News

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra joins global symphonic video streaming platform Symphony.live

22 Mar 2024

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce an Australian-first partnership with the global symphonic video streaming platform Symphony.live.

Under this partnership, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra will stream a range of concerts on Symphony.live, providing audiences around the globe with their own seat in the house at Federation Concert Hall. Through Symphony.live's applications and user-friendly interface, music enthusiasts can enjoy the TSO’s unique sound worlds across the repertoire spectrum with a unique and intimate birds-eye view.

With Symphony.live, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is taking another bold step towards audience growth and participation. The ability to enjoy the TSO is no longer limited by the number of seats in the concert hall or by our geography. The TSO can be enjoyed anywhere in the world at any time and Symphony.live's innovative platform will support the TSO in generating new sales income from its outstanding musical content.

On joining Symphony.live, TSO joins a stable of top international orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Caroline Sharpen, CEO of Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, "Joining Symphony.live is a really important moment for us. We are so excited to bring global audiences to our island at the southern reaches of the world - and to provide a glimpse into the music making that happens here. From the landmarks of the canon to music emanating from the most inspiring Australian creators – we can’t wait to share our music and demonstrate what it means to be an orchestra connected to our place and our people”.

Symphony.live CEO’s, Maarten Walraven and Jeroen van Egmond, added, "We are delighted to welcome the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra to the Symphony.live family. Their commitment to artistic excellence aligns seamlessly with our mission to make classical music accessible to audiences worldwide. Through Symphony.live, we provide a unique platform for orchestras to showcase their talent and connect with enthusiasts, while also offering a sustainable way to monetize their extraordinary performances."

The collaboration between the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Symphony.live is set to bring a new dimension to the classical music landscape, fostering global connections and ensuring the reach and continued growth of TSO.

For more information visit TSO on Symphony.live

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Are you the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s next Rising Star?

4 March 2024, by Steph Eslake

For a young musician, the chance to perform solo with a world-class orchestra is the ultimate dream. And in a highly competitive music industry that requires years of training and dedication, the dream might feel distant to those who are still paving their way.

Then again, an opportunity could be just around the corner. And it could be tailored to suit young musicians themselves. It could be designed to give them an experience not only with one orchestra, but with the potential to help launch a solo career and play with other orchestras around the world in the years to come.

Sonya Pigot playing the piano

Sonya Pigot was just 17 years old when she won the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s 2014 Rising Star competition. A decade on, she has developed an extraordinary career in music that spans Australia to the United Kingdom – and ranges from solo performance to founding her own business.

“After performing with an orchestra like the TSO, this can put you in a position to get other opportunities with orchestras of international standing that I have been lucky enough to get over the years,” Sonya says. One of the opportunities she is quick to highlight is working in Italy with conductor Marius Stravinsky – a relative of famous composer Igor Stravinsky.

The TSO’s annual Rising Star Competition is now open for entries, providing a rare opportunity for one classical vocalist or orchestral instrumentalist up to the age of 22 years. Entrants will audition for the role of Rising Star – following in the footsteps of artists like Sonya – and will prepare to perform a movement from a concerto or similarly structured solo for orchestra.

The Rising Star will also win the Tim Bugg AM Prize worth $2500, which will help support their music education.

When she entered Rising Star, Sonya was “on the cusp” of leaving Australia to commence her music degree at the Royal College of Music. The competition gave her a memorable send-off: her own performance of the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2 with the TSO.

“The TSO is an orchestra with such a depth of sound and intelligence that it was a beautiful moment to be on stage with them,” Sonya remembers.

Showing what's possible for Rising Stars

Sonya has since graduated from her Bachelor of Music (Honours), and studied her Masters of Performance at the Royal College of Music too. She used her Rising Star achievement to help launch a successful international performance career, winning competitions and giving recitals in venues such as Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, and Steinway Hall – not to mention those in Spain, Hong Kong, Germany and beyond.

But perhaps the most unique of her professional experiences since Rising Star is her role as founder of Fearless Silk – an agency that provides garment design and tailoring for classical musicians who need to look and feel their best while performing.

Having developed Fearless Silk since 2020, Sonya says her business is “focused on connecting concert pianists with designers to allow the individual personality of the performer to be expressed through what they wear on stage”.

“I can't emphasise enough the importance of diversifying your abilities to produce multiple streams of income,” Sonya says about her dual career as soloist and entrepreneur.

“Every musician, no matter how successful, has to think of the longevity of a career and not just what their lives will look like their 20s. We are essentially entrepreneurs, and we have to market ourselves and act as such.”

Reaching for the stars

Flautist Kara Thorpe won the Rising Star Competition in 2023. She was studying her second year of a Bachelor of Music Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

“As a young musician, I had really looked up to the previous Rising Star winners, and it always had been a goal of mine to play with the TSO,” Kara says.

It took her a few auditions – and then she made the cut, and enjoyed “an amazing experience performing with the TSO” as its Rising Star.

Image

“I love the feeling of connection and musical conversation when playing with an orchestra, and the TSO brought the concerto to life with so much colour,” she shares.

“I feel really privileged to have been able to play with the musicians from the TSO who have been inspiring and important mentors for me throughout my musical journey.”

This year, Kara continues her studies and since Rising Star has also participated in the career-shaping Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camp, which often involves an intense period of rehearsals culminating in a professional-level performance.

“Playing with the TSO was a great learning experience to prepare me for future performances, and gives me a lot of confidence approaching other solo performances.”

Like Sonya, Kara plans to undertake further study in Europe – and has big dreams to play flute in a professional orchestra.

"An amazing opportunity"

The annual Rising Star Competition is now open for entries, with audition dates scheduled on the TSO website.

Looking back on her experience, Sonya understands the way “competitions play a part in building the visibility of a musician’s profile, which is the most important thing when building a career”.

But it’s only the beginning of the story – and after an achievement like Rising Star, Sonya believes a career in music becomes a “culmination of networking, marketing, likability, the ability to learn things quickly, perform consistently, and all added together with a dollop of good luck for good measure”.

For Kara, the rare experience of playing with the TSO was a “musical highlight in 2023”.

“It is such an amazing opportunity to be able to play with a professional orchestra as a young musician, and I would really encourage anyone interested in applying to go for it!”

Learn more about the Rising Star Competition and past winners on the TSO website.
Entries close 5pm, Friday 15 March 2024.

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Meg Washington: Playing with an orchestra is "like catching a wave. You have to surrender to the energy of it."

Reuniting with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for the first time since 2017, the ARIA Award-winning songwriter reflects on change, constancy, and keeping it simple. 

By Hugh Robertson, adapted with permission from author.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.”

The same could be said of music, especially when performed live: the listener is somewhat changed at every performance, but so too is the performer, depending on their moods and the seasons of their life. Think Glenn Gould’s two Goldberg Variations recorded 35 years apart, or Joni Mitchell’s two versions of ‘Both Sides Now’ with a similar gap between them.

Meg Washington is a firm believer that the best songs are malleable, changeable, susceptible to the passage of time just as humans are. That question is on the ARIA Award-winning singer/songwriter’s mind as she looks ahead to her upcoming performance with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra at Wrest Point on 30 January, more than six years after she made her debut with the Orchestra, and considers what has changed for her in the years since.

'The question is, as an artist, do you see yourself as a brand that has to be maintained and represented,' says Meg, 'Or do you see yourself as a being, evolving, changing, and, well, being?'

'I think life is much easier as an artist if you live in the second camp. Because the idea of trying to stay the same…age can make a huge impact on how a song relates to you.'

Much has happened in Meg's life in the past few years that may have changed how she approaches the world, and her music. She has released two albums, with another on the way in 2024, written a musical, and written and produced a feature film – the latter an adaptation of Paul Kelly’s beloved song ‘How to Make Gravy’ that Washington has made alongside her husband, Nick Waterman. The couple also have a child born in late 2017, mere weeks after she performed with the Orchestra.

If nothing else, Meg is enjoying how different her songs sound when she has full lung capacity.

Meg Washington performing with the TSO.
Meg Washington performing with the TSO.

‘The last symphony orchestra show that I did, I was eight months pregnant with my son,’ she recalls with a smile. ‘So my phrases were very short and I was in a really different head space because I was just trying to breathe at all. And now I feel like I'm feeling really good in my instrument and in my body.’

‘It feels like a delicious idea to take on the task of singing with the symphony orchestra.’

Despite Meg's excitement at these concerts there is also some trepidation about the size of the musical forces waiting for her.

‘It feels like catching a wave,’ she says of performing with the Orchestra. ‘It’s a bit scary at first because it is so big,’ says Meg. ‘Once it is moving, you can’t change it. You have to surrender to the energy of it.’

Another challenge has been thinking about her music in a very different way to normal, and particularly think about it so far in advance.

'Because I have a jazz background, I'm pretty allergic to structure and routine,’ she says with a laugh. ‘I love to just call songs on the day and I love when my band just knows things. So a show like this is a real challenge for me because I had to decide a long time ago what I'm going sing in the future.’

A big part of these concerts involves adapting and arranging Meg's songs for symphony orchestra. It isn’t as simple as simply adding more instruments – it has to be done sensitively, with a deep knowledge of the families of instruments and how they work together, and a constant tension between the original material and how to make it sound good at scale. It is a delicate art, but Meg is excited about the results that have come back from her collaborators.

‘There were a few arrangers that I have come to know over the past couple of years who I was keen to work with,’ Meg explains. ‘And of course the arrangers come back with their own very unique take on everything. Some of the songs are completely transformed.’

‘There's a song called 'Cement', from my first record, that is now unrecognisable – it sounds like it is from some kind of cinematic James Bond universe. I'm actually a bit intimidated to sing it because it's taken on a sound that's completely new for me.’

(As a case in point, listen to the recording of ‘Catherine Wheel’ from those 2017 concerts, released on streaming platforms late last year. The original, from Meg's 2020 album Batflowers, is a lovelorn ballad played on piano, wistful and weary and worn-out like the relationship it depicts. The 2017 performance, arranged for orchestra by Paul Hankinson, opens with Meg accompanied by a quiet salvo from the horns before the strings begin to swell under the second verse, culminating in a grand brass crescendo. It is grander, certainly, but that just seems to make the subject matter all the more crushing.)

One of the arrangers Meg has worked with for many years is Ross Irwin, who was a member of Meg's first band, formed back in 2008, and has worked with Australian acts including The Cat Empire and The Bamboos.

‘Ross is amazing. His arrangements are so good because they're totally familiar, but full of simple changes that have a huge effect. So his arrangements are really exciting because for me, anything that injects new energy and novelty into the music is really attractive.’

‘But I love the idea of treating my repertoire like standards,’ Meg continues. ‘Being able to do them this way or that way: Latin, bossa nova, swing them or play them with a big band or with a symphony orchestra. I love the idea that if a song is written well enough, it can be robust enough to handle that much interrogation and still and still sound good and feel good.’

It is interesting to hear Meg talk about standards and the great bodies of work that term suggests, names like Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart and Harold Arlen. Back in 2017, in an interview published in the concert guide for her performances with the Sydney Symphony, Meg was adamant that those shows not be seen as a career retrospective. ‘I made a very deliberate decision because it was way too early for a ‘best of’, she said at the time.

But for these 2024 concerts, with her own songbook greatly expanded, she has taken the opposite path.

‘With this show I really wanted to present the most shining gems from across my catalogue,’ she explains. ‘I didn't want to complicate anything. Last time I did this, I had this whole album that I had arranged and it ended up like never coming out. So this time I was like just apply the KISS principle: keep it simple, stupid. I just am doing the songs that were singles and are singles, and other things that are my favourites.’

‘I think about it sort of like arranging beads on a string,’ she continues. ‘It has to be an interesting sequence of events that is unfolding and surprising, hopefully.’

*Adapted with the author’s permission from an article originally published on www.sydneysymphony.com

Meg

Don't miss Meg Washington

Reuniting with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for the first time since 2017, Meg Washington performs at Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, nipaluna / Hobart on Tuesday 30 Jan 2024.

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News

Could the TSO’s newest concerto be a “future masterpiece”?

Written by Stephanie Eslake, December 2023

In October 2023, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra presented the world premiere of a piece that was commissioned by a local music lover, composed by a Melbourne artist, and performed by an expert soloist who has long made this island her home.

Could their music be a “future masterpiece” in the making?

TSO Concertmaster Emma McGrath says the only way we’ll know is if we keep exploring and showcasing new music. And considering the standing ovation she received when she played the solo in this work – Joe Chindamo’s original Violin Concerto – it may one day become an Australian staple for her instrument.

“All orchestras need to take risks and perform new music, otherwise we will never discover the future masterpieces,” Emma says.

“Australian orchestras need to support new Australian compositions to further solidify our classical music identity, and continue to give it a future.”

This concerto commission was initiated by Parker – husband of the orchestra’s CEO Caroline Sharpen – because he “wanted to do something to support the TSO, and to help the TSO continue its fine tradition of championing Australian music”.

The architect and driving force behind the commission grew up attending orchestral concerts in Sydney. He says classical music has been with him for five decades, during which time he also became a loyal listener to the TSO through its recordings and live concert broadcasts on ABC Classic FM.

