Canberra Symphony Orchestra launches 'best season yet' for 75th year

The Canberra Symphony Orchestra will mark its 75th year in 2025 with performances of iconic works, as well as seven world premieres of Australian compositions, befitting its reputation as a trailblazer and advocate for Australian music.

The milestone season, which CSO Chief Conductor Artistic Director Jessica Cottis says will be its best yet, will embrace the theme of Stories and dive into the myths, legends and tales that are central to human experience.

There will be four Llewellyn Series concerts, two Australian Series concerts showcasing new Australian music, and four Chamber Classics concerts highlighting chamber music, all peppered with Canberra connections.

There will also be a special blockbuster event, Art of the Score: The Music of John Williams, over two nights in July, featuring music from the great movies he has scored, such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and more.

Ms Cottis will conduct Llewellyn Series concerts to bookend the season, first with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in March and then in November with Gustav Holtz’s monumental work The Planets in a celestial-themed event that will also include Josef Strauss’s Music of the Spheres Waltzs and Danish-Australian composer Benjamin De Marushkin’s Logos.

In May, guest conductor Carlo Antoniolli will lead the orchestra and guest violinist Sophie Rowell in a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, as well as Ravel’s fairy tale-themed Ma mere l’Oye.

In September, the CSO will continue its fostering of choral music and the CSO Chorus with Mozart’s Requiem under the baton of guest conductor Erin Helyard, together with guest soloists soprano Sara Macliver, mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Tymms, tenor Louis Hurley and bass-baritone Christopher Richardson.

Ms Cottis said the Chorus had been regenerated in the past few years under the guidance of Tobias Cole.

“There’s been such a success with Messiah recently and now they’re really getting stuck into Beethoven 9,” she said.

“I was very interested in exploring that further. There are wonderful choral singers here. We know that our audiences love choral repertoire as well.

“And Mozart is just such a mind-blowingly incredible piece, to have the massed chorus and the orchestra on stage.”

Australian composers will feature in all four Llewellyn concerts, including Composer in Connection Peggy Polias in May, with one of the season’s new commissions exploring Greek myths.

Polias’s work was also featured in the first Australian Series concert, Sleeping Stories, in March, with Ms Cottis conducting it, along with new commissions from Alice Chance and Canberra and First Nations composer Christopher Sainsbury.

CSO Artist in Focus flautist Sally Walker, from Canberra, will partner with the CSO Chamber ensemble in a performance that will also include work from First Nations composer Nardi Simpson.

Walker will also feature in the first Llewellyn concert performing Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin’s Night and now.

The second Australian Series concert in September, Other Worlds, will also debut two new commissions – from Sally Whitwell, who grew up in Canberra, and one still to be announced, as well as music from Miriama Young and Andrew Fordham.

Ms Cottis said the CSO was proud that 45 per cent of its works were by Australians.

“We live in Australia. Why not have Australian voices?” she said.

“Why does classical music only belong to Europe or the Americas?

“We really are trailblazing in this respect.”

Ms Cottis said she had no trouble finding Australian composers or new works.

“One of the very great strengths from my perspective in contemporary classical music today is that we have a wealth of composers,” she said.

“There are many diverse voices; there are many different ways of approaching writing music.”

The more intimate seasonal Sunday afternoon chamber concerts set for February, April, August and October titled Folk Melodies, Water and Spirit, Legends, and Rhythm and Bites feature works from Hadyn, Dvorak, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Handel and Glass.

Ms Cottis said programming the season was always a balancing act.

She said it was important to have those great blockbuster gateway works that people enjoy so much and that can open them to new music to build a program around.

“We have a mission here in Canberra to bring classical music to our audiences and to open people’s ears,” Ms Cottis said.

“With these wonderful, beloved pieces of classical repertoire, around that, there’s scope to explore.”

The CSO also had to keep its repertoire fresh and reflect where it is today in Australia.

“It’s a great season,” Ms Cottis said.

“It really covers a huge amount of repertoire and lots of different styles and qualities of classical music.”

She said the funding announced in the Federal Budget for the CSO was crucial to its future.

“Our job is to excite, excite and thrill and inspire and soothe the ears and hearts and minds of all our audiences, and this enables us to do that,” she said.

For the first time, the CSO’s innovative Explore the Orchestra program is included in the season line-up. Explore the Orchestra enables children aged up to nine years to enjoy a live concert and try out musical instruments.

Chief Executive Officer Rachel Thomas said the CSO aimed to offer a diverse range of music and events.

“It’s our goal every year to present a musical program that offers something for everyone at a price point that suits all budgets, and Jessica has more than delivered again with this exceptional repertoire,” she said.

But those who enjoyed the end-of-year Prom at Government House will be disappointed. Ms Thomas said there was no funding to resume that popular event.

To learn more about the 2025 season, visit the CSO website.