The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n performing arts organisation comprising 75 full-time musicians, established in 1936. Based in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, South Australia, the orchestra's primary performance venue is the

Adelaide Town Hall Adelaide Town Hall is a landmark building on King William Street in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The City of Adelaide Town Hall complex includes the Town Hall and the office building at 25 Pirie Street. Description and history Adelai ...

, but the ASO also performs in other venues. It provides the orchestral support for all productions of the

State Opera of South Australia State Opera South Australia (SOSA) is a professional opera company in Adelaide, South Australia, established in 1976. History State Opera South Australia was established in 1976 as a statutory corporation under the ''State Opera of South Aust ...

and all Adelaide performances of the

Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson's, J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teache ...

. It also features regularly at the

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, and has performed at the

Adelaide Cabaret Festival The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is an annual arts festival featuring cabaret held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It has been held in June each year since 2001, with the exception of 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, ...

WOMAdelaide WOMADelaide is an annual four-day festival of Music, Arts and Dance, which was first held in 1992 in Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia. One of many WOMAD festivals held around the world, it is a four-day event that presents a diverse select ...

and several other festivals in Adelaide.

History

In 1936 the South Australian Orchestra was supplanted by the 50-member Adelaide Symphony Orchestra led by William Cade, and sponsored by the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

(later the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC). The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55-member South Australian Symphony Orchestra, with Henry Krips as its resident conductor. The orchestra reverted to its original title, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in late 1975. The ASO's highlights have included its 1998 performances of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

Ring Cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

'', the first Australian production since 1913 (although it was widely and erroneously claimed to be the first ever in Australia). The orchestra participated in the first fully Australian production of '' The Ring'' in 2004. In 2007, the orchestra partnered with

Hilltop Hoods Hilltop Hoods is an Australian hip hop group that formed in 1996 in Blackwood, Adelaide, South Australia. They are regarded as pioneers of the "larrikin-like" style of Australian hip hop. The group was founded by Suffa (Matthew David Lambert) a ...

to prepare a re-orchestrated release of their album ''The Hard Road'', titled '' The Hard Road: Restrung''. In 2009 Premier and Arts Minister

Mike Rann Michael David Rann, , (born 5 January 1953) is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and Australian am ...

proposed and provided government funding to the ASO to commission a major orchestral work about

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. The ASO's world premiere of

Gerard Brophy Gerard Louis Brophy (born 26 November 1975, Welkom, Orange Free State, South Africa) is a first-class cricketer, latterly contracted to Yorkshire. He has also played for Ireland, Free State, Northamptonshire and Transvaal in a well travelled ca ...

's ''The Blue Thread'', inspired by the

River Murray The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...

, was performed at the Concert for the Earth at the

on 27 November 2010. The Rann government proposed and arranged funding for two further ASO commissions, the first an orchestral tribute to the cricketer

Sir Donald Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...

, and the second commemorating the centenary of the

ANZAC The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood comma ...

landings at Gallipoli. The world premiere of ''Our Don'' by

Natalie Williams Natalie Jean Williams (born November 30, 1970) is an American basketball executive and former player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Williams was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. She was also an acc ...

was performed by the ASO in August 2014. The world premiere of an ANZAC Requiem by composer

Iain Grandage Iain Grandage is an Australian composer and music director, best known for his compositions for theatre, dance and concert. In May 2018, the Perth Festival appointed Grandage as Artistic Director. Early life Grandage initially lived in Brisbane ...

and librettist

Kate Mulvany Kate Mulvany (born 24 February 1977) is an Australian actress, playwright and screenwriter. She works in theatre, television and film, with roles in ''Hunters '' (2020–2023), ''The Great Gatsby'' (2013), ''Griff the Invisible'' (2010) and '' ...

was performed on 22 April 2015. In 2015 the Hilltop Hoods collaborated for a second time with the 32-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the 20-piece Adelaide Chamber Singers Choir for their next re-orchestrated album titled ''

Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung ''Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung'' is a 2016 remix album from Australian hip hop group, Hilltop Hoods that follows their 2014 release ''Walking Under Stars'' and their 2012 release '' Drinking from the Sun''. This is the se ...

''. In February 2016, the

released their second album of reworked songs featuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, ''

Drinking from the Sun, Walking under Stars Restrung ''Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung'' is a 2016 remix album from Australian hip hop group, Hilltop Hoods that follows their 2014 release ''Walking Under Stars'' and their 2012 release '' Drinking from the Sun''. This is the se ...

'', which debuted at #1 in the charts. In 2016 the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra formed its first Artistic Leadership Team, comprising its new Artist in Association, violinist

Pinchas Zukerman Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor. Life and career Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...

, Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Sir Jeffrey Tate, and the orchestra's own Principal Conductor, Nicholas Carter. Carter was the youngest Principal Conductor in the orchestra's history, and the first Australian conductor to be appointed to a Principal Conductor position with a major Australian orchestra in almost 30 years. In 2017 the orchestra was central in the

's staging of

Barrie Kosky Barrie KoskyBarrie Kosky's name is sometimes misspelled as Barry Kosky, Barrie Koski, Barrie Koskie. (born 18 February 1967) is an Australian theatre and opera director.Kosky also plays the piano, as he did in his production of Monteverdi's ''Po ...

's ''Saul –'' a production from

Glyndebourne Opera Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

in the UK, and again in 2018 for the Adelaide Festival's Glyndebourne Opera production and Australian premiere of composer

Brett Dean Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961) is an Australian composer, violist and conductor. Biography Brett Dean was born, raised and educated in Brisbane. He started learning violin at the age of eight, and later studied viola with Elizabeth Morgan a ...

's new opera, ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

''. These performances were received with critical acclaim and numerous

Helpmann Awards The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001. The annual awards recognise achievements in the disciplines of musical t ...

. In 2018 the Artistic Leadership Team evolved to include young violinist and the orchestra's new Emerging Artist in Association, Grace Clifford; Australian composer and the orchestra's new Composer in Association, Cathy Milliken; and British conductor and the orchestra's new Principal Guest Conductor,

Mark Wigglesworth Mark Wigglesworth (born 19 July 1964) is a British conductor. Biography Born in Sussex, Wigglesworth attended Bryanston School, Manchester University, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He won the Kondrashin Conducting Competition in ...

Current composition

the Artistic Leadership Team consists of

, Cathy Milliken, and Mark Wigglesworth, while the orchestra comprises a total of 75 musicians.

Venues and ongoing work

The orchestra's primary performance venue is the

, but the ASO also performs in other venues such as the

Adelaide Festival Centre Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia's first multi-purpose arts centre and the home of South Australia's performing arts, was built in the 1970s, designed by Hassell Architects. The Festival Theatre opened in June 1973 with the rest of the centr ...

Adelaide Entertainment Centre The Adelaide Entertainment Centre (AEC) is an indoor arena located in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It is used for sporting and entertainment events. It is the principal venue for concerts, events and attractions for audiences bet ...

Elder Hall :''This is a list of residential buildings at Northwestern University; for a list of other buildings see'' List of Northwestern University buildings This list of Northwestern University residences catalogues the on-campus housing options for the ...

at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

and its own Grainger Studio. The ASO provides the orchestral support for all productions of the

, as well as the Adelaide performances of the

. The orchestra is also a regular featured ensemble at the

, and also appears as part of the

OzAsia Festival OzAsia Festival, or simply OzAsia, is an Asia-focused arts festival in South Australia, presented by the Adelaide Festival Centre for two weeks in late October to early November each year. It features theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts ...

Adelaide Guitar Festival The Adelaide Guitar Festival (AGF), formerly the Adelaide International Guitar Festival (AGIF) is Australia's largest guitar festival, held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The AGF is the sister event to the New York Guitar ...

and

Recognition, awards and international tours

* 1996 Tour to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

(

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

) and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

* 1998

's production of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

''; repeated in 2004 with the first all-Australian production * 2004

Helpmann Award The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001. The annual awards recognise achievements in the disciplines of musical th ...

Finalist for Best Classical Concert Presentation – Requiem & The Grainger Special 2003 * 2004

for Best Opera – ''Dead Man Walking'', State Opera SA 2003 * 2005

Winner for Best Opera – ''

The Ring Cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

'', State Opera SA 2004 * 2006 2013

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

Symphony Cycle * 2007 recorded ''

The Hard Road Restrung ''The Hard Road: Restrung'' is a remix of Hilltop Hoods' previous album '' The Hard Road'', featuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and American freestyle rapper Okwerdz. The album was released on 12 May 2007 in Australia, with a launch s ...

'' with hip hop band the

– went gold (sold over 35,000 units); awarded 2007

ARIA Award The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

for Best Urban Release * 2008

Finalist for Best Classical Concert Presentation –

Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

Festival * 2009 Tour to

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

as part of the

G'Day USA Australia Week is a promotion of "all things Australian" held annually in the United States. History Pioneered in 2004 as G’Day LA, by the Australian Consul General in Los Angeles, John Olsen, G'DAY USA: Australia Week is now arguably the large ...

celebrations * 2010

Symphony Cycle * 2012

Finalist for Best Symphony Concert – Master Series 3 – Fire Series * 2013

APRA APRA or Apra may refer to: Places *Apra, Punjab, a census town city in Jalandhar District of Punjab, India * Apra Harbor, the main port of Guam Acronyms * American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana), a Peruvi ...