“The feeling of being able to contribute to the development of Australian music after having listened to it for so long is wonderful,” Andrew says.

Although he provided generous backing that would enable this piece of music to come to life, Andrew speaks candidly about his own role in the project. He knew that to make it work, he needed to trust the experts, “get out of the way, and enjoy seeing what emerged”.

Joe Chindamo and Emma McGrath.
Emma McGrath performing Chindamo.

That’s where the orchestra’s artistic team came in, and Andrew says TSO Director Artistic Identity Simon Rogers picked just the right talent for the commission: Australian composer-pianist Joe Chindamo OAM.

“My hope was that Joe could write a work that he was proud of, that showed off Emma’s virtuosity, and that was consistent with Joe’s canon,” Andrew says. And with this team locked in, he had no doubt the result would be “technically significant, exciting, and with sufficient appeal that it could become a cornerstone of the Australian literature”.

But while Andrew was humble enough to let the creative team get stuck into the practical side of the project, he certainly wasn’t passive throughout the process. He observed the concert preparation with Emma and conductor Otto Tausk as they analysed and played through the score, and he listened to the full orchestral rehearsals that he describes as “an absolute highlight”.

“I was made to feel incredibly welcome and part of the process. The sense of involvement was very powerful and exhausting at the same time because everyone gives their all physically and emotionally.”

Emma describes a similar experience: she felt the music was a journey through “the gamut of human emotion”.

“It is engaging throughout and has wonderful architecture,” Emma shares. “It all builds towards the end, which is astonishingly exciting. It’s like watching a movie with a great plot and wonderful actors – you couldn’t wish for anything more.” 

Emma and Joe spent plenty of time planning how the score would turn out, and she told the composer to “go for it and to not hold back”. He had familiarised himself with her unique style of playing through listening to recordings and having heard her in past performances. Emma says she hoped he would write to the strengths of her instrument, and as there were “no egos and there was no tension whatsoever”, they were able to forge a successful collaboration throughout the composition process.

“We have the same goals: to create and recreate beautiful music that makes a difference in today’s world,” Emma recalls.

It wasn’t Joe’s first time working with the TSO, either: the string section has recorded his music for an ABC Classics release, and performed his music in the Obscura series. In 2021, the TSO also premiered their commission of his Concerto for Orchestra. So it’s no surprise that as soon as he had his first meeting with Emma, Joe knew this project “would be special”.

“She is so open-minded and excited by a wide spectrum of music-making,” Joe remarks.

“From the outset, I was made to feel so comfortable about creating a concerto for her that the piece almost wrote itself.”

To inspire “outside-the-square thinking”, he asked Emma if there was a concerto she’d love to play – but hasn’t yet been written. This gave him a feel for the types of music she’d be passionate about, which he combined with his own voice as a composer to ensure the music would sound “authentic, honest, and fresh”.

But when asked to break down the music, Joe is hesitant to describe the building blocks. Instead, he takes pride in the way the smallest musical elements are combined to share a story that in the concert precis he described as both a “nod to the great tradition to its adherence to time-honoured conventions” and a work that “reflects the pulse of our own time – that is alive to and speaks of the spirit of the day”.

Otto Tausk conducting.
Emma McGrath performing a violin solo.

He feels that spirit was captured by the performer who “embodies all the great qualities that I look for in a contemporary musician”.

“Emma is a classical virtuoso with all the sensibilities and skills that entails, plus a cool sense of rhythm one expects from a top-tier jazz musician coupled with the wild-child attitude of a rock ‘n’ roll maverick,” Joe praises.

“She is the perfect modern violinist, and it was a joy to write for her. This sense of modernity and ability to embrace new music with a great degree of natural ease is also a quality I love about TSO,” he says.

“When can we please do this again? I can’t wait!”

Commissions come in all shapes and sizes. If you are interested in helping create more Australian stories through music, please contact philanthropy@tso.com.au

Emma McGrath

Coming up in 2024

Emma McGrath steps into the spotlight as soloist in the third and final violin concerto by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Dedicated to Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate – one of the most lauded of violinists – the Third Violin Concerto will dazzle and delight.

Saturday 12 Oct 2024 7:30pm,
Federation Concert Hall, nipaluna / Hobart

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News

5 things to know about Meg Washington

Yes, she’s a phenomenal singer/songwriter, evocative performer and ARIA award winner, but there’s so much more to Meg Washington. Meg’s music will be given the full symphonic treatment when she unites with the Tasmanian, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestra's in 2024.

