2014

ROBERTSON
CONDUCTS
JOHN WILLIAMS

Meet the Music

Thursday 27 February 2014

Kaleidoscope

Friday 28 February 2014

Saturday 1 March 2014

march

CLASSICAL

ALEXANDER GAVRYLYUK
IN RECITAL

SCHUMANN Kinderszenen
MOZART Piano Sonata in C, K330
LISZT Lacrymosa from
Mozarts Requiem
LISZT Tarantella from
Venezia e Napoli, S162
PROKOFIEV Sonata No.6 (War Sonata 1)

International Pianists in Recital

Presented by Theme & Variations

Mon 10 Mar 7pm

City Recital Hall Angel Place

Pre-concert talk
by Stephanie McCallum

DISCOVER
SHOSTAKOVICHS NINTH
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.9
Richard Gill conductor

Tenix Discovery

Tue 11 Mar 6.30pm

City Recital Hall Angel Place

RUSSIAN DAYDREAMS
TCHAIKOVSKY & PROKOFIEV
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.1,
Winter Daydreams
PROKOFIEV Alexander Nevsky Cantata
Pinchas Steinberg conductor
Natascha Petrinsky mezzo-soprano
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

BEETHOVENS FIFTH
VINE Smiths Alchemy for strings
WIENIAWSKI* Violin Concerto No.2
BEETHOVEN* Symphony No.5
Pinchas Steinberg conductor
Karen Gomyo violin

Master Series

Wed 12 Mar 8pm

Fri 14 Mar 8pm
Sat 15 Mar 8pm
Pre-concert talk
by Yvonne Frindle
Meet the Music

Wed 19 Mar 6.30pm

Thursday Afternoon Symphony

Thu 20 Mar 1.30pm

Tea & Symphony

Fri 21 Mar 11am*

Pre-concert talk
by Andrew Aronowicz
(Wed & Thu)

SSO PRESENTS

rePLAY

SYMPHONY OF HEROES
Get set for a gaming paradise on screen
and stage! Including Portal, Journey,
The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls,
Halo and Final Fantasy. Played out with
the dramatic, powerful and live surround
sound of the SSO.

Fri 7 Mar 8pm

Sat 8 Mar 2pm

FOR COMPLETE DETAILS OF THE 2014 SEASON VISIT

TICKETS FROM $39*

NO FEES WHEN YOU BOOK CLASSICAL CONCERTS ONLINE WITH THE SSO

Tickets also available at

sydneyoperahouse.com
9250 7777 Mon-Sat 9am-8.30pm Sun 10am-6pm
cityrecitalhall.com#
8256 2222 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm

SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM
CALL 8215 4600^ MON-FRI 9AM-5PM

* Selected performances. ^Booking fees of $7.50 $8.95 may apply. #Additional fees may apply.

JOHN WILLIAMS
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2014 concert season

MEET THE MUSIC

THURSDAY 27 FEBRUARY, 6.30PM
KALEIDOSCOPE
FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY, 8PM
SATURDAY 1 MARCH, 8PM
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL

ROBERTSON CONDUCTS
JOHN WILLIAMS
David Robertson conductor
Andrew Haveron violin
Sydney Childrens Choir
Gondwana Alumni Choir
Lyn Williams, Artistic Director

Music from the soundtracks of John Williams,

including Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark,
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun,
Schindlers List, Jurassic Park, Amistad,
Harry Potter and a few more
David Robertson will introduce the program from the stage
Visit sydneysymphony.com/program_library from
Monday 3 March to download this program
with a list of the music performed.

Saturday nights performance will

be recorded for later broadcast by
ABC Classic FM on Sunday 16 March
at 2pm.
Pre-concert talk by Genevieve Lang
at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer
(5.45pm Thu)
Visit bit.ly/SSOspeakerbios for more
information.
There will be one interval of
20 minutes and the concert will
conclude at approximately 10.10pm;
(8.40pm Thu).
COVER IMAGE: Detail from poster for
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
(Lucasfilm / 20th Century Fox /
The Kobal Collection)

UNIVERSAL / THE KOBAL COLLECTION

UNIVERSAL / THE KOBAL COLLECTION

LUCASFILM / 20TH CENTURY FOX /

THE KOBAL COLLECTION

LUCASFILM / 20TH CENTURY FOX / THE KOBAL COLLECTION

INTRODUCTION

Robertson conducts
John Williams:
Music from the Movies
John Williams is credited with restoring symphonic sound to
the movies in the 1970s putting the orchestra back into the
cinema. So it seems right to return the compliment tonight by
bringing his film music into the concert hall.
Williams spearheaded the symphonic revival with his score
for The Poseidon Adventure in 1972. Its big, Korngold-inspired
sound, made waves after a decade in which soundtracks had
tended towards jazz, pop and electronics, and in which every
movie simply had to have a hit song (think Moon River). His
award-winning score for Jaws followed in 1975. Then, two
years later, he wrote the film score that really made his name.
In Star Wars, not only were audiences given a lush orchestral
score, that score was accompanying science fiction! John
Williams astutely recognised that, despite the intergalactic
setting, the space ships and the lightsabers, Star Wars was
at heart a work of romantic storytelling. It is, after all, A long
time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Since then, John Williams has given audiences the scores
for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman (1978),
more Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones movies beginning
with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,
The Witches of Eastwick, Empire of the Sun, the more intimate
sound worlds of The Accidental Tourist and Home Alone,
Jurassic Park, Schindlers List with its featured violin, Amistad,
Saving Private Ryan, Angelas Ashes, The Patriot, A.I.:Artificial
Intelligence, the Harry Potter movies, Minority Report, War
of the Worlds, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Adventures of Tintin,
War Horse, Lincoln and most recently The Book Thief.
That was just a partial list, and a single concert can
represent only some of these marvellous scores. Which
movies and which moments has called for a careful process
of selection and theres no one better to introduce it to you
than tonights conductor, David Robertson.
Turn to page 27 to read Bravo!
musician profiles, articles
and news from the orchestra.
There are nine issues through
the year, also available at
sydneysymphony.com/bravo

ABOUT THE MUSIC

From Jaws to Jurassic Park

John Williams and his Style
The statistics alone are giddying: five Academy Awards (Fiddler
on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. and Schindlers List), almost
50 Oscar nominations, and a score which in 2005 topped the
American Film Institutes list of the 25 greatest film scores of
the century (Star Wars). But perhaps more indicative of the
contribution that John Williams has made to film is that his
name is familiar to such a large section of the cinema-going
public. No other film composer, living or dead, has been the
recipient of a comparable level of popular acclaim and
recognition. So strongly do his fellow Americans identify with
the values inspired by his music, he has been invited to
compose for many occasions of national significance,
including four Olympic Games and ceremonies
commemorating the centenary of the Statue of Liberty, the
500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in
America, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Williams is justly famous for his sweeping, richly scored
themes, but the breadth of his screen output must also arouse

When you enter a movie

theatre you become
aware of sound in a
different way, the
lights go down and
you give yourself to the
complete experience
that awaits you. John
Williams understands
this and finds just the
right combination of
sounds and timbres to
communicate with us
on a very deep
emotional level.
DAVID ROBERTSON

LUCASFILM / 20TH CENTURY FOX / THE KOBAL COLLECTION

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and

Harrison Ford in the original
Star Wars.

envy in even the most accomplished film composers. A glance

at the list of movies which have been graced by his music
shows that he is proficient in almost every genre of symphonic
cinematic scoring.
The eclecticism that characterises his music is largely a
result of his background and training. Born the son of a jazz
drummer and percussionist (Johnny Williams Snr played for
CBS Radio and Columbia Pictures), he was exposed to the
rigours of professional musical life from an early age. Williams
spent hours watching his father work and credits this with
fostering a fascination with orchestral textures, as he would
pick out the lines played by the various instruments. Formal
music studies in California were followed by a stint in the US Air
Force, where he composed and arranged for military bands. On
being discharged, he moved to New York where he studied piano
at Juilliard and picked up work as a jazz pianist and arranger.
Williams subsequently returned to Los Angeles, where his
sight-reading abilities earned him a job as a pianist with
Columbia Studios. He had no particular interest in film music
at this point but a chance opportunity resulted in arranging
work, which he eagerly accepted. It was during his next job,
however, working at Universal under Alfred Newman and
Bernard Herrmann, that Williams really served his
apprenticeship and developed the kind of musicianship and
work ethic that would make him one of Hollywoods most
prolific and versatile film composers.
Under the terms of his seven-year contract he had to write
the music for 3940 one-hour television shows per year on
average one every week. For this he had to hop between genres
one week a comedy, the next a Western, the following a space
opera. I was not selective, he says. I would do whatever I was

John Williams
range is without bounds,
his inspiration seems
unending, and his
power to unlock our
emotions is
breathtaking.
DR

given and had no idea it would lead to being a film composer.

