cheers to ten years — Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

We're celebrating our 10th anniversary! It's been 10 years of innovation, triumph and meeting challenges head-on. To celebrate this decade, the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra co-directors, musicians, board, staff and supporters met to raise a glass together after our final concert of the "Midsummer Dreams" tour at The Concourse, Chatswood. Thank you to everyone who was there with us, and happy birthday, ARCO!

Weren't at the party? Here’s what was said by our fabulous co-directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen.

Welcome, distinguished guests!! It’s so fabulous for us to be able to share this evening with you, our audience, with our musicians, with our board, with our valued donors, and with our loyal supporters following such an uplifting concert of Mendelssohn and Beethoven which is a pivotal part of our core repertoire.

We are thrilled to be on our third national tour of 2023, celebrating our tenth anniversary. We know, that many of you know, our story of Nicole and I establishing an orchestra together with Richard Gill, which we launched in 2013, and which would bring historically informed performance of Classical and Romantic music to Australian audiences with a significant component of music education, with both live and digital education programs and a strong musicological research base.

Over this past decade, we have proudly established an orchestra of leading Australian musicians with an international reputation, dedicated to performing over 150 years of orchestral, choral and chamber music repertoire. This inspiring and highly influential period of composition from the late 18th to early 20th centuries includes a vast repertoire that is often ignored or needs reinvigorating in the canon, highlighting the importance of performing this music in a historical context.

We have inherited and highly value Richard’s tremendous legacy, working every single day for the last five years since his passing to ensure the longevity and growth of that legacy. The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra is a resilient, engaging, creative organisation. Our co-artistic vision upholds the organisation's intrinsic artistic quality and value, enabling us to build towards a more sustainable future while focusing on our performing, education programs, organisational relationships, and philanthropic partners.

We have some stats for you which we are incredibly proud of. Since our launch concert back in December 2013, working with an extremely compact management team, we have performed 136 concerts, delighting over 30,000 concert audience members. We have directly inspired over 400 emerging musicians through our HIP youth orchestra programs, the Young Mannheim Symphonists, several of whom have subsequently received invitations into the profession thanks to our guidance. We have a significant social media following and have created close to 50 filmed performances and education programs which are all available, free of charge, on our website and on YouTube where we have had over 66,000 views (I checked this this morning to make sure it was up to date!). As you know, we released our debut CD on our own label late last year. We have a further nine CDs in the pipeline on that label and we are also proud to announce today that our Mozart Jupiter Symphony and Piano Concerto program from last year featuring our artistic advisor, Neal Peres Da Costa, will be released on ABC Classics later this year.

We have enlightened thousands of elective music students from over 50 schools across NSW, Queensland and Victoria through our Voyage of Musical Discovery programs with ongoing connections via our valuable and free-to-access online education resources. We’ve contributed to the livelihoods of well over 300 professional musicians, not to mention all the workers across the entire arts industry, from back and front-of-house staff, designers and graphic & visual artists, marketing and publicity staff, to the supporting industries such as freight companies, hotels and airlines. I know I don’t have to explain to anyone in this room tonight how far- reaching and impactful the arts industry is in this regard.

As well as this direct measurable impact in the concert halls, we’ve made significant artistic connections with partner performing organisations. We’ve impacted Australian contemporary music by engaging dozens of ensembles and musicians to present and perform the latest Australian compositions as part of our Voyages which are all filmed. These guests include Ensemble Offspring, The Idea of North, Nick Russoniello, Jane Rutter and Third Culture World Music Group, The World According to James, Sydney Chamber Choir, William Barton & Veronique Serret, Nonsemble, Taikoz, Elena Kats-Chernin & Tamara-Anna Cislowska, Topology, Sally Whitwell with Anna Fraser and Katy B Plummer, Tango Enigmático, Camerata Antica, the Acacia Quartet and Muses Trio.

These guest ensembles and musicians have performed works by Australia’s most renowned composers including Indigenous composers Brenda Gifford, Nardi Simpson and Will Barton, as well as Alice Chance, Ross Edwards, Paul Stanhope, Cecile Elton, Sally Whitwell, Nicole Murphy, Nick Russoniello, Elena Kats-Chernin and many more.

Through the Voyage program, we draw on the latest research in the field of historically informed performance or HIP and present that together with the ensembles and composers we just mentioned, so that tomorrow's artists and audiences can learn that the lines between the styles and centuries are not as distinct as often assumed – and most importantly – that the modern musician is equal parts collaborator, designer and improviser.

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra has enjoyed artistic collaborations with the Sydney Chamber Choir, Combined Catholic Schools, Polyphonic Voices, Australian Boys Choir and The Vocal Consort.

And we have performed and educated across the entire east coast of Australia, from Tasmania to Queensland and as far west as South Australia. Receiving many invitations across the country we have performed at the Canberra International Music Festival, Woodend Winter Arts Festival, Newcastle Music Festival, Bowral Autumn Music Festival, Orange Chamber Music Festival, Blackheath Chamber Music Festival, Eurobodalla River of Art Festival and UKARIA in the Adelaide Hills.

We have partnered with University & School educational institutions up and down the country including Monash University, the Sydney, Melbourne and QLD Conservatoriums of Music, the Australian National University, Sydney Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Tasmania Youth Orchestra, Northern Sydney Youth Orchestra, Orange Youth Orchestra, Sunshine Coast Youth Orchestra, QLD Clarinet and Saxophone Society, Blackburn High School, Braemar College, The Hills Grammar School, St Peters Lutheran College, The King’s School, Santa Sabina College, Camberwell Grammar School, Melbourne Grammar School and The Richard Gill School in Muswellbrook.

However, the small-to-medium music scene is facing new challenges in this ever-shifting global context, shaped by the pandemic and the increase in the cost of living, which is impacting the way we work, interact with each other, and create music. Building our capacities to navigate this field enables us to better understand the sector’s challenges, look at our role as artists in society, and our relation with audiences, and tackle bigger social and cultural questions. We are determined to enrich our role as cultural ambassadors as well as to increase opportunities for the reach of HIP, both in performance and education.

Accordingly, we offer our most sincere thanks to Paul & Sandra Salteri, Carol Grigor, Robert & Libby Albert, Susie and the late Martin Dickson, Skyblue, Roxane Clayton, the late Hedley McGregor, the Denbigh, Humanity and Robert Salzer Foundations, Ian & Pam McGaw, Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway and the many, many other donors who have supported us and our performing and education activities over the last decade.

Of course, our eternal gratitude goes to the late Richard Gill and to Maureen, to our past and present board members, including our Chairs, Rick Kefford for the first five years and Claire Gill for the last five, and to our artistic advisor Professor Neal Peres Da Costa. We would also like to express our appreciation for the significant support we have received from Karen Carey, Owen Nelson, Rachel Atkinson, David Deacon, and so many more.

We invite you now to raise your glass, to toast the 10th birthday of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, and we look forward to sharing our journey of musical discoveries with you into the future!

Nicole van Bruggen & Rachael Beesley

Co-Artistic Directors

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

Richard Gill | Founding Artistic Director