 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2022) |
The Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra (Zelman Symphony) is the longest-running community orchestra in Melbourne, Australia.[ citation needed ]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2022) |
The Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra (Zelman Symphony) is the longest-running community orchestra in Melbourne, Australia.[ citation needed ]
Founded by the amateur players of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in 1933, the orchestra remembers the contribution to Australian music of the former conductor and leader, Alberto Zelman (Junior). It has given at least three concerts each year since that time.[ citation needed ]
Herbert Davis was the founding conductor (1933–59). He was followed by Paul McDermott (1960–73), then Leon La Gruta (1974–77). Short-term guest conductors covered the next two years until Philip Carrington was appointed in 1980. He served as conductor of the orchestra from 1980 until 1999. Since 2000, the orchestra has worked under a number of conductors well known in Melbourne's amateur and professional music circles, including Philip Carrington, Phillip Green, Peter Handsworth, Gerald Keuneman, Janis Laurs, Rick Prakhoff, Tom Pugh, Joannes Roose and Mark Shiell. Mark Shiell was then appointed Principal Conductor & Artistic Director of the orchestra in 2010 and served in this capacity until 2017 when he left to focus once again on the flute. Rick Prakhoff commenced in the role in 2018.[ citation needed ]
There have been only six appointed concertmasters of the orchestra: Bertha Jorgensen (1933–45), Connie Ziebell (1946–82), Donald Hancock (1982–2001), Yik Ming Chim (2001–2004), Mary Johnston (2009–2014) and Susan Pierotti (2016– ).[ citation needed ]
Today[ when? ] the Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra comprises some 60 players in a full symphonic ensemble, performing classical, romantic and twentieth century symphonies and concertos with fine guest soloists. The orchestra performs four concerts a year in Melbourne, including the prestigious Piano Concerto Competition of the Boroondara Eisteddfod. In addition, the orchestra takes one or two concerts each year "on the road" to Victoria country locations that have included Daylesford, Drouin, Wendouree (Ballarat) and Yea.[ citation needed ]
The orchestra celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2013–2014 with two performances to capacity audiences of Mahler's epic Eighth Symphony - the "Symphony of a Thousand" - at the Melbourne Town Hall. In what was believed to be "a first" for an Australian community orchestra, the performances involved over 580 performers, including an augmented Zelman Symphony of some 125 players led by guest concertmaster Wilma Smith, concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), and featuring many guest principal players from the MSO and other top orchestras and music institutions. David Macfarlane played the organ, a 370-voice choir was formed from nine community choirs, and an 80-voice children's choir involved students from Southern Voices and St Catherine’s School, Toorak.[ citation needed ]
Soloists for the event were:[ citation needed ]
The orchestra's celebrations concluded in grand style with a performance before an estimated 7,000 people at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl on 22 February 2014. By invitation of the MSO, the Zelman Symphony performed a program of Russian favourites as a curtain raiser to the MSO's own performance later in the evening.[ citation needed ]
No Friend But The Mountains: A Symphonic Song Cycle was based on the book No Friend But the Mountains , written by former Manus Island detention centre inmate Behrouz Boochani. The song cycle was created by composer Luke Styles and performed live on 21 March 2021 at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl by Adrian Tamburini, Zelman Symphony, and the Melbourne Bach Choir, conducted by Rick Prakhoff. The event, hosted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Rafael Epstein, [1] was broadcast on ABC Television in June 2021 and made available on ABC iview. [2] [3]
An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments:
Pēteris Vasks is a Latvian composer.
Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC, FRCM was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music.
Fritz Bennicke Hart was an English composer, conductor, teacher and unpublished novelist, who spent considerable periods in Australia and Hawaii.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008.
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a South Australian performing arts organisation comprising 75 full-time musicians, established in 1936.
(Samuel Victor Albert) Alberto Zelman was an Australian musician and conductor, and founder of one of the predecessors to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Wilma Smith is a Fijian-born violinist. She was born in Suva, Fiji and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. She has been concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and co-concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia from 2003-2014. She plays a 1761 Guadagnini violin.
Brenton Thomas Broadstock is an Australian composer. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day in 2014 for "significant service to music as a composer, educator and mentor".
Leonard Bertram Dommett OBE was an Australian violinist, conductor, and teacher.
Ernest Victor Llewellyn CBE was an Australian violinist, concertmaster, violist, conductor and musical administrator. He was the founding director of the Canberra School of Music and is commemorated by Llewellyn Hall, the concert venue at the School.
Dene Maxwell Olding is an Australian violinist. He has had a distinguished career as a soloist in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, performing over forty concertos in recent years, including many world premieres. He is the Concertmaster Emeritus of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, first violinist in the Goldner String Quartet, and a member of the Australia Ensemble.
Oleg Caetani is an Italian conductor.
Deborah Joy Cheetham Fraillon, is an Aboriginal Australian soprano, actor, composer and playwright.
Royal Melbourne Philharmonic (RMP) is a 120-voice choir and orchestra in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1853, and is reportedly Australia's oldest surviving cultural organisation. The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic is Australia's oldest musical organisation that has been continuously existing for over 150 years. Among its programmes, there have been large-scale concerts celebrating classical composers including Bach, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic is managed under the direction of Andrew Wailes, the artistic director of the orchestra.
Frankston Symphony Orchestra (FSO) is one of ten community orchestras in Victoria, Australia. It is from the Melbourne suburb of Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula. The orchestra forms a part of the Frankston Music Society, which also includes the Mornington Peninsula Chorale.
Allan Zavod was an Australian pianist, composer, jazz musician and occasional conductor whose career was mainly in America.
Benjamin Northey is an Australian conductor, musician and arranger. He has been Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand since 2015. He is also the Principal Conductor in Residence of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2020. He was previously the Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2019.
The Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic is one of the oldest symphony orchestras in Ukraine.
Bertha May Jorgensen was an Australian violinist and concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO).