But it did, and it was his scores for the films The Reivers and
The Cowboys that caught the ear of the 27-year-old Steven
Spielberg, who asked Williams to score his debut feature, The
Sugarland Express. Despite Spielbergs youthful appearance
and bearing, Williams was impressed by his enthusiasm and
knowledge of the film music canon and agreed. Thus began an
artistic partnership that has endured for 40 years (Williams
has scored all but one of Spielbergs directorial films) and
raised the symbiotic relationship of cinematic sound and
vision to dizzying new heights. His collaborations with
Spielberg and George Lucas have resulted in his most popular
and successful scores, and have led to his being credited with
restoring the symphonic component to the modern film score.
A musical dramatist

UNIVERSAL / THE KOBAL COLLECTION / JAMES, DAVID

Its ironic to think that, despite his Star Wars scores top spot
on the AFI list, Williams never dreamed that the movie itself
would be so successful, simply believing that it would make
a great rip-roaring childrens Saturday matinee. Five sequels
(and counting) and several billion dollars later, hes been
proved spectacularly wrong, and the movies theme, along
with those of the Superman and Indiana Jones films, are now
indelibly stamped on the consciousness of several generations
of movie-goers.
What is it about Williams movie themes that makes them
so memorable? That he has a melodic gift is undeniable; his
extensive musicianship is not in question. His real genius,
however, lies in his ability to devise a seemingly simple theme,

On the Indiana Jones

theme: Indianas
theme can break into
a situation and you
just know the good
guys are going to win
no matter what the
odds!
DR

10

AMBLIN / UNIVERSAL / THE KOBAL COLLECTION

perhaps consisting of a mere few notes, with which he is able

to extract the full dramatic essence of a story or character.
Moreover, he is able to convey this essence to the viewer using
musical language that resonates instantaneously.
Williams was well aware of Spielbergs and Lucass desire to
recapture the romanticism and excitement of the black-andwhite movies and action serials of their childhood, and so he
mined his by now extensive film composers arsenal to create
a fitting musical accompaniment. Taking the main theme of
Star Wars as an example, the reason it is so firmly embedded
in our subconscious is not just because of its simple, diatonic
construction (it consists of the first five notes of the major
scale), but also because it recalls some very familiar musical
rhetoric: you can hear reminiscences of Erich Wolfgang
Korngolds heraldic brass in the Errol Flynn swashbucklers and
of Holstian triplets, and the distinctive cadence at the end of
the first phrase is typical of that used in the epic westerns of
the 1950s and 60s (the same chord progression can be heard
at the equivalent point in the theme to The Big Country). It is
by exploiting these aural associations that Williams can evoke
in the listener whatever emotion is implied by the storyline.
Williams psychological and dramatic insights arent
confined to the action-adventure blockbuster. His moving
Hymn to the Fallen, which he composed for Saving Private
Ryan, employs a quintessentially American patriotic martial
idiom also used to great effect in JFK. In Hedwigs Theme,
from Harry Potter, the swirling strings and child-like strains of

In Jurassic Park (1993) a life-size

animatronic Tyrannosaurus was
the acknowledged star of the
movie. John Williams score
captured equal parts awe,
fascination and terror.

On Harry Potter:
Hedwigs Theme has
a mystery and grace
that seems to sum up
the whole magic of
Harrys world with its
labyrinthine twists
and unexpected
harmonies.
DR

11

LUCASFILM / 20TH CENTURY FOX / THE KOBAL

Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi

(Alex Guinness) duel to the finish
in the original Star Wars.

the celesta indicate that were about to be transported to a

world of magical fantasy. Across the Stars, the love theme
from Attack of the Clones (Star Wars Episode II), features a
plangent oboe melody that recalls Tchaikovskys Swan Lake
as it depicts the doomed love of Anakin Skywalker and Padm
Amidala. So unerring are his dramatic instincts that Spielberg
credits Williams as making him a better director than I could
ever have been without him.
John Williams has admitted that, with movie franchises,
his job is made easier by virtue of having existing thematic
material to work with. In addition to saving labour, this offers
a structural advantage: developing existing material lends
a continuity and cohesion that film music, being essentially a
slave to the narrative, might otherwise lack. Williams does this
extensively; in all his scores, themes reappear in different
guises, often foreshadowing events in the story (for example,
Anakins Theme from The Phantom Menace reveals traces of
Darth Vaders theme, the Imperial March, hinting at the young
boys destiny). In this respect, Williams has expanded the film
score form to incorporate some of the structural integrity of
absolute music, and the concert suites that he has extracted
from his scores take this a step further.
From the concert hall to the cinema and back again
Such is John Williams reputation that he can attract some of
the most respected names in classical music to conduct his
music and perform on his film soundtracks, including Rene
Fleming, Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma, with whom he has also
collaborated on the concert stage. This might be seen as a
reversal of the pretentiousness that he believes has in the
past pervaded American music, where the profession of film
12

UNIVERSAL / THE KOBAL COLLECTION / JAMES, DAVID

Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley in

Schindlers List (1993). Violinist
Itzhak Perlman was featured in
the soundtrack.

composer was looked down upon by the music establishment.

He notes that whereas the references of the original film
composers of Hollywoods early years stemmed from
European art music, the situation has now been turned on its
head, with many present-day classical composers such as
John Adams drawing inspiration from media or commercial
music. (Incidentally, the artistic snobbery Williams refers to
didnt seem to exist elsewhere; in Britain, the output of
esteemed composers such as Arthur Bliss, Ralph Vaughan
Williams and William Walton included film, and a similar
situation existed elsewhere in Europe.)
Despite his conducting commitments and concert works,
among which he counts two symphonies and some 15
concertos, Williams has no intention of turning his back on
films, and has confirmed that he will compose the score for
Episode VII in the Star Wars series, scheduled for release in
December 2015. If there were to be another instalment in the
Indiana Jones franchise with Steven Spielberg as director, you
can bet Williams would be at the podium.
The esteem in which Spielberg holds the composer is best
summed up by an anecdote related by Williams himself, who
tells of being so moved by the initial screening of Schindlers
List that he had to step outside to compose himself. When he
expressed the concern that he didnt think he could do it and
that perhaps Spielberg should find another composer, the
latter replied, I know, but theyre all dead. Among films
greatest composers, for Steven Spielberg at least, John
Williams is the last man standing.
LORRAINE NEILSON
SYMPHONY SERVICES INTERNATIONAL 2014

13

A golden age of film music

When John Williams writes one of his signature heroic themes,
hes tapping into the audiences collective and possibly
unconscious memories of movies past. The films which
made him famous (Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark,
Jurassic Park, E.T.) drew from such diverse genres as actionadventure, monster movies, sci-fi and even the Western.
These were big-budget blockbusters that harked back to a
previous, perhaps more innocent, era in filmmaking an era
when the action on screen was underscored by the full forces
of a symphony orchestra. Having already created symphonic
scores for The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno,
Williams was amply qualified to revive and update the tradition
for a new audience.
What we think of today as the classical Hollywood score was
pioneered by a select band of highly gifted composers, many
of them migrs from Europe, who codified the form in the
music departments of major film studios during the so-called
Golden Age of Hollywood of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Although
sound had figured in pictures since 1927, the music featured
in early talkies was rudimentary and tended to consist of
discrete song and dance numbers. It wasnt until the early
1930s that the practice of dramatic underscoring came into
being as a fully fledged component of the filmmaking process.
The practice although these days its rightfully considered
an art really came into its own with the arrival of such
composers as Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz
Waxman, Alfred Newman, Mikls Rzsa and Dimitri Tiomkin,
who brought with them a rigorous classical training, European
sensibilities, and an extensive musicianship that allowed them
to turn their hands to any type of music called for by the job in
question. The highly distinctive style they forged came to be
characterised by through-composed musical commentary
clothed in extravagant orchestrations, within an expressive
late-Romantic idiom.
How this style came about is open to debate, and could
be the result of various factors. The Austro-German musical
heritage of the composers might account for the obvious
influence of classical composers such as Richard Strauss
and Wagner. Another factor, however, could be what John
Williams refers to when he uses the term universalisms:
one of the primary functions of film music is to communicate
emotions or affects to the audience, especially in the absence
of explicit visual cues or dialogue. To be able to do this, it must
14

be easily and immediately understood by a mass,

heterogeneous audience, necessitating a style based in
tonality that has the potential to express a wide range of big
sentiments. In addition, Hollywood was the purveyor of
dreams, the teller of tales of hero against villain, boy meets
girl, good versus evil subject matter that was most
effectively underscored by a lush, chromatic, but largely tonal,
soundtrack.
In terms of musical grammar, several techniques exploited
by the Golden Age composers are still used extensively by
their present-day counterparts. One is the use of motifs, or
themes, representing specific characters, places, ideas, or
emotions, a technique used prolifically by Wagner in his epic
Ring cycle of operas. Max Steiner acknowledged this debt
when he commented that if Wagner had been alive during the
Hollywood era, he would have been the Number One film
composer. The motif acts as a signifier for the audience and
can be highly effective, even when it consists of only a few
notes, such as Williams famous motif for the shark in Jaws.
Another is the technique of mickey-mousing, where
composers or orchestrators synchronise the music precisely
with points of action on the screen. Steiner used this back in
1933 in his groundbreaking score for King Kong, to invoke both
fear (synchronising the footsteps of the tribal chief with the
bass notes of a tuba) and comedy (when the giant gorilla
tickles his tiny captive to the accompaniment of trills).
Synchronising the music with the action poses as many
challenges today as it no doubt did then: Williams has spoken
of his difficulty in hitting the 50 or so synch points when
recording the music for the final bike chase scene in E.T.
After countless takes, Spielberg told him to record the music
without reference to the film, and to perform it in a natural
way with any rubati (natural variations in tempo) that he felt
appropriate. Such is the respect that Spielberg feels for
Williams, he then re-edited the film to fit the music.
Although a later generation of composers such as Alex
North and Elmer Bernstein upheld and expanded the
symphonic tradition, the influence of pop from the 1960s
on was pervasive. It is in no small measure down to John
Williams sweeping orchestral scores of the past 40 years that
the music of these pioneering composers is now being widely
accorded the respect it is due.

If Wagner had lived

in this century, he
would have been the
Number One film
composer.
MAX STEINER (18881971)

LORRAINE NEILSON
SYMPHONY SERVICES INTERNATIONAL 2014

15

MICHAEL TAMMARO

THE ARTISTS

David Robertson
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director
American conductor David Robertson is a
compelling and passionate communicator
whose stimulating ideas and music-making
have captivated audiences and musicians alike,
and he has established strong relationships
with major orchestras throughout Europe and
North America.
He made his Australian debut with the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra in 2003 and soon became
a regular visitor to the orchestra, with projects
such as The Colour of Time, a conceptual
multimedia concert; the Australian premiere
of John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony; and
concert performances of The Flying Dutchman
with video projections. This is his first year as
Chief Conductor of the SSO.
He has been Music Director of the St Louis
Symphony since 2005. Other titled posts have
included Principal Guest Conductor of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of
the Orchestre National de Lyon and resident
conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony
Orchestra. A recognised expert in 20th- and
21st-century music, he has also been Music
Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in
Paris (where composer and conductor Pierre
Boulez was an early supporter) and his
discography includes music by such composers
as Adams, Bartk, Boulez, Carter, Ginastera,
Milhaud and Reich. He is also a champion of
young musicians, devoting time to working with
students and young artists.

16

Last season he appeared with the New York

Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San
Francisco Symphony and at the Metropolitan
Opera, and in Europe with the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Radio
Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic and Ensemble
Intercontemporain. He also toured Europe with
the St Louis Symphony and violinist Christian
Tetzlaff.
His awards and accolades include Musical
America Conductor of the Year (2000), Columbia
Universitys 2006 Ditson Conductors Award,
and, with the SLSO, the 200506 ASCAP Morton
Gould Award for Innovative Programming. In
2010 he was elected a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2011 a
Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres.
He was born in Santa Monica, California, and
educated at the Royal Academy of Music in
London, where he studied French horn and
composition before turning to conducting. He is
married to pianist Orli Shaham.
THE POSITION OF CHIEF CONDUCTOR AND
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR IS SUPPORTED BY EMIRATES

KEITH SAUNDERS

Andrew Haveron violin

CONCERTMASTER
Andrew Haveron joined the SSO as
Co-Concertmaster in 2013, arriving in Sydney
with a reputation as one of the UKs most
sought-after violinists. Born in London in 1975,
he studied at the Purcell School and the Royal
College of Music and in 1996 was the highest
British prizewinner at the Paganini Competition
for the past 50 years. He also received prizes
at the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and
Indianapolis competitions.
As a soloist, he has appeared with the
London Symphony Orchestra (conducted by
Colin Davis), the BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Ji Blohlvek), and with the Hall and City of
Birmingham Symphony orchestras.
As first violinist of the Brodsky Quartet
(19992007), his work included collaborations
with artists ranging from Anne-Sofie von Otter
and Alexander Baillie to iconic crossover work
with Elvis Costello, Bjrk, Paul McCartney and
Sting. He recorded more than 15 albums with
the quartet, many of which won awards such
as Diapason dor and Choc du Monde de la
Musique.

As an orchestral leader, he has frequently

worked with major symphony orchestras
around the world, including leading the World
Orchestra for Peace at the request of Valery
Gergiev. In 2004 he received an honorary
doctorate from the University of Kent for his
services to music.
Andrew Haveron plays a 1709 Carlo Tononi
violin.
Read more in Bravo! bit.ly/Bravo2013-3

17

THE CHOIR

Sydney Childrens Choir and Gondwana Alumni Choir

Gondwana Choirs, Australias leading national
choral network, includes the Sydney Childrens
Choir, Gondwana Voices and the National
Indigenous Childrens Choir. In 2014 the
organisation celebrates its 25th birthday. As part
of the festivities, the Sydney Childrens Choir is
joined by the specially formed Gondwana Alumni
Choir, members of which have all experienced
the incredible musical journey of the Gondwana
Choirs program in the past 25 years. They return
as musicians, lawyers, doctors, actors and
teachers, and all look forward to the opportunity
to be a part of Gondwana once more.
The Sydney Childrens Choir has built a
worldwide reputation for choral excellence,
inspiring audiences with a distinctly Australian
choral sound. Under the direction of Gondwana
Choirs founder Lyn Williams oam, the choir has
commissioned over a hundred works from
leading Australian composers and has toured
extensively, performing to great acclaim
throughout Australia, and the world.
Closer to home, the Sydney Childrens Choir
has performed at major events such as the APEC
Leaders Week at the Sydney Opera House, the
Australia Day Spectacular at Darling Harbour and
the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic
Games. The choir is often invited to perform with
some of the worlds most acclaimed orchestras
and conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas
and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and Zubin
Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
The choir also frequently appears with the SSO
including concerts under Edo de Waart, Charles
Dutoit and Vladimir Ashkenazy and in recent
years has performed in two Mahler symphonies,
the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Brittens War
Requiem. The Sydney Childrens Choir can be
heard on the soundtracks of Moulin Rouge,
Happy Feet and Australia, and on their most
recent recording, Voices of Angels.
www.sydneychildrenschoir.com.au

18

LYN WILLIAMS OAM

Artistic Director & Founder
Lyn Williams is Australias leading director of
choirs for young people, having founded the
internationally renowned Gondwana Choirs.
Since 1989, Gondwana Choirs has grown to
include the Sydney Childrens Choir, Gondwana
National Choirs and Gondwana National
Indigenous Childrens Choir. Her exceptional skill
in working with young people is recognised for
its high artistic quality and ground-breaking
innovation. She frequently directs and conducts
for major events, tours internationally with her
choirs, and has conducted the Sydney, Adelaide,
Melbourne symphony orchestras, Australian
Chamber Orchestra and Australian Youth
Orchestra. In 2004 she was awarded a Medal of
the Order of Australia in recognition of her
services to the Arts, and in 2006 the NSW State
Award (Classical Music Awards) for her
contribution to the advancement of Australian
music. Lyn Williams is a Churchill Fellow and also
a composer.

