Here in Australia, we innately understand that not everyone can attend concerts at their orchestra’s city venue. In a country of well over seven million square kilometres, we rely on broadcasts and recordings in order to share much of our music-making. The six symphony orchestras reach out to as many remote and regional communities as they possibly can through both regional touring and technology.

In this edition, Gordon Williams talks to some of the recipients of these tours – audience members from Armidale, in the New England region of NSW. Their perspective as avid consumers of classical music will make those of us who are more regularly able to enjoy our favourite performing arts presentations sit up and take notice.

Since the last edition of The Podium, Symphony Services International has hosted our fifth Orchestral Summit. Our featured guest speaker was the President of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Deborah Rutter. In addition to her inspiring presentations at the Summit, Deborah travelled around the country and spent a full day with each of the symphony orchestras - a wonderful learning opportunity for a broad range of administrators and musicians. The Summit also featured Peter Grimshaw, from BTM Innovations and nkoda, and a stimulating panel discussion between several donors and philanthropists. Delegates included representatives from our Member and Associate orchestras, as well as a range of companies from the Victorian small-to-medium sector. We are grateful for the support of our presenting partners, the Melbourne Recital Centre, ABC Southbank, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Later in the newsletter you can read about our Associate Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. We complete the issue with our usual ‘speed read’ from around the world.

Happy reading!

Kate Lidbetter
Chief Executive Officer

Australia’s major performing arts organisations travel regularly to regional Australia, with all the state orchestras travelling beyond their city limits last year. Gordon Williams visits the country town of Armidale in NSW to discover how people in remote areas get their classical music fix. Read the story.

Although the range of SSI’s music publishing imprint Goodear Editions spans several centuries from Purcell to Prokofiev, most of our popular items are in fact from the Baroque and Classical periods. Works never before published with complete performance materials make up a considerable portion of the catalogue, including one of our top selling items Zefiretti, che sussurrate, a beautiful soprano aria by Vivaldi made famous by Cecilia Bartoli. The materials for this work are the first modern edition full score, vocal score and parts available, meticulously edited from the composer’s manuscript and accompanied by critical notes. Other critical editions of Vivaldi’s works include the highly attractive overtures from the operas L’Olimpiade and La verità in cimento. Apart from Vivaldi, the  catalogue also boasts a large number of arias by Handel and Mozart such as “Tornami a vagheggiar” from Alcina and “Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio” from Clemenza di Tito. In the latter edition the basset clarinet part is also conveniently supplied in versions for modern clarinet and basset horn, exemplifying the Goodear Editions principle of practicality. Browse the Goodear Editions catalogue now to see the full list of Baroque and Classical repertoire or visit the Goodear online shop to purchase scores and parts digitally or in print.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australia’s national baroque orchestra, will celebrate 30 years of baroque music making in 2019. In an exciting 30th anniversary initiative, its extensive collection of baroque manuscripts and scores will be digitally preserved and catalogued, and eventually archived in climate controlled conditions. Read more.

Since the last Podium...

Bayreuth’s other opera house, the 18th-century Margravial Opera House, reopens with a work which appeared in its original season - Hasse’s 1730 opera, Artaserse…

the Sphinx Organization, New World Symphony and League of American Orchestras join forces to help more African-American and Hispanic musicians land orchestral jobs.

and…

the French agree to help set up a national opera and orchestra in Saudi Arabia.