Season 2023

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to announce the appointment of our new Concertmaster, Kate Suthers in 2023.

Before holding positions in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Kate studied at the Royal Academy of Music London. Since then, her career has spanned string quartet to symphony orchestra. A musician of incredible versatility, she has performed as a soloist, leader and ensemble member across art forms, with organisations throughout the UK, Europe and Australia.

ASO Managing Director Vincent Ciccarello said, “Kate’s many strengths as a leader stood out during her music-making with the ASO in 2021. Her ideas about the role of the orchestra, in performance and in the community, are very much aligned with the ASO’s vision. During her time with us, Kate got to experience the wide variety of ASO activities, from our Symphony Series to our side-by-side student program and Big Rehearsals. Her unwavering artistic excellence and commitment across these programs was inspirational.

“We are thrilled that Kate is returning home to Australia to join the ASO at this exciting time. We are looking forward to the impact that Kate’s musicianship and leadership will bring to the cultural life of South Australia.”

Kate is humbled to take on the Concertmaster role, “I’m really excited to be joining the ASO community of musicians and audiences, and to be part of all the ways the ASO brings music to the people of South Australia.  It’s very special to me to have the opportunity to come home.

Live music is unique, it happens once it’s just for the people in the room at the one time and whether you are performing on stage or part of the audience only those people ever get to experience it and it’s magical! I’m looking forward to my first performance as Concertmaster of the ASO in 2023!” she said.

The ASO also welcomes two new friends to the ASO family, violin virtuoso Emily Sun becomes Artist in Association and Adelaide-based composer Jakub Jankowski is the ASO’s inaugural Emerging Composer in Association. The duo along with Conductor Laureate Nicholas Braithwaite make up the ASO’s illustrious Artistic Leadership Team.

Emily is excited to be joining the ASO family, “I am hugely honoured to be the ASO Artist in Association for 2023. To collaborate so closely with the world-class musicians of the ASO throughout the year, and to share our music and performances with the warm and generous audiences in Adelaide is an incredible privilege. I am particularly excited and passionate to share the World Premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Violin Concerto, it will no doubt become a significant work in the violin repertory” she said.

Emily Sun in Recital will be a special evening, Emily says, “The recital program I’ve curated for Elder Hall centres around humanity’s impact on nature and will feature the Australian Premiere of Fazil Say’s Violin Sonata No.2, ‘Mount Ida’. I wanted this recital to be an opportunity to reflect on our role in climate change, and a space in which we can consider how we might protect our precious planet.”

ASO Principal 2nd Violin Alison Heike is looking forward to playing alongside Emily she says, “Emily is a captivating performer, she can produce the most varied range of colours on her instrument and she possesses a fiendish virtuosity, the orchestra is very excited to be working with her”.

ASO’s 2023 season presents a musical tapestry of timeless classics and creative voices of today and the finest conductors from Australia and around the world. Patrons will experience a world of emotion distilled into music, from breathtaking masterpieces, thrilling soloists and unique collaborations, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 Season seizes on music’s ability to say things that words cannot say, and to make us feel things unlike any other artform.  Symphony Series, Matinée Series and Sanctuary Series all return, in addition to a series of outstanding Special Events and Showcase Series that will introduce new audiences to the orchestra for the first time.

The 2023 Season includes 46 concerts, 3 World Premieres, 6 Australian Premieres and international conductors and world renowned soloists from New Zealand, Finland, France, Russia, United States, United Kingdom and Australia. A total of 19 conductors and 26 soloists along with the orchestra will perform music from 55 composers from the past and present, along with 12 Australian artists and 33 South Australian artists who will take to the stage throughout the season.

ASO Managing Director Vincent Ciccarello today reveals the depth of the 2023 Season program – his last in the role. “Releasing the season into the world is a bit like having a baby – you’ve been there during the gestation period, being careful to nurture your creation, and then the day arrives! You’re excited to introduce your baby to the world but, at the same time, a bit nervous,” Mr Ciccarello said.

“I am really very proud of our 2023 season, as it represents the steady but deliberate progress the ASO has made over the past nine years, to better reflect our society and the community we serve while remaining true to our musical past,” he said.

“I leave the ASO with many fond memories, proud to have had the privilege of leading this important cultural institution and with it sounding as glorious as ever.”

The season opens and concludes with a magic theme Orchestra Unwrapped: The magic of the orchestra and Christmas Unwrapped: The magic of Christmas with music maestro and jovial host Guy Noble, the ASO will whisk you away to a mystical world of possibility for two concerts in Festival Theatre. “We’ve chosen magical pieces and pieces about magic, like Gandalf and Harry Potter, I will be waving my conducting wand in front of the Adelaide Symphony, hopefully casting a spell on our audience and letting the orchestra do its magic music on stage” “Noble said.

ASO French Horn Emma Gregan says, ”The music in Orchestra Unwrapped conjures a special kind of shared nostalgia for the magical and fantastic. For many, the glittering sounds of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker are inseparable from the wonders of Christmas time, and who can help but picture Mickey Mouse’s dancing broomsticks while listening to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!”.

The ASO’s flagship Symphony Seriesfeatures eight programs of big, bold, electrifying music guaranteed to heighten your emotions and enrich your soul. We continue to celebrate female composers in each Symphony Series concert where you can experience music by some of the 19^th  century’s most brilliant composing women as well as find joy in present and up and coming composing women. 

Of the 55 composers represented throughout the season, eight pieces are from Australian composers and eight pieces are by female composers, with three World Premieres.

Australian and World Premieres abound, Symphony Series 2 Wild features a new major violin concerto by one of Australia’s favourite composers Elena Kats-Chernin. ASO has commissioned rising star in the world of Australian composition,  Adelaide’s own Anne Cawrse to compose a Marimba Concerto that will take you on a journey to another world in Symphony Series 4 Embrace.  And Symphony Series 5 Vitality opens with the Australian Premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst, whilst young British composer Grace-Evangeline Mason’s immersive new work The Imagined Forest receives its Australian Premiere in Symphony Series 6 Dreams.

ASO’s new Concertmaster Kate Suthers says, “I am so excited for Jessie Montogmery’s Starburst, it’s one of my favourite pieces for strings, it’s absolutely incredible”.

Principal 2^nd Violin Alison Heike is most looking forward to performing in Symphony Series 4 Embrace she says, “Dvořák Symphony 9 is an audience favourite because of its instantly recognisable slow movement the Largo and its breathtaking Cor Anglais solo. I enjoy performing Dvořák, his orchestrations are absolutely beautiful and I  love his sweeping string melodies.”

ASO’s crowd pleasing Showcase Seriesis back, a testament to the fact that the ASO is equally capable of playing in the style of a baroque orchestra, a Hollywood studio orchestra, a specialist new music ensemble and everything in between.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix TM in Concert. Displayed on a giant screen in high-definition and accompanied by the ASO expertly conducted by Nicholas Buc performing Nicholas Hooper’s iconic score live at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena.

Lights! Camera! Symphony! Is a family concert that will reintroduce you to some of the most exciting screen music of all time. Film score aficionado Conductor and Presenter Nicholas Buc will have the trumpets soaring in Star Wars main theme and the strings and percussion will set your pulse racing in The Avengers, a perfect introduction to the world of the symphony orchestra.

Conductor Nicholas Buc says, “this concert is a love letter to the world of film music, it demonstrates how the language of music written for film enhances the drama. It’s the perfect introduction for families as it opens up the world of orchestration, melody and harmony and shows how all these wonderful ideas that have been used by symphonic composers centuries old are now used by master film composers to come together to create a film score.”

Special Events:

In the 150^th anniversary of Rachmaninov’s birth the ASO presents Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos with pianist Stephen Hough and conductor Andrew Litton. This special immersive series of concerts encompass Rachmaninov’s complete cycle of works for piano and orchestra. Each concert also features the visceral excitement of music by Rachmaninov’s compatriots – including Tchaikovsky’s yearning Fifth Symphony, the magical First Symphony and Prokofiev’s unforgettable Romeo & Juliet.

Pianist Stephen Hough can’t wait to showcase Rachmaninov’s piano concertos that are loved the world over for their passion, generosity of spirit and sheer exhilaration. He says, “I am thrilled to be coming to Adelaide to play all Rachmaninovs’ music for piano and orchestra, four piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. I hope to welcome you and meet you for lots of Rachmaninov in 2023”.

Creation: A Spiritual Sound Picture of Bundjalung History is a special event reflecting the ASO’s commitment to building respectful relationships and sharing cultures as outlined in the ASO’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Sung and narrated in the Yugambeh language, this new work by Grayson Rotumah reflects Bundjalung history and culture through the re-imagining of creation songs, spiritual mission and massacre songs. Through dance, song and atmospheric orchestral interludes, intermingled with the sound of Robert Taylor on yidaki and vocals by Marlon Motlop and Rulla Mansell. The work explores Rotumah’s lived experience at Booningbah and his life as a contemporary indigenous artist. This special concert is the culmination of an artistic partnership between the ASO and First Nations artists and is part of the ASO’s community project Floods of Fire.

Sacred and Profane: An exploration of the spiritual and sublime is a new series where audiences will bask in the ethereal glow of the iconic St Peter’s Cathedral. Two concerts featuring music that celebrates our shared humanity and vibrancy of our world including a new work by the ASO’s newly appointed Emerging Composer in Association Jakub Jankowski. Entitled Clariéres, which is the French word for clearing, Jakub explains it is a very visual piece. He says, ”what I’ve tried to do is write for the orchestra in a much more organic way, the instruments don’t just play ordinary tones or pitches, they also make sounds to make an orchestra that breathes and creaks evoking the natural world.”

Sanctuary Series: Be transformed by the restorative power of music, this unique series allows audiences to relax, take a deep breath and listen, you can sit or recline as the ASO guides you on a peaceful journey in a one hour event performed in near darkness in Grainger Studio.