Staff
Lyn Williams oam Artistic Director & Founder
Dan Walker Associate Artistic Director
Lucy Berger Artistic Operations Manager
Clare Kenny SCC Manager & Alumni Coordinator
Vanessa Chan National Choirs Manager
Emma Barnett Assistant Choir Manager
Rob Hansen Artistic Administration Assistant
Sally Whitwell Pianist

Senior Choir
Suebin Bae
Cameron BajraktarevicHayward
Guian Balan
Bridie Batterham-Murphy
Lucy Blomfield
Schuyer Boe
Ariel Bonnell
Chrissy Burjan
Honey Christensen
Gracia Clifford
Leona Cohen
Johanna Collins
Emily Colvin
Stella Davy
Michael Donohue
Cassandra Doyle
Oscar Drew
Marianna Ebersoll
Lily Fowler
Oliver Golding
Danah Gressel-Keich

Gondwana
Alumni Choir
Gabby Aescht
Sam Allchurch
Emily Ampt
Rhiona Armont
Akos Armont
Niamh Armstrong
Jane Aylward
Rosemary Balcomb
Emma Barnett
Ellena Baroni
Shoshi Blackman
Tessa Boyd-Caine
Anita Burkart
Claire Burrell-McDonald
Lara Busse
Alison Campbell
Alice Chance
Kate Childs
Stephanie Clark
Meta Cohen
Mary Colls
Stephanie Colls
Isabel Coleman
Belinda Cooper
Bianca Cooper
Sophie Craddock

Dominic Grimshaw
Annelise Hall
Alison Hardy
Chloe Hart
Rebecca Hilliard
Beth Harper-King
Abel Hofflin
Patsy Islam-Parsons
Maeve Kelaher
Emma Korell
Ella Kratzer
Eloise Loewy
Jemima Lorenz
Genevieve Lumb
Stephanie Macindoe
Aedan MacNamara
Owen MacNamara
Anna Marsh
Lachlan Massey
Gabrielle Montalbo
Stella Mountain
Jade Ng
Rebecca OHanlon

Tesni Paewai
Theo Picard
Florence Poon
Alexandra Raleigh
Emma Renaud
Ariana Ricci
Julia Spiteri
Isabella Suckling
Zoe Taylor
Jill Termaat
Piet Tombs
Adam Travis
Jessica Trevelyan
Beatrice Tucker
Tom Warne
Olivia Wei
Imogen Williams
Isabella Wilson
Jules Wittenoom Louw
Ye-Jean Yun
Nikita Zaika

Young Mens Choir

Liam Crisanti
Briony Daley Whitworth
Will Darbyshire
Abraham Darley
Roberta Diamond
Matilda Elliott
Jonathan Fawzi
Josephine Gibson
Erin Gleeson
Emma Hancock
Robert Hansen
Jem Harding
Seraya Harding
Victoria Hofflin
Anna Hoy
Jordan Hunt
Hanlon Innocent
Fiona Johnson
Abhimanyu Kapoor
Clare Kenny
Helena Kertesz
Corey Kirk
Oscar Kirk
Adele Kozak
Eleanor Kozak
Hamish Lane*
Ben Lee
Joe Lennox

Grace Leonard
Alex Li-Kim-Mui
Ignacio Lusardi
Kate MacCallum
Beth Martin
Alex McEwan
Eve McEwen
Samuel Merrick
Mia Miller
Sean Moloney*
Anita Moser
Andrew Mulholland*
Megan Murray
Laura Nicholls
Liane Papantoniou
Michael Paton
Sophie Perrottet
Harry Phillips
Madeleine Picard
Yasmin Powell
Patrick Rasmussen
Christopher Retter
Benjamin Saffir
Tamasin Schmiga
David Scott
Thomas Shanahan
James Shannon
Alexandria Siegers

Amelia Smiles
Charlotte Snedden
Jerome Studdy
Hannah Tatam
Emma Taylor
James Thomson
Sarah Topfer
Anwen Towne
Alice Truswell
Daniel Verschuer
Stephanie Vierboom
Meredith Waldron
Dan Walker
Yulina Walker
Samantha Warhurst
Edie Warne
Lia Weitzel
Chela Weitzel
Emma Werner
Ryan Wiblin
Oliver Williams
William Yaxley
Shaun Young*

Neil Baker
Ihnteck Chung
Isaac Davis
Timothy Dutton
Alexander Gorbatov
Vincent Kerin
Iosefa Lagaaia
Reuben Langbein
Chad Martin
Dominic Nakhoul
Rafi Owen
Remi Owen
Oscar Parker
Daniel Picard
Mackenzie Shaw
Callan Smith
Jesse Van Proctor
Yilan Yu

*Appearing courtesy of Sydney

Philharmonia Choirs VOX

19

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTR A

DAVID ROBERTSON

Chief Conductor and Artistic Director

PATRON Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir ac cvo

Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting

Commission, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
has evolved into one of the worlds finest
orchestras as Sydney has become one of the
worlds great cities.
Resident at the iconic Sydney Opera House,
where it gives more than 100 performances
each year, the SSO also performs in venues
throughout Sydney and regional New South
Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia and
the USA have earned the orchestra worldwide
recognition for artistic excellence, most recently
in the 2012 tour to China.
The orchestras first Chief Conductor was Sir
Eugene Goossens, appointed in 1947; he was
followed by Nicolai Malko, Dean Dixon, Moshe
Atzmon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis Frmaux,
Sir Charles Mackerras, Zdenk Mcal, Stuart
Challender, Edo de Waart and Gianluigi Gelmetti.
Vladimir Ashkenazy was Principal Conductor
from 2009 to 2013. The orchestras history
also boasts collaborations with legendary figures

20

such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham,

Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.
The SSOs award-winning education program
is central to its commitment to the future of live
symphonic music, developing audiences and
engaging the participation of young people.
The orchestra promotes the work of Australian
composers through performances, recordings
and its commissioning program. Recent
premieres have included major works by Ross
Edwards, Lee Bracegirdle, Gordon Kerry, Mary
Finsterer, Nigel Westlake and Georges Lentz,
and the orchestras recordings of music by Brett
Dean have been released on both the BIS and
SSO Live labels.
Other releases on the SSO Live label,
established in 2006, include performances
with Alexander Lazarev, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir
Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In
201011 the orchestra made concert recordings
of the complete Mahler symphonies with
Ashkenazy, and has also released recordings
of Rachmaninoff and Elgar orchestral works on
the Exton/Triton labels, as well as numerous
recordings on ABC Classics.
This is the first year of David Robertsons
tenure as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director.

