Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
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The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia, celebrating its centenary in 2007.
The first concert took place on December 11, 1906 under the baton of Alberto Zelman, founder of the MSO, who later became the first Australian conductor to conduct the London and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. In 1934 it became one of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio orchestras.
The orchestra relies on funding by the Victorian State Government through Arts Victoria, Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Federal government through the Australia Council and support from private corporations and donors. As of 2005 it has 100 permanent musicians and its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director is Oleg Caetani, who took up the post in January 2005.
The MSO performs to more than 250,000 people in Melbourne and regional Victoria in over 150 concerts a year. The Orchestra has performed with renowned artists such as Igor Stravinsky, Mariss Jansons, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Jessye Norman, Artur Rubinstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Hakan Hagegard, Geoffrey Lancaster, Emanuel Ax, Jeffrey Tate, Sumi Jo, and Nigel Kennedy.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Concