary Hearst

Cathy Henry

Dr Keith Higgins

Anthony and Karen Ho

Peter and Jenny Hordern

Katherine Horwood

Penelope Hughes

Shyama Jayaswal

Basil and Rita Jenkins

Sandy Jenkins

Sue Johnston

John Kaufman

Angela Kayser

Drs Bruce and Natalie Kellett

Dr Anne Kennedy

Tim Knaggs

Dr Jerry Koliha and Marlene Krelle

Jane Kunstler

Ann Lahore

Kerry Landman

Kathleen and Coran Lang

Janet and Ross Lapworth

Bryan Lawrence

Phil Lewis

Andrew Lockwood

Elizabeth H Loftus

Chris and Anna Long

Gabe Lopata

John MacLeod

Eleanor & Phillip Mancini

Aaron McConnell

Wayne McDonald and Kay Schroer

Ray McHenry

John and Rosemary McLeod

Don and Anne Meadows

Dr Eric Meadows

Professor Geoffrey Metz

Sylvia Miller

Ian Morrey and Geoffrey Minter

Dr Anthony and Dr Anna Morton

Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James

Roger Parker

Ian Penboss

Eli Raskin

Jan and Keith Richards

James Ring

Dr Peter Rogers and Cathy Rogers OAM

Dr Ronald and Elizabeth Rosanove

Marie Rowland

Jan Ryan

Martin and Susan Shirley

P Shore

John E Smith

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

Leon and Sandra Velik

The Reverend Noel Whale

Edward and Paddy White

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and t

he late Marian Wills Cooke

Robert and Diana Wilson

Richard Withers

Lorraine Woolley

Youth Music Foundation

Shirley and Jeffrey Zajac

Anonymous (12)

OVERTURE PATRONS $500+

Margaret Abbey PSM

Jane Allan and Mark Redmond

Mario M Anders

Jenny Anderson

Peter Batterham

Benevity Australia Online Giving Foundation

Peter Berry and Amanda Quirk

Dr William Birch AM

Allen and Kathryn Bloom

Linda Brennan

Dr Robert Brook

Elizabeth Brown

John Brownbill

Roger and Coll Buckle

Cititec Systems

Charmaine Collins

Dr Sheryl Coughlin and Paul Coughlin

Judith Cowden in memory of violinist

Margaret Cowden

Dr Oliver Daly and Matilda Daly

Merrowyn Deacon

Bruce Dudon

Melissa and Aran Fitzgerald

Brian Florence

Elizabeth Foster

Mary Gaidzkar

Simon Gaites

Dr Mary-Jane Gething

David and Geraldine Glenny

Hugo and Diane Goetze

Louise Gourlay OAM

Robert and Jan Green

George Hampel AM KC and

Felicity Hampel AM SC

Geoff Hayes

Jim Hickey

William Holder

Clive and Joyce Hollands

Rod Home

R A Hook

Gillian Horwood

Geoff and Denise Illing

Wendy Johnson

John and Christine Keys

Belinda and Malcom King

Professor David Knowles and Dr Anne McLachlan

Pauline and David Lawton

Paschalina Leach

Dr Jenny Lewis

Sharon Li

The Podcast Reader

Janice Mayfield

Shirley A McKenzie

Dr Alan Meads and Sandra Boon

Marie Misiurak

Joan Mullumby

Dr Judith S Nimmo

Estelle O’Callaghan

Brendan O’Donnell

David Oppenheim

Sarah Patterson

Adriana and Sienna Pesavento

Kerryn Pratchett

Professor Charles Qin OAM and Kate Ritchie

Alfonso Reina and Marjanne Rook

Professor John Rickard

Dr Anne Ryan

Viorica Samson

Carolyn Sanders

Dr Nora Scheinkestel

Julia Schlapp

Dr Alex Starr

Dylan Stewart

Ruth Stringer

Reverend Angela Thomas

Rosemary Warnock

Nickie Warton and Grant Steel

Amanda Watson

Deborah Whithear and Dr Kevin Whithear OAM

Dr Susan Yell

Anonymous (15)