Learn more about Meg ahead of her Hobart appearance on January 30. 

1. In 2022 Meg released Hot Fuss, a covers album reimagining the 2004 album of the same name by American rock band The Killers.

The surprising release was borne from,  in Meg’s word’s, a “piano practice turned into covering the entire [Killers’] debut record.”

The result is a pared-back rendition of the high-energy originals, mostly Washington’s voice and piano. You can listen below, our pick is Mr Brightside.

2. This isn’t Meg’s first orchestra rodeo.

She performed with the TSO back in 2017, playing favourites from albums I believe You Liar, There There and Insomnia to a full house. Washington has also performed with state orchestras like Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. Don’t miss out on this electrifying collaboration again!

"The orchestra is an amazing organism, able to create textures and dynamics and feelings that are totally unique.”

Quote by Meg Washington for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Image features Meg performing with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in 2017.

3. She has a stutter that disappears when she sings.

Washington developed her speech impediment in childhood. In her 2014 TED Talk at the University of Sydney, she said “singing is the only way I feel fluent”.

You can watch it here:

4. She's the voice of Calypso in Bluey.

If you’ve ever watched an episode of smash-hit Aussie kid’s show Bluey you may have heard Meg’s voice. In 2018, Washington lent her voice to Calypso, the Australian Shepherd who is Bluey’s primary school teacher.  Her melodic voice appears in episodes throughout the 3 seasons. You can watch them here.

5. She can draw!

The lyric video for her 2020 single Dark Parts features hand drawn illustrations by Washington.

Don’t miss the multi-talented, genre-defying Meg Washington with the TSO!

30 January at Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, nipaluna / Hobart.

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Season 2024

Looking for more?

Homegrown heroes, The Wolfe Brothers, are making their way back to Launceston in April! 

Along with four number one ARIA Country albums, 18 number one singles and six Golden Guitars, Australia’s most awarded country rock duo in history will add another highlight in 2024: a not-to-be missed concert with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

See Concert

News

TSO in the North!

8 – 10 Feb, Launceston and George Town

TSO will saturate Launceston and George Town in a flurry of musical activity this February!

Whether you're looking for a traditional concert experience, an event for the family or workshops for high school instrumental students, there's something for everyone. Don't miss out – find out more and book your tickets below.

Emma McGrath

Strings of the TSO

Classical brilliance meets contemporary dynamism.

Honey, we shrunk the orchestra! Join the TSO Strings for a night under the leadership of our Concertmaster, Emma McGrath. Orchestral favourites sit alongside classical makeovers for a high-energy program that delivers the quintessential concert experience.

Saturday 10 Feb, 7pm at Scotch Oakburn College, Launceston

Tickets just $42

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Family Favourites

Family Favourites

A musical adventure awaits the whole family!

Delight in classics and well-known tunes in this short concert filled with joy and excitement. Featuring the Can Can, William Tell Overture, and a few surprises to get you grooving!

GEORGE TOWN

Thursday 8 Feb, 6pm
George Town Memorial Hall

Tickets $10

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LAUNCESTON

Friday 9 Feb, 6pm
Scotch Oakburn College

Tickets $10

See Concert
School Concerts

Like Instrument Workshops (Years 6 - 12)

Instrumental students in Years 6 – 12 can join Like Instrument Workshops led by the players of the TSO.

Grouped by instrument, students will work on sound production, technique and ensemble skills. Not to mention have a lot of fun!

Saturday 10 Feb, 10am - 12pm
Scotch Oakburn College, Launceston

Free, registration essential

REGISTER FOR FREE

Email Kim Waldock, Director Artistic Development at waldockk@tso with your name, instrument and approximate grade.

School Concerts

School Concerts

School children will uncover the power of music in Listen and Dance – a concert of music to move to – featuring our Mini TSO ensemble made up of one of each orchestral instrument.

Free for participating schools.

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Season 2024

Looking for more?

Homegrown heroes, The Wolfe Brothers, are making their way back to Launceston in April! 

Along with four number one ARIA Country albums, 18 number one singles and six Golden Guitars, Australia’s most awarded country rock duo in history will add another highlight in 2024: a not-to-be missed concert with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

See Concert

News

Experience Meg Washington in concert with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

14 November 2023

Image

Leading Australian artist Meg Washington will reveal yet another facet of her genre defying talents when her music is given the full symphonic treatment in five exceptional concerts. Commencing in early 2024, the tour will unite Meg with the Tasmanian, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, under conductor Vanessa Scammell.   