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes '' ...

's Arts Award for Excellence in Music Education – Australian Emerging Composers Creative Workshop with

Tan Dun Tan Dun (, ; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and ...

and six young Australian composers * 2016

Arts South Australia Arts South Australia (previously Arts SA) was responsible for managing the South Australian Government's funding for the arts and cultural heritage from about 1996 until late 2018, when it was progressively dismantled, a process complete by early ...

Ruby Award The South Australian Ruby Awards, also known as the Ruby Awards, are annual awards which recognise outstanding achievement in South Australia’s arts and culture sector. They were named in honour of arts champion Dame Ruby Litchfield (1912–2001) ...

for Sustained Contribution by an Organisation * 2017

for Best Opera – ''Saul'', Adelaide Festival 2016 * 2017 The Bush Concert (ASO commissioned work) toured to

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

for the 34th

Harbin Summer Music Festival * 2019 winner of Best Independent Classical Album in the AIR Independent Music Awards for ''Bach Concertos'', along with the

Grigoryan Brothers Slava Grigoryan (born 1976) is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist. He frequently collaborates and performs with his younger brother, fellow guitarist Leonard Grigoryan, performing as the Grigoryan Brothers. Early life He w ...

and

Benjamin Northey Benjamin Northey is an Australian conductor, musician and arranger. He has been Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand, since 2015.William Cade (resident conductor, 1939) *

Bernard Heinze Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC (1 July 189410 June 1982) was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. He conducted all the orchestras run by the ABC, most particularly the Melbourne Sym ...

(guest conductor, 1939) *

Percy Code Edward Percival "Percy" Code (3 July 1888 – 16 October 1953) was an Australian classical composer and musician, specialising in cornet and trumpet. He is best known for his compositions for brass band, including many solo works. Biography Per ...

(interim resident conductor, 1949) * Henry Krips (resident conductor, 1949–72) * Elyakum Shapirra (chief conductor, 1975–79) *

José Serebrier José Serebrier (born 3 December 1938) is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He is one of the most recorded conductors of his generation. Early life Serebrier was born in Montevideo to Russian and Polish parents of Jewish extraction. He fi ...

(principal guest conductor, 1982–83) *

Piero Gamba Piero Gamba (16 September 1936 – 30 January 2022), also known as Pierino Gamba, was an Italian orchestral conductor and pianist. Biography Born in Rome, Italy on 16 September 1936, Gamba came to attention as a child prodigy. He won the Arn ...

(chief conductor, 1983–85) *

Albert Rosen Albert Rosen (14 February 192423 May 1997) was an Austrian-born and Czech/Irish-naturalised conductor associated with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Wexford Festival, the National Theatre in Prague and J. K. Tyl Theatre in P ...

(chief conductor, 1986) *

Nicholas Braithwaite Nicholas Paul Dallon Braithwaite (born 26 August 1939, London)''International Who's Who In Classical Music'', 2003 Edition, p. 94 (Europa Publications Ltd., London, England) is an English conductor. He is the son of the conductor Warwick Brait ...

(chief conductor, 1987–91) *

David Porcelijn David Porcelijn (born 7 January 1947 in Achtkarspelen) is a Dutch composer and conductor. David Porcelijn studied flute, composition and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in The Hague. He also studied the baroque flute, specialising ...

(chief conductor, 1993–98) *

Arvo Volmer Arvo Volmer (born November 4, 1962 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. Volmer was principal conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2001. From 2004 to 2013 he was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Adelaide Sym ...

(chief conductor, 2004–13) * Nicholas Carter (2015-2019)The Advertise
Off The Record: Orchestra now in baton race to replace young gun
March 31, 2017 "Complicating matters in 32-year-old Carter's case is the nature of his historic appointment – the first Australian to lead a state orchestra in 30 years and one of the youngest ever. In 2015, the ASO board recognised his youthful brilliance but, in an unusual move, also appointed old hands Jeffrey Tate and Pinchas Zukerman to help." *

(principal guest conductor, 2018–present ()

References

{{Authority control APRA Award winners ARIA Award winners Australian orchestras Musical groups established in 1936 Musical groups from Adelaide Symphony orchestras

History

Current composition

Venues and ongoing work

Recognition, awards and international tours

See also

References