Season Overview
The story of the Sydney Symphony is bound to the story of Sydney and its evolution into a great city: cosmopolitan, vibrant and beautiful. The Sydney Symphony was born in 1932, a small ensemble of 24 musicians who played for ABC Radio and made few public appearances. By the middle of the century, the Sydney Symphony was a symbol of Australia’s mature nationhood.
Seventy-eight years have seen the Orchestra go from strength to strength under the leadership of brilliant conductors and in collaboration with great artists. The Sydney Symphony has grown into an orchestra of nearly a hundred musicians giving over 200 performances each year to an audience of over 400,000. We’ve been the sound of Sydney for three generations and a leader in Australia’s rich cultural life, igniting and deepening people’s love of symphonic music.
Image: Keith Saunders
Artists
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor
In the years since Vladimir Ashkenazy first came to prominence on the world stage in the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, he has built an extraordinary career not only as one of the most renowned and revered pianists of our times, but as an inspiring artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities.
Conducting has formed the largest part of his music-making for the past 20 years. He was Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003, and he was Music Director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo from 2004 to 2007. In 2009 he takes up the position of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Sydney Symphony.
Alongside these roles, Vladimir Ashkenazy is also Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom he has developed landmark projects such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich Under Stalin (a project which he toured and later developed into a TV documentary) and Rachmaninoff Revisited at the Lincoln Center, New York.
He also holds the positions of Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He maintains strong links with a number of other major orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra (where he was formerly Principal Guest Conductor), San Francisco Symphony, and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin (Chief Conductor and Music Director 1988–96), and last year returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic.
He continues to devote himself to the piano, building his comprehensive recording catalogue with releases such as the 1999 Grammy award-winning Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No.3 (which he commissioned), and Rachmaninov transcriptions. His latest releases are recordings of Bach’s Wohltemperierte Klavier and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.
A regular visitor to Sydney over many years, he has conducted subscription concerts and composer festivals for the Sydney Symphony with his five-program Rachmaninov Festival forming a highlight of the 75th Anniversary Season in 2007. In 2010 he embarks on a two-year journey with the Orchestra through the symphonic music of Gustav Mahler. Vladimir Ashkenazy’s future artistic role with the Orchestra will include collaborations on composer festivals, major recording projects and international touring activities.
Company Overview
Founded in 1932, the Sydney Symphony has evolved into one of the world’s finest orchestras as Sydney has become one of the world’s great cities. The Sydney Symphony gives more than 100 performances each year at Sydney Opera House. International tours to Europe, Asia and the USA have earned the Orchestra world-wide recognition for artistic excellence.
Critical to the success of the Sydney Symphony has been the leadership given by its former Chief Conductors including Sir Eugene Goossens, Dean Dixon, Louis Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Stuart Challender and Edo de Waart. Also contributing to the outstanding success of the Orchestra have been collaborations with legendary figures such as George Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.
The Sydney Symphony’s award-winning Education Program is central to the Orchestra’s commitment to the future of live symphonic music, developing audiences and engaging the participation of young people. The Sydney Symphony maintains an active commissioning program promoting the work of Australian composers.
Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor: Vladimir Ashkenazy
Managing Director: Rory Jeffes
Tel:
+61 2 8215 4600
Fax:
+61 2 8215 4660
Email:
info@sydneysymphony.com
www.sydneysymphony.com