Nominated for 10 ARIAS and winner of three, Meg Washington is renowned for her electrifying and soulful live performances, where the full power and virtuosity of her voice are in force.  

The orchestral tour will feature Meg performing reimagined orchestral arrangements of works from her extensive catalogue, including Lazarus Drug, How to Tame Lions, Skeleton Key and Catherine Wheel, a live symphonic recording that is being released today. Meg will also premiere new music from her upcoming fifth studio album, due for release in 2024.   

Recorded live at the Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, this cut of Catherine Wheel is arranged by Paul Hankinson and conducted by MSO Principal Conductor in Residence, Benjamin Northey.  

In 2020, Meg delivered her critically acclaimed and Aria award-winning fourth LP, Batflowers, which was also shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize. It attracted rave reviews, with Junkee Magazine espousing: It is a breathless album… a magnum opus, torn from somewhere very precious and important.”  Under her own label, Batflower Records, in 2022 Meg released a piano-led interpretation of The Killers’ album ‘Hot Fuss’, and a taste of her own new sound with the sublime single, Eastcoaster. 

In addition to her musical career, Meg has been working deeply in the film and TV industry. Liberated by her 2014 TEDx talk in which she revealed a lifelong stutter, in 2018 Meg began her voice-acting role as the schoolteacher 'Calypso' in the smash-hit Bluey. More recently, Meg wrote all the songs for the upcoming musical feature film, The Deb - produced and directed by Rebel Wilson.  

With her partner, Nick Waterman, Meg is also the co-writer and producer of a feature film adaptation of Paul Kelly’s classic song How to Make Gravy.  Their company, Speech and Drama Pictures, is co-producing the film alongside Academy-award nominated producer Schuyler Weiss (Elvis), and Warners International TV Productions for Binge. The film is currently shooting on the Gold Coast, Queensland. 

Meg’s fan base will delight in this new iteration of the much-loved artist’s works, while newcomers will fall in love with the unearthly voice and powerful musicality of Meg Washington.  

Find out more about Meg Washington's performance with the TSO, and take an in-depth look at the awe-inspiring 2024 Season.

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Meg Washington with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Tuesday 30 Jan 2024, 7.30pm 
Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart / nipaluna

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News

Welcome to Season 2024

23 October 2023

Tasmania’s orchestra unveils spectacular 2024 concert season 

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has unveiled its awe-inspiring 2024 concert season, designed to bring joy and captivate audiences through exquisite and diverse experiences. 

Chief Executive Officer Caroline Sharpen said regardless of what the orchestra performed or where they played, she hoped every performance would be a special, emotion-filled adventure. 

“Whether it’s our full orchestra featuring an international virtuoso, intimate chamber music at Woolmers, an Obscura performance at the Odeon, or a Live Sessions pub-style gig in a theatre in Queenstown, experiencing the TSO live is joyous,” Ms Sharpen said.  

Minister for the Arts, Madeleine Ogilvie MP, enthusiastically endorsed the orchestra’s 2024 season, celebrating the infusion of creativity and culture into the Tasmanian community.  

"The Government is thrilled to invest in Tasmania's orchestra and deliver a glorious musical experience to enrich the lives of children, families, and individuals around the state," Minister Ogilvie said. 

Ms Sharpen said the range of musical experiences had expanded this year, together with the TSO’s presence around Tasmania.  

“The 2024 season includes unique events like a concert of video game music and high-energy performances with home-grown superstars The Wolfe Brothers, who will join the full orchestra in Hobart and Launceston.” 

Tom and Nick Wolfe will play songs from their extensive 10-year catalogue with the TSO, as well as brand-new releases. 

Nick Wolfe said he was stoked to be playing with Tassie’s orchestra. 

“We’re thrilled to be sharing the stage with the TSO in 2024,” Mr Wolfe said. 

“They’re not your typical backing band; we’re super-excited by the prospect of joining forces with the TSO to celebrate home-grown music-making in Tassie. 

Ms Sharpen said this season, there’s something for the most seasoned music-lover, the whole family and anyone wanting to try something new.  

“Our Animal Kingdom Family Concert is sure to thrill, a chance to dress up in animal costumes and enjoy a wild world premiere by a Tasmanian composer,” she said.  

“We’re also excited our unique chamber music experiences will be held at Woolmers Estate in Longford again, with six exquisite concerts throughout the year. 

“Scat singer Olivia Chindamo’s TSO debut and a solo piece from our Principal Cello Jonathan Békés will be highlights of the popular 6pm Series, featuring four concerts catering to the demand for early-evening, short-format performances.  

“The TSO’s ever-popular Obscura series is also returning with three concerts, and TSO Live Sessions – laid-back performances in craft breweries, sheds and other non-traditional venues – performs around the state. 

“Our signature Federation Concert Hall series with the orchestra in full flight playing all the greats and the future classics, with world-renowned musicians and conductors, including our outstanding Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Eivind Aadland. 

“We’re delighted to welcome back artists who have forged a relationship with us over the years, including pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, chorus director Simon Halsey, and violinist Karen Gomyo and for the first time violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, South Korean conductor Shiyeon Shung and the exquisite blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. 

“Eivind Aadland has ensured Australian/Tasmanian composers will also be prominent throughout the 2024 season, and we’re looking forward to performing new works by Jabra Latham and Maria Grenfell.” 

Find out more about subscriptions, and take an in-depth look at the awe-inspiring 2024 Season.

Season 2024

Season 2024

As Tasmania's orchestra, we are delighted to invite you to our 2024 program.

When you look through the season concerts, each one brimming with artistry and energy, you'll see one thing lies at the heart of all Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concerts: joy.

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NEWS

Q & A with Benjamin Beilman

He’s back! Benjamin Beilman – who dazzled us with his virtuosic performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in 2019 – returns to the TSO as soloist in the Violin Concerto by Jean Sibelius. A performer at the top of his game, Benjamin Beilman has performed in recent years with the Chicago Symphony, London Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony. We asked Benjamin a few questions about the special violin he’ll be playing.

TSO: Yours is a very valuable and special instrument. Can you tell us a few things about it?

Benjamin Beilman, Photo by Sophie Zhai

Benjamin Beilman: This violin, made by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri 'del Gesù' in Cremona in 1740, is certifiably one of the 5 or 6 most storied violins in the world. Its moniker "Ysaÿe" comes from the early 20th century Belgian virtuoso and composer, Eugène Ysaÿe, who played the instrument in the latter half of his career. Ysaÿe was so devoted to this violin that, when it was restored by a luthier in 1928, he asked for a handwritten label to be placed inside the violin. It reads "Ce del Jesus fut le fidèle compagnone de ma vie" (this violin was the faithful companion of my life.) When Ysaÿe died in 1931, he was granted a state funeral by Belgium. In the procession, this violin was carried on a red velvet pillow in front of his casket. Thankfully, they didn't bury it with him!

In addition to Ysaÿe, the French conductor and violinist Charles Munch, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and Sergey Khachatryan have all performed on this violin. I am extraordinarily fortunate to have the use of this instrument on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation of Japan since July 2022.

TSO: Does it have its own seat when you fly?

BB: I have a nearly indestructible carbon fiber and metal mesh violin case, so I don't need a separate seat for the violin when I fly. Just a very careful eye on the overhead bin.

Handwritten label from the inside of the "Ysaÿe", added in 1928.

TSO: And what about the bow, is it noteworthy too?

BB: I am proud to say that I own several of my own bows, the most prized is one made by François Xavier Tourte in France circa 1815. It was once used by the Croatian violinist Zlatko Balakovic and has been my primary bow for the last 5 years. Audiences (and many players!) often think the violin is what gives each performer their distinct sound, but really, it's the bow.

TSO: You have to negotiate all kinds of technical challenges in the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Does having a violin of that calibre help and, if so, how?

BB: The Sibelius violin concerto is, at its core, about struggle. Sibelius wrote this concerto after abandoning his personal ambitions to become a virtuoso soloist; I find it highly significant that this concerto is his only work in the genre- almost as if this had to be his first and last word on the subject. The technical demands still haunt violinists today, which is probably exactly what Sibelius wanted.

A violin of this calibre is certainly helpful in terms of projection and color pallete. For instance, the opening of the second movement is one enormously long phrase that has to deepen and develop over 3 minutes. This violin produces a voluptuous but brilliant tone, so it's certainly a relief knowing I won't have to struggle to sustain this line. Sadly, there's no escaping the pyrotechnical demands of the outer movements. However, it's comforting to know that some of my favorite historical violinists have shed blood, sweat, and tears on the same fingerboard.

NEWS

This emotionally powerful Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra program confronts the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20

Paul Dean’s resonant first symphony is a “passionate plea from our planet to humans to act now”.