MUSICIANS
David Robertson

Jessica Cottis

CHIEF CONDUCTOR
AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
SUPPORTED BY
EMIRATES

Andrew Haveron

Dene Olding

CONCERTMASTER

CONCERTMASTER

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
SUPPORTED BY PREMIER
PARTNER CREDIT SUISSE

FIRST VIOLINS

VIOLAS

FLUTES

TRUMPETS

Andrew Haveron

Roger Benedict
Anne-Louise Comerford
Justin Williams

Emma Sholl
Carolyn Harris
Katie Zagorski
Janet Webb
Rosamund Plummer

David Elton
Paul Goodchild
Anthony Heinrichs
Daniel Henderson
Simon Sweeney*

CONCERTMASTER

Sun Yi
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Kirsten Williams
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Lerida Delbridge
ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Jenny Booth
Marianne Broadfoot
Brielle Clapson
Sophie Cole
Amber Davis
Georges Lentz
Nicola Lewis
Alexander Norton
Lone Ziegler
Emily Qin*
Dene Olding
CONCERTMASTER

Fiona Ziegler
ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Jennifer Hoy
Alexandra Mitchell

SECOND VIOLINS
Kirsty Hilton
Marina Marsden
Emma Jezek

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Sandro Costantino
Rosemary Curtin
Jane Hazelwood
Graham Hennings
Stuart Johnson
Justine Marsden
Amanda Verner
Leonid Volovelsky
Tobias Breider
Felicity Tsai

CELLOS
Umberto Clerici
Catherine Hewgill
Leah Lynn
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Fenella Gill
Timothy Nankervis
Elizabeth Neville
Christopher Pidcock
David Wickham
Henry David Varema
Kristy Conrau
Adrian Wallis

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Maria Durek
Emily Long
Emma Hayes
Shuti Huang
Stan W Kornel
Benjamin Li
Nicole Masters
Maja Verunica
Claire Herrick*
Liisa Pallandi
Philippa Paige
Biyana Rozenblit

DOUBLE BASSES
Kees Boersma
Steven Larson
Neil Brawley
PRINCIPAL EMERITUS

David Campbell
Richard Lynn
Josef Bisits*
Alex Henery
David Murray
Benjamin Ward

To see photographs of the full roster of permanent musicians

and find out more about the orchestra, visit our website:
www.sydneysymphony.com/SSO_musicians
If you dont have access to the internet, ask one of our customer
service representatives for a copy of our Musicians flyer.

PRINCIPAL PICCOLO

OBOES
Shefali Pryor
David Papp
Alexandre Oguey
PRINCIPAL COR ANGLAIS

Diana Doherty

CLARINETS
Francesco Celata
Christopher Tingay
Craig Wernicke
PRINCIPAL BASS CLARINET

Lawrence Dobell

BASSOONS
Ben Hoadley*
Fiona McNamara
Noriko Shimada
PRINCIPAL CONTRABASSOON

Matthew Wilkie

HORNS
Ben Jacks
Robert Johnson
Marnie Sebire
Rachel Silver
Euan Harvey
Geoffrey OReilly

TROMBONES
Ronald Prussing
Scott Kinmont
Nick Byrne
Christopher Harris
PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE

TUBA
Steve Ross

TIMPANI
Mark Robinson
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Richard Miller

PERCUSSION
Rebecca Lagos
Timothy Constable*
William Jackson*
Chiron Meller*
Alison Pratt*
Philip South*

HARP
Louise Johnson

KEYBOARDS
Susanne Powell*

PRINCIPAL 3RD
BOLD = PRINCIPAL
ITALICS = ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
* = GUEST MUSICIAN
= SSO FELLOW
GREY = PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA NOT
APPEARING IN THIS CONCERT

The men of the Sydney

Symphony Orchestra are
proudly outfitted by
Van Heusen.

21

BEHIND THE SCENES

SYDNEY SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA BOARD

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STAFF

MANAGING DIRECTOR

CREATIVE ARTWORKER

John C Conde ao Chairman

Terrey Arcus am
Ewen Crouch am
Ross Grant
Jennifer Hoy
Rory Jeffes
Andrew Kaldor am
David Livingstone
Goetz Richter

Rory Jeffes

Nathanael van der Reyden

SYDNEY SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA COUNCIL
Geoff Ainsworth am
Andrew Andersons ao
Michael Baume ao
Christine Bishop
Ita Buttrose ao obe
Peter Cudlipp
John Curtis am
Greg Daniel am
John Della Bosca
Alan Fang
Erin Flaherty
Dr Stephen Freiberg
Donald Hazelwood ao obe
Dr Michael Joel am
Simon Johnson
Yvonne Kenny am
Gary Linnane
Amanda Love
Helen Lynch am
David Maloney am
David Malouf ao
Deborah Marr
The Hon. Justice Jane Mathews ao
Danny May
Wendy McCarthy ao
Jane Morschel
Dr Timothy Pascoe am
Prof. Ron Penny ao
Jerome Rowley
Paul Salteri
Sandra Salteri
Juliana Schaeffer
Leo Schofield am
Fred Stein oam
Gabrielle Trainor
Ivan Ungar
John van Ogtrop
Peter Weiss ao HonDLitt
Mary Whelan
Rosemary White

EXECUTIVE TEAM ASSISTANT

MARKETING COORDINATOR

Lisa Davies-Galli

Jonathon Symonds

ARTISTIC OPERATIONS

Jenny Sargant

DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC PLANNING

Peter Czornyj

Box Office

Artistic Administration

MANAGER OF BOX OFFICE SALES &

OPERATIONS

ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGER

Lynn McLaughlin

Eleasha Mah

BOX OFFICE SYSTEMS SUPERVISOR

ARTIST LIAISON MANAGER

Jacqueline Tooley

Ilmar Leetberg

BOX OFFICE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR

RECORDING ENTERPRISE MANAGER

John Robertson

Philip Powers

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

Education Programs

EMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM MANAGER

Karen Wagg Senior CSR

Michael Dowling
Katarzyna Ostafijczuk
Tim Walsh

Mark Lawrenson

Publications

EDUCATION COORDINATOR

Rachel McLarin

PUBLICATIONS EDITOR & MUSIC

PRESENTATION MANAGER

CUSTOMER SERVICE OFFICER

Yvonne Frindle

HEAD OF EDUCATION

Kim Waldock

Amy Walsh

Library
Anna Cernik
Victoria Grant
Mary-Ann Mead

ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

EXTERNAL RELATIONS
DIRECTOR, EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Yvonne Zammit

Philanthropy
HEAD OF PHILANTHROPY

Luke Andrew Gay

DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA MANAGEMENT

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Aernout Kerbert

Amelia Morgan-Hunn

ORCHESTRA MANAGER

PHILANTHROPY COORDINATOR

Chris Lewis

Sarah Morrisby

ORCHESTRA COORDINATOR

Corporate Relations

Georgia Stamatopoulos
OPERATIONS MANAGER

Kerry-Anne Cook
PRODUCTION MANAGER

Laura Daniel
STAGE MANAGER

Courtney Wilson
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Tim Dayman
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Ian Spence

SALES AND MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

Mark J Elliott
SENIOR SALES & MARKETING MANAGER

Penny Evans
MARKETING MANAGER, SUBSCRIPTION SALES

Simon Crossley-Meates
MARKETING MANAGER, CLASSICAL SALES

Matthew Rive
MARKETING MANAGER, WEB & DIGITAL MEDIA

Eve Le Gall
MARKETING MANAGER, CRM & DATABASE

Matthew Hodge
DATABASE ANALYST

David Patrick
GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Lucy McCullough

22

ONLINE MARKETING COORDINATOR

HEAD OF CORPORATE RELATIONS

Jeremy Goff
CORPORATE RELATIONS MANAGER

Janine Harris

Communications
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER

Katherine Stevenson
DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER

Kai Raisbeck
SOCIAL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY OFFICER

Caitlin Benetatos

BUSINESS SERVICES
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE

John Horn
FINANCE MANAGER

Ruth Tolentino
ACCOUNTANT

Minerva Prescott
ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

Emma Ferrer
PAYROLL OFFICER

Laura Soutter

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

IN-HOUSE COUNSEL

Michel Maree Hryce

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTR A PATRONS

MAESTROS CIRCLE
SUPPORTING THE ARTISTIC VISION OF DAVID ROBERTSON, CHIEF CONDUCTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Peter Weiss ao Founding President & Doris Weiss
John C Conde ao Chairman
Geoff Ainsworth am
Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn
In memory of Hetty & Egon Gordon
Andrew Kaldor am & Renata Kaldor ao
Vicki Olsson

Roslyn Packer ao
Penelope Seidler am
Mr Fred Street am & Mrs Dorothy Street
Westfield Group
Brian & Rosemary White
Ray Wilson oam in memory of the late James Agapitos oam

CHAIR PATRONS
01

Roger Benedict
Principal Viola
Kim Williams am &
Catherine Dovey Chair

06 Kirsty Hilton
Principal Second Violin
Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Chair

02

Lawrence Dobell
Principal Clarinet
Terrey Arcus am &
Anne Arcus Chair

07 Robert Johnson
Principal Horn
James & Leonie Furber Chair

03

Diana Doherty
Principal Oboe
Andrew Kaldor am &
Renata Kaldor ao Chair

04 Richard Gill oam

Artistic Director, Education
Sandra & Paul Salteri Chair
05

Catherine Hewgill
Principal Cello
The Hon. Justice AJ &
Mrs Fran Meagher Chair

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

08 Elizabeth Neville
Cello
Ruth & Bob Magid Chair
09 Emma Sholl
Associate Principal Flute
Robert & Janet Constable
Chair
10

Janet Webb
Principal Flute
Helen Lynch am &
Helen Bauer Chair

n n n n n n n n n n
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHAIR PATRONS PROGRAM,
CALL (02) 8215 4619.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Through their inspired financial support,
Patrons ensure the SSOs continued success,
resilience and growth. Join the SSO Patrons
Program today and make a difference.
sydneysymphony.com/patrons
(02) 8215 4674 philanthropy@sydneysymphony.com

23

PLAYING YOUR PART

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate to
the orchestra each year. Each gift plays an important part in ensuring our continued artistic
excellence and helping to sustain important education and regional touring programs. Donations
of $50 and above are acknowledged on our website at www.sydneysymphony.com/patrons
DIAMOND PATRONS:
$30,000+
Geoff Ainsworth am
Mr John C Conde ao
Mr Andrew Kaldor am &
Mrs Renata Kaldor ao
In Memory of Matthew Krel
Mrs Roslyn Packer ao
Paul & Sandra Salteri
Scully Foundation
Mrs W Stening
Mr Fred Street am &
Mrs Dorothy Street
Peter Weiss ao & Doris Weiss
Mr Brian & Mrs Rosemary
White
Kim Williams am &
Catherine Dovey

Robert & Janet Constable

James & Leonie Furber
In memory of Hetty &
Egon Gordon
I Kallinikos
Helen Lynch am &
Helen Bauer
Mrs T Merewether oam
Vicki Olsson
Mrs Penelope Seidler am
G & C Solomon in memory of
Joan MacKenzie
Westfield Group
Ray Wilson oam in memory of
James Agapitos oam
Anonymous (1)

GOLD PATRONS:
$10,000$19,999

Brian Abel
Robert Albert ao &
Elizabeth Albert
Terrey Arcus am & Anne Arcus
Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn
Sandra & Neil Burns

Doug & Alison Battersby

Alan & Christine Bishop
Ian & Jennifer Burton
Michael Crouch ao &
Shanny Crouch
Copyright Agency Cultural
Fund
Edward & Diane Federman
Nora Goodridge

BRONZE PATRONS:
PRESTO $2,500$4,999

BRONZE PATRONS:
VIVACE $1,000$2,499

Mr Henri W Aram oam

Dr Francis J Augustus
The Berg Family Foundation
in memory of Hetty Gordon
Mr B & Mrs M Coles
Mr Howard Connors
Greta Davis
Firehold Pty Ltd
Stephen Freiberg &
Donald Campbell
Ann Hoban
Irwin Imhof in memory of
Herta Imhof
Gary Linnane
Robert McDougall
James & Elsie Moore
Ms Jackie OBrien
J F & A van Ogtrop
Marliese & Georges Teitler
Mr Robert & Mrs Rosemary
Walsh
Yim Family Foundation
Mr & Mrs T & D Yim

Mrs Lenore Adamson

Mrs Antoinette Albert
Andrew Andersons ao
Sibilla Baer
David Barnes
Allan & Julie Bligh
Dr & Mrs Hannes Boshoff
Jan Bowen
Mr Peter Braithwaite
Lenore P Buckle
Margaret Bulmer
In memory of RW Burley
Ita Buttrose ao obe
Mr JC Campbell qc &
Mrs Campbell
Dr Rebecca Chin
Dr Diana Choquette &
Mr Robert Milliner
Mr Peter Clarke
Constable Estate Vineyards
Dom Cottam &
Kanako Imamura
Debby Cramer & Bill Caukill
Mr John Cunningham SCM &
Mrs Margaret Cunningham

PLATINUM PATRONS:
$20,000$29,999

24

Stephen J Bell
Mr Alexander & Mrs Vera
Boyarsky
Mr Robert Brakspear
Mr David & Mrs Halina Brett
Mr Robert & Mrs L Alison Carr
Bob & Julie Clampett
Ewen Crouch am &
Catherine Crouch
The Hon. Mrs Ashley DawsonDamer
Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway

Dr Lee MacCormick Edwards &

Mr Michael Crane
Dr Colin Goldschmidt
The Greatorex Foundation
Mr Rory Jeffes
Judges of the Supreme Court
of NSW
J A McKernan
David Maloney am & Erin Flaherty
R & S Maple-Brown
Justice Jane Mathews ao
Mora Maxwell
Mrs Barbara Murphy
William McIlrath Charitable
Foundation
Mr B G OConor
Rodney Rosenblum am &
Sylvia Rosenblum
Estate of the late
Greta C Ryan
Manfred & Linda Salamon
Simpsons Solicitors
Mrs Joyce Sproat &
Mrs Janet Cooke
Michael & Mary Whelan Trust
June & Alan Woods Family
Bequest
Anonymous (1)

Lisa & Miro Davis

Matthew Delasey
Mr & Mrs Grant Dixon
Colin Draper & Mary Jane
Brodribb
Malcolm Ellis & Erin ONeill
Mrs Margaret Epps
Paul R Espie
Professor Michael Field am
Mr Tom Francis
Warren Green
Anthony Gregg
Akiko Gregory
In memory of Dora &
Oscar Grynberg
Janette Hamilton
Mrs Jennifer Hershon
Mrs & Mr Holmes
Michael & Anna Joel
Aron Kleinlehrer
Mr Justin Lam
L M B Lamprati
Mr Peter Lazar am
Professor Winston Liauw
Dr David Luis
Peter Lowry oam &
Dr Carolyn Lowry oam

Kevin & Deirdre McCann

Ian & Pam McGaw
Macquarie Group Foundation
Renee Markovic
Henry & Ursula Mooser
Milja & David Morris
Mrs J Mulveney
Mr & Mrs Ortis
Mr Darrol Norman
Dr A J Palmer
Mr Andrew C Patterson
Dr Natalie E Pelham
Almut Piatti
Robin Potter
In memory of Sandra Paul
Pottinger
TA & MT Murray-Prior
Dr Raffi Qasabian
Michael Quailey
Ernest & Judith Rapee
Kenneth R Reed
Patricia H Reid Endowment
Pty Ltd
Robin Rodgers
Lesley & Andrew Rosenberg
In memory of H St P Scarlett
Caroline Sharpen

Mr Ross Grant
Mr Ervin Katz
James N Kirby Foundation
Ms Irene Lee
Ruth & Bob Magid
The Hon. Justice AJ Meagher
& Mrs Fran Meagher
Mr John Morschel
Drs Keith & Eileen Ong
Mr John Symond
Andy & Deirdre Plummer
Caroline Wilkinson
Anonymous (1)

SILVER PATRONS:
$5000$9,999

David & Isabel Smithers

Mrs Judith Southam
Catherine Stephen
The Hon. Brian Sully qc
Mildred Teitler
Kevin Troy
John E Tuckey
In memory of Joan &
Rupert Vallentine
Dr Alla Waldman
Miss Sherry Wang
Henry & Ruth Weinberg
The Hon. Justice A G Whealy
Ms Kathy White in memory
of Mr Geoff White
A Willmers & R Pal
Mr & Mrs B C Wilson
Dr Richard Wing
Mr Robert Woods
In memory of Lorna Wright
Dr John Yu
Anonymous (11)

BRONZE PATRONS:
ALLEGRO $500$999
David & Rae Allen
Mr & Mrs Garry S Ash
Dr Lilon Bandler
Michael Baume ao & Toni Baume
Beauty Point Retirement Resort
Richard & Margaret Bell
Mrs Jan Biber
Minnie Biggs
Mrs Elizabeth Boon
Mr Colin G Booth
Dr Margaret Booth
Mr Frederick Bowers
Mr Harry H Brian
R D & L M Broadfoot
Miss Tanya Brycker
Dr Miles Burgess
Pat & Jenny Burnett

Eric & Rosemary Campbell

Barrie Carter
Mr Jonathan Chissick
Mrs Sandra Clark
Michael & Natalie Coates
Coffs Airport Security Car Park
Jen Cornish
Degabriele Kitchens
Phil Diment am & Bill
Zafiropoulos
Dr David Dixon
Elizabeth Donati
Mrs Jane Drexler
Dr Nita Durham &
Dr James Durham
John Favaloro
Ms Julie Flynn & Mr Trevor
Cook
Mrs Lesley Finn
Mr John Gaden
Vivienne Goldschmidt
Clive & Jenny Goodwin
Ms Fay Grear
In Memory of Angelica Green
Mr Robert Green
Richard Griffin am
Mr & Mrs Harold &
Althea Halliday
Benjamin Hasic &
Belinda Davie
Mr Robert Havard
Roger Henning
Sue Hewitt
In memory of Emil Hilton
Dorothy Hoddinott ao
Mr Joerg Hofmann
Mr Angus Holden
Mr Kevin Holland
Bill & Pam Hughes
Dr Esther Janssen
Niki Kallenberger
Mrs W G Keighley

Mrs Margaret Keogh

Dr Henry Kilham
Chris J Kitching
Anna-Lisa Klettenberg
Mr & Mrs Gilles T Kryger
The Laing Family
Sonia Lal
Dr Leo & Mrs Shirley Leader
Margaret Lederman
Mrs Erna Levy
Sydney & Airdrie Lloyd
Mrs A Lohan
Panee Low
Dr David Luis
Melvyn Madigan
Barbara Maidment
Helen & Phil Meddings
David Mills
Kenneth Newton Mitchell
Helen Morgan
Chris Morgan-Hunn
Mr Graham North
E J Nuffield
Dr Margaret Parker
Dr Kevin Pedemont
Dr John Pitt
Mrs Greeba Pritchard
Mr Patrick Quinn-Graham
Miss Julie Radosavljevic
Renaissance Tours
Dr Marilyn Richardson
Anna Ro
Agnes Ross
Mr Kenneth Ryan

Garry Scarf &

Morgie Blaxill
Peter & Virginia Shaw
V Shore
Mrs Diane Shteinman am
Victoria Smyth
Dr Judy Soper
Doug & Judy Sotheren
Ruth Staples
Mr & Mrs Ashley Stephenson
Margaret Suthers
Ms Margaret Swanson
The Taplin Family
Dr & Mrs H K Tey
Alma Toohey
Judge Robyn Tupman
Mrs M Turkington
Gillian Turner & Rob Bishop
Ronald Walledge
In memory of Denis Wallis
The Wilkinson Family
Evan Williams am &
Janet Williams
Dr Edward J Wills
Audrey & Michael Wilson
Dr Richard Wingate
Dr Peter Wong &
Mrs Emmy K Wong
Geoff Wood & Melissa Waites
Mrs Robin Yabsley
Anonymous (29)

List correct as of
17 January 2014

n n n n n n n n n n
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BECOMING A
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PATRON, PLEASE
CONTACT THE PHILANTHROPY OFFICE ON (02) 8215 4674
OR EMAIL PHILANTHROPY@SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM

SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA VANGUARD

A MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM FOR A DYNAMIC GROUP OF GEN X & Y SSO FANS AND FUTURE PHILANTHROPISTS

Vanguard Collective
Justin Di Lollo Chair
Kees Boersma
David McKean
Amelia Morgan-Hunn
Jonathan Pease
Seamus R Quick
Chloe Sasson
Camille Thioulouse

Members
Damien Bailey
Andrew Baxter
Mar Beltran
Evonne Bennett
Nicole Billet
David Bluff
Andrew Bragg

Peter Braithwaite
Blake Briggs
Andrea Brown
Prof. Attila Brungs
Helen Caldwell
Hilary Caldwell
Hahn Chau
Alistair Clark
Paul Colgan
Juliet Curtin
Alistair Furnival
Alistair Gibson
Sam Giddings
Marina Go
Tony Grierson
Louise Haggerty
Rose Herceg
Philip Heuzenroeder

Paolo Hooke
Peter Howard
Jennifer Hoy
Scott Jackson
Justin Jameson
Aernout Kerbert
Tristan Landers
Gary Linnane
Paul Macdonald
Kylie McCaig
Rebecca MacFarling
Hayden McLean
Taine Moufarrige
Nick Nichles
Tom ODonnell
Kate OReilly
Laurissa Poulos
Jingmin Qian

Leah Ranie
Michael Reede
Paul Reidy
Chris Robertson
Dr Benjamin Robinson
Emma Rodigari
Jacqueline Rowlands
Katherine Shaw
Randal Tame
Sandra Tang
Michael Tidball
Jonathan Watkinson
Jon Wilkie

25

SALUTE
PRINCIPAL PARTNER

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the

Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council,
its arts funding and advisory body

PREMIER PARTNER

PLATINUM PARTNER

EDUCATION PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

GOLD PARTNERS

SILVER PARTNERS

REGIONAL TOUR PARTNER

26

MARKETING PARTNER

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is

assisted by the NSW Government
through Arts NSW

Photo: Keith Saunders

ORCHESTRA NEWS | JANUARYFEBRUARY 2014

brass playing
is a very
physical thing.

GRUNT WORK
Rachel Silver, recently appointed to the
SSO horn section, finds herself doing some
of the heavy lifting.
When my niece asks what I do
for a job, I blow a raspberry and
tell her, Someone pays me to
do that all day. French horn
player Rachel Silver has her
tongue firmly in cheek, of
course. Its a whole lot more
complicated than that. Actually,
brass playing is a very physical
thing. It involves the whole
body using big muscles to take
in a lot of air and blow it out,
with the vibration of your lips
to produce the sound. Smaller
movements with little muscles
around the embouchure help
make sure we hit the right note.
As with many instruments,
playing the horn for a long time

can result in physical changes

to a musicians body. If you use
a finger hook [to support the
weight of the instrument], you
can end up with a bent little
finger. Or too much pressure
on the mouthpiece, for instance,
and a pair of small crescent
moon-shaped indentations may
appear on the lips. Check twice
next time youre talking to a
brass player!
The internal structure of an
orchestral horn section dates
back to a time when crooks
(sections of tubing) were used
to change the key in which the
instrument was playing. The
horns would play in pairs first

and second horns together in

the tonic, or home key,
third and fourth together in a
related key. First and third are
traditionally considered high,
while second and fourth are
low.
Recently appointed to the
position of section horn, Rachel
is discovering that playing in
the SSO requires a degree of
flexibility. Im definitely most
comfortable playing second or
fourth, but sometimes Ill be
required to bump the first
horn. (Bumping means
sharing the first horn part
between two players.) The
bumper wont play any of the
big solos, but we do some of
the grunt work to give the first
horn a break. That might
mean taking over some of the
really loud notes, or occasionally
helping out in the middle of a
phrase to disguise the need to
take a breath. Its satisfying
when you can assist your first
horn and help make them feel
comfortable.

From the Managing Director Education Highlight

Whats my motivation?

Photo: Belinda Pratten

RORY JEFFES

Photo: Ken Butti

Welcome to our 2014 season and what a season

it promises to be, under the leadership of our new
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, David
Robertson. From Strausss epic opera Elektra
to the film music of John Williams, from the
enduring mastery of Beethoven and Brahms to a
commissioned work celebrating our Indigenous
culture, Jandamarra by Paul Stanhope, we aim to
offer something that will inspire everyone who
loves to hear live orchestral music.
As I look ahead at this years feast of musical
offerings, I pay tribute to the extraordinary talents
and commitment of our players, administrators
and artists. And I also thank you, our audience, for
your contribution and support for your orchestra.
An inspiring performance requires not just great
music making on stage, but also an engaged
audience, full of people who come to see, hear and
love what these talented individuals create when
they come together in the name of that thing which
we love above all music.
So welcome, and enjoy this performance and
the forthcoming season, with our thanks and
commitment to providing you with a year of
outstanding artistic experiences.

There are motives, and then there are motives.

What does it mean when a composer uses a motive
in his or her composition? This was the question
explored by participants in our Sinfonietta
Composition Project at the end of 2013. Supported
by Leighton Holdings and CAL Cultural Fund,
the Sinfonietta Project is now in its eighth year,
and in 2013 attracted the highest ever number
of applicants. Fourteen students from around
Australia, aged 13 to 17, were selected to take
part in a three-day intensive workshop under the
mindful care of Richard Gill, and with the expert
assistance of our Fellowship quartet. Two teachers
also travelled from Tasmania with their students to
observe the workshops.
The string quartets of Haydn and Shostakovich
were examined for examples of rhythmic and
harmonic motives, before each participant had
the opportunity to try their own hand, composing
for performance by the string quartet. Working
with the Fellows, said one participant, gave a
sense of realism to what, until then, had been
quite an abstracted practice. Theres clearly no
substitute for the real thing! Another student,
from Melbourne, acknowledged the depth and
breadth of the program: I learn much more about
music from the Sinfonietta project than any other
class Ive been to at the specialist music school I
attend.

Richard Gill with the 2013 Sinfonietta composers

Vanguard took members

and guests on a sensory
adventure, matching
Brokenwood Wines and
Young Henrys beer with
music played by an ensemble
of SSO musicians. Dan
Hampton (Young Henrys),
Justin Di Lollo (Vanguard
Chair), and Oscar MacMahon
(Young Henrys) clearly
enjoyed the night!

Artistic Focus

The Score

SSO GOES TO THE MOVIES

Alexander Nevsky

David Robertson will present highlights from John Williams film scores in his first visit to
Sydney as chief conductor. (Pictured: Alex Mitchell and Emma Jezek)

Never send a human to do a

machines job. So says Agent
Smith in a chilling monotone in
The Matrix. With this advice he
would surely find himself at odds
with conductor Frank Strobel,
who joins us in September to
conduct the film in concert.
Its true that a live orchestra
accompanying a big screen
picture requires a machine-like
synchronicity between orchestra
and film, but Frank argues theres
still plenty of room for spontaneity.
Similar to an operatic performance,
I need to be able to shape and
structure a work and to uphold its
tension, without having the feeling
of being at the movies mercy.
And it is especially important to
me that a performance takes place
without any additional technical
aids, such as a click track in my
ear or a visible time code on the
monitor for musicalitys sake.
So without the usual
mechanical or electronic
assistance, how is the necessary
precision achieved to play
in time with the picture?
Synchronicity can be achieved
with a precise knowledge of
the film, plentiful (often more
than a thousand) synchronicity
pointers in the score, exact
tempo specifications (preferably
metronomic indications) and
the aforementioned feeling for
movement and mounting in the
picture. Spontaneity does not
need to suffer because of this.
In a year featuring two film

in concert presentations (West

Side Story is the other), chief
conductor David Robertson will
set the tone in February when he
conducts and compres a concert
hall program dedicated to the
music of John Williams.
John Williams film scores
include Jaws, E.T., Superman
and Schindlers List, to name just
a few, and David is in awe of his
skill as a composer. His range is
without bounds, his inspiration
seems unending, and his power
to unlock our emotions is
breathtaking. He says Williams
understands that when we enter a
movie theatre, we become aware
of sound in a different way, and
open ourselves to the complete
experience of a film. Williams
finds just the right combination
of sounds and timbres to
communicate with us on a very
deep emotional level. Those
moments in cinema when people
say I couldnt help but cry are
often brought on by his music or
framed by it.
28 Feb, 1 Mar
Robertson conducts John
Williams: Music from the Movies

2, 3 May
Strictly Luhrmann: Music from
the Movies

26, 27 Sep
The Matrix Live: Film in Concert

7, 8 Nov
West Side Story: On Stage and
Screen

More info: bit.ly/SSOfilmmusic

This year weve planned four

concerts with an overt film
connection, but theres a fifth
concert with a hidden connection:
Russian Daydreams in March.
In 1938 Prokofiev newly
returned to Russia from a visit
to Hollywood was invited by
film director Sergei Eisenstein
to write the music for Alexander
Nevsky. The result has become
a cult classic among film buffs
and is still regarded as one of the
greatest collaborations between
composer and director in the
history of cinema. (So closely did
they work, Eisenstein would often
cut his shots to the music rather
than vice versa.)
Thanks to the machinations
of history, Prokofievs music has
also survived in the concert hall.
Not long after the December
1938 premiere, the Nazi-Soviet
pact of 1939 was signed and the
film which told the story of
the Russians victory over the
Teutonic knights in 1242 was
withdrawn. But Prokofiev
salvaged the most powerful
moments of his score to create
a seven-movement cantata for
mezzo-soprano, chorus and
orchestra.
Eisenstein declared Prokofiev
a perfect composer for the
screen, saying that his music
was never merely illustrative
but embodied the emotion of
the events on screen. And even
without the striking imagery
of the film, the cantata conveys
the dramatic range of the story:
from the tragedy of Russia under
oppression to the Battle on the Ice
and the triumph of victory.

Russian Daydreams
Master Series
12, 14, 15 March | 8pm

CODA

TURNING JAPANESE

NEWBIES
We welcome Rachel Silver (horn)
and Amanda Verner (viola) to
the permanent ranks of the SSO,
following successful completion of
their trials.

FAREWELLS
In December 2013 we farewelled
three of the orchestras longestserving musicians Julie Batty
(first violin), Robyn Brookfield
(viola) and Colin Piper (percussion).
Combined, they have given the
orchestra almost 100 years of
service. We thank them for their
dedication, inspiration and
wonderful collegiality over all these
years, and wish them the very best
for their future retirement projects.
And at the end of this month we will
bid a fond farewell to our director
of artistic planning, Peter Czornyj,
who is returning with his family to
the United States to take up the
same role at the Dallas Symphony
Orchestra.

Rosamund Plummer (SSO Principal

Piccolo) has been selected as the
very first Global Winds Artist in
Residence at the Tokyo Academy
of Instrumental Heritage Music.
Rose will travel to Japan and
America for three months to
study the ryu
teki, a traditional
Japanese transverse bamboo
flute. This award is an initiative
of the department of medival
Japanese music at Columbia
University, which hopes to seed
high profile Western orchestras with
musicians who can play traditional
Japanese instruments and thus
perform specialised music. Rose
is currently learning as much
Japanese language as possible to
get the most out of daily lessons
with her ryu
teki mentor in Tokyo.

MOVIN ON UP
We can report exciting times for
our most recent crop of Fellowship
alumni, with multiple successes
following their time with SSO.
The string Fellows have all been

accepted into a winter residency

at The Banff Centre in Canada;
Som Howie (clarinet) has won a
position in the Southbank Sinfonia
in London for 2014; and Laura van
Rijn (flute) is taking up a contract
position as Associate Principal Flute
with the Auckland Philharmonia.
Bravi tutti!

PARK & DINE

Did you know? If youre an SSO
subscriber you can take advantage
of InterContinental Sydneys
exclusive park and dine package.
Enjoy valet parking when combined
with a meal at Cafe Opera, just a
short stroll from the Sydney Opera
House. Call (02) 9240 1396 to find
out more about this deal from our
accommodation partner.

HIGH TEA
On 9 December we thanked our
wonderful and dedicated volunteers
with a special Christmas high tea
backstage at the Sydney Opera
House. Volunteers are special
members of the SSO family whose
support is invaluable.

EDITOR Genevieve Lang Huppert

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