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE

Jenny Anderson

David Angelovich

G C Bawden and L de Kievit

Lesley Bawden

Joyce Bown

Mrs Jenny Bruckner and the late Mr John Bruckner

Ken Bullen

Peter A Caldwell

Luci and Ron Chambers

Beryl Dean

Sandra Dent

Alan Egan JP

Gunta Eglite

Marguerite Garnon-Williams

Drs L C Gruen and R W Wade

Louis J Hamon AOM

Charles Hardman

Carol Hay

Jennifer Henry

Graham Hogarth

Rod Home

Lyndon Horsburgh

Tony Howe

Lindsay and Michael Jacombs

Laurence O’Keefe and Christopher James

John Jones

Grace Kass and the late George Kass

Sylvia Lavelle

Pauline and David Lawton

Cameron Mowat

Ruth Muir

David Orr

Matthew O’Sullivan

Rosia Pasteur

Penny Rawlins

Joan P Robinson

Anne Roussac-Hoyne and Neil Roussac

Michael Ryan and Wendy Mead

Andrew Serpell and Anne Kieni Serpell

Jennifer Shepherd

Suzette Sherazee

Dr Gabriela and Dr George Stephenson

Pamela Swansson

Lillian Tarry

Tam Vu and Dr Cherilyn Tillman

Mr and Mrs R P Trebilcock

Peter and Elisabeth Turner

Michael Ulmer AO

The Hon. Rosemary Varty

Terry Wills Cooke OAM and the late Marian Wills Cooke

Mark Young

Anonymous (19)

The MSO gratefully acknowledges the support of the following Estates:

Norma Ruth Atwell

Angela Beagley

Christine Mary Bridgart

The Cuming Bequest

Margaret Davies

Neilma Gantner

The Hon Dr Alan Goldberg AO QC

Enid Florence Hookey

Gwen Hunt

Family and Friends of James Jacoby

Audrey Jenkins

Joan Jones

Pauline Marie Johnston

C P Kemp

Peter Forbes MacLaren

Joan Winsome Maslen

Lorraine Maxine Meldrum

Prof Andrew McCredie

Jean Moore

Joan P Robinson

Maxwell Schultz

Miss Sheila Scotter AM MBE

Marion A I H M Spence

Molly Stephens

Gwennyth St John

Halinka Tarczynska-Fiddian

Jennifer May Teague

Albert Henry Ullin

Jean Tweedie

Herta and Fred B Vogel

Dorothy Wood

COMMISSIONING CIRCLE

Mary Armour

Cecilie Hall and the Late Hon Michael Watt KC

Tim and Lyn Edward

Kim Williams AM

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

The Kate and Stephen Shelmerdine Family Foundation

Michael Ullmer AO and Jenny Ullmer

Jason Yeap OAM – Mering Management Corporation

ADOPT A MUSICIAN

Mr Marc Besen AC and the late Mrs Eva Besen AO

Chief Conductor Jaime Martín

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

Margaret Jackson AC

Nicolas Fleury

Di Jameson and Frank Mercurio

Elina Fashki, Benjamin Hanlon, Tair Khisambeev, Christopher Moore

Dr Elizabeth A Lewis AM

Anthony Chataway

David Li AM and Angela Li

Dale Barltrop

Gary McPherson

Rachel Shaw

Anne Neil

Eleanor Mancini

Hyon-Ju Newman

Patrick Wong

Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield Cong Gu

The Rosemary Norman Foundation

Ann Blackburn

Andrew and Judy Rogers

Michelle Wood

Glenn Sedgwick

Tiffany Cheng, Shane Hooton

Dr Martin Tymms and Patricia Nilsson

Natasha Thomas

Anonymous

Prudence Davis

HONORARY APPOINTMENTS

Life Members

Mr Marc Besen AC

John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC

Sir Elton John CBE

Harold Mitchell AC

Lady 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

Mrs Eva Besen AO

John Brockman OAM

The Honourable Alan Goldberg AO QC

Roger Riordan AM

Ila Vanrenen

MSO ARTISTIC FAMILY

Jaime Martín

Chief Conductor

Xian Zhang

Principal Guest Conductor

Benjamin Northey

Principal Conductor in Residence

Carlo Antonioli

Cybec Assistant Conductor Fellow

Sir Andrew Davis

Conductor Laureate

Hiroyuki Iwaki †

Conductor Laureate (1974–2006)

Warren Trevelyan-Jones

MSO Chorus Director

Siobhan Stagg

2023 Soloist in Residence

Gondwana Voices

2023 Ensemble in Residence

Christian Li

Young Artist in Association

Mary Finsterer

2023 Composer in Residence

Melissa Douglas

2023 Cybec Young Composer in Residence

Christopher Moore

Creative Producer, MSO Chamber

Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO

MSO First Nations Creative Chair

Dr Anita Collins

Creative Chair for Learning and Engagement

Artistic Ambassadors

Tan Dun

Lu Siqing

MSO BOARD

Chairman

David Li AM

Co-Deputy Chairs

Di Jameson

Helen Silver AO

Managing Director

Sophie Galaise

Board Directors

Shane Buggle

Andrew Dudgeon AM

Lorraine Hook

Margaret Jackson AC

David Krasnostein AM

Gary McPherson

Farrel Meltzer

Hyon-Ju Newman

Glenn Sedgwick

Company Secretary

Oliver Carton

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)

Media and Broadcast Partners

Trusts and Foundations

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