By Stephanie Eslake

Australia, you’ve done well over the past few years. You’ve lived through a pandemic. You’ve continued to support live music, even when the odds were so greatly stacked against you.

You’ve faced and overcome so many challenges that you might not think to look back on the event that came before – the Black Summer of 2019-20 when you experienced a bushfire season that ripped through more than 10 million hectares of our wilderness and communities.

Perhaps like composer Paul Dean, you made it through this environmental crisis with the help of music. After all, what better medium can unite us and reflect our collective experiences?

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra will open its powerful concert Fire & Water with the second movement of Paul’s Symphony No. 1 Black Summer. The composer calls his work “a passionate plea from our planet to humans to act now”.

Paul is based in Brisbane and while he didn’t lose his own property that summer, like most Australians he was deeply affected.

“Our dearest friend and best man at our wedding was severely burnt trying to rescue his dog, and spent an agonising month in hospital and suffers pain to this day,” Paul shares. He adds that many of his other friends were “extremely lucky” to avoid catastrophic outcomes.

Paul spent the long months of Black Summer constantly checking the radio and TV for updates, and now remembers the entire experience as “a massive nightmare”.

As confronting as it may feel, it's important not to downplay the value of Paul’s experience – or the music that emerged from it. The second movement of his symphony will be performed in nipaluna/Hobart in 2023, a year that’s expected to be hot and dry. It serves as a timely reminder of what we’ve lost, but also of the way our memories may spark positive action in the future.

To Paul, a marker of the performance’s success is bringing “thoughts to mind about how as individuals we might be able to create change, even in a small way”.

“I hope that the symphony brings the thought of bushfires back to people’s imagination and thoughts – and jolts the complacency that is so easy to fall into since we haven’t really had fires anywhere near that magnitude since 2020.”

Composing the feeling of Black Summer

Not only is Paul an Australian composer; he’s also a clarinettist with his foot in the doors of chamber music (as co-artistic director of Ensemble Q and founder of Southern Cross Soloists), orchestras (performing as soloist and principal player), festivals (as artistic director of Four Winds Festival), and education (as former artistic director of the Australian National Academy of Music).

The second movement of his Black Summer symphony features 10 minutes of music that Paul says he’s proud of. His writing involved “a particularly special composition process” that made use of his own instrumental section, as well as brass and strings, in a symbolic way.

When thinking about the music he would create and message he wanted to share, Paul conjured the fantastical idea of a climate conference with just three in attendance: land, air, and sea.

“The air is represented by the wind section, the land by the brass, and the sea by the strings,” Paul explains.

“The three have their say on the diabolic situation we find ourselves in, and then combine as a single entity to produce a passionate statement to humankind.”

The statement is delivered at a climactic moment of his music, and you will be left in its wake with the tune of the piccolo: “The song of the last bird alive, singing its last song.”

An emotional journey for Tasmanian audiences

This piece will open the TSO program under the baton of Alexander Briger. Alexander conducted the symphony in 2021 when it was commissioned and first performed by the Australian World Orchestra.

“I know Alex Briger brought this movement to life during its premiere, and I am very excited about hearing him conducting it again,” Paul shares.

Paul – who will also perform as a solo clarinettist at Fire & Water – returns to the TSO as a regular, having played with the island’s musicians for the past three decades (“I adore being in Hobart,” he adds).

The TSO program will continue with another Australian work, Time is a River by Graeme Koehne. You can hear it recorded by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra before you head along to the live performance.

Paul describes the piece as “16 minutes of utter joy and peace…the perfect vehicle for quiet reflection for the audience after my symphony’s slow movement”.

“Music is about the thoughts, imagination, and reflection that a listener brings to the experience – and I really believe they will love the reflective calmness of Graeme's beautiful piece.”

Graeme composed Time is a River in 2010, and the work – which also highlights the clarinet – pays respects to his mother who passed away.

Paul opens up about his personal connection to the piece: “Graeme's piece also always reminds me of my mum who I lost a few years ago. Written in dedication to his mother after her passing, the incredible warmth that pervades his piece is mesmerising.”

Robert Schumann’s 1850 Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Rhenish will close the TSO concert with the spirit of “water” behind the program’s name. It’s a major-feel work that will ultimately send you away with feelings of peace and optimism as it transports you to another beautiful environment, the Rhine in Europe.

Book now to experience the powerful music of Fire & Water performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra this August 3 in the Federation Concert Hall.

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