The ASO’s Learning program nurtures future musicians and audiences through its education and community outreach programs. Silos and Symphonies regional composition project continues the collaboration with the regional community of South Australia. Composers are sent out to regional schools and the composers work with children from these schools to put forward ideas to create beautiful new pieces of work that the ASO then performs.

Accessible

ASO ensures more South Australians have access and engagement with the arts with a dedicated commitment to concerts across South Australia. In addition to free public concerts, the ASO tours regionally and also includes a series of schools performance, allowing regional students and all South Australians the opportunity to be inspired by live orchestral music.

In 2023 the ASO continues to collaborate with some of the greatest Australian and International cultural institutions and leading creative bodies including the Adelaide Festival, Australian Ballet and State Opera of South Australia.

2023 Soloists

Pelham Andrews Baritone  | Daniel de Borah Piano | Claire Edwardes Marimba | Elder Conservatorium Chorale | Graduate Singers | Jessica Dean Soprano  | Desiree Frahn Soprano | Ilya Gringots Violin | Cameron Hill Violin | Andrea Lam Piano |  Elizabeth Layton Violin | Michael Ierace Piano | Rulla Mansel Vocals  | Anthony Marwood Violin  | Marlon Motlop Vocals |  Dean Newcomb Clarinet | Joseph Nolan Organ | Steven Osborne Piano | Michael Petruccelli Tenor |  Li-Wei Qin Cello | Grayson Rotumah Guitar | Konstantin Shamray Piano | Emily Sun Violin ASO Artist in Association | Robert Taylor Yidaki | St Peter’s Cathedral Choir | Sofia Troncoso Soprano  | Adrian Uren Horn | Pinchas Zukerman Violin |

2023 Conductors, curators and presenters

Graham Abbott | Nicholas Braithwaite | Luke Dollman | Finnegan Downie Dear | Anthony Hunt | Elizabeth Layton | Guy Noble | Benjamin Northey  | Tarmo Peltokoski | Elena Schwarz  |  Chloé van Soeterstède  |  Grayson Rotumah  | David Sharp | Brett Weymark  | Mark Wigglesworth | Pinchas Zukerman |

Composers, past and present

Anderson | Anne Cawrse (World Premiere ASO Commission) | Bach | Arnold Bach (orch. Stowowski) |  Beethoven  | Berlioz  | Howard Blake | Britten | Coleridge-Taylor | Copland | Ruth Crawford Seeger | Debussy | Delius | Dukas |  Dvořák | Elgar  | Louise Farrenc | Fauré | Fazil Say (Australian Premiere) | Gabrieli |  Philip Glass |  Glinka | Haydn  | Jakub Jankowski (Emerging Composer in Association) | Elena Kats-Chernin (World Premiere ASO Commission) | Korngold | Glyn Lehmann | Mahler  | Grace-Evangeline Mason Australian Premiere  | Jessie Montgomery (Australian Premiere) |  Mozart | Arvo Pärt | Poulenc | Prokofiev | Rachmaninov | Rimsky-Korsakov | Kaija Saariaho | Sarasate |  Satie | Schubert | Sibelius  | Valentin Silvestrov | Strauss  | Suk | Tchaikovsky | Verdi  | John Williams |  Vaughan Williams | Grayson Rotumah (World Premiere ASO Commission) |

$30 for 30 and under

If you’re 30 and under, experience an ASO for just $30. *some exclusions may apply, more information & T&C’s at aso/com.au/30under

Student Rush Tickets

For just $50, students aged 15+ can become an ASO Live Pass member, gaining access to FREE ASO Rush tickets to Symphony Series and Matinee Series concerts along with a host of other benefits. More info at aso.com.au/livepass

Support the ASO

At the ASO we believe that everyone, of all ages and backgrounds, should have the chance to experience great orchestral music. The generosity of the ASO’s community of support enables us to constantly evolve and connect with people in new and innovative ways, and look ahead to an exciting and secure future for the orchestra. There are numerous ways to support the ASO including through focused giving circles, corporate partnerships, special projects, or by making a bequest to the ASO Foundation.

To find out more about how you can get involved and make a difference, please contact:
Lucy Eckermann Philanthropy Manager, 08 8233 6263 eckermannl@aso.com.au
Rob Hamer Jones Partnership Manager 08 8233 6231 hamerjonesr@aso.com.au

Through music, ASO continues to play a leading role in nurturing the cultural life of our vibrant state, nourishing the souls of South Australians leading the charge to make Adelaide UNESCO City of Music a global capital for music.

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra acknowledges that the land we make music on is the traditional country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to the Elders and recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationships with the land. We acknowledge this is of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is proud to share our specially commissioned Kaurna Acknowledgement of Country, Pudnanthi Padninthi (The Coming and the Going) that is performed at the start of ASO concerts.

To access a copy of the 2023 Season brochure www.aso.com.au
Packages on sale 1 September packages and individual tickets on sale 1 December.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
Cheree McEwin, Publicist Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
08 8233 6205 / 0416 181 679 / mcewinc@aso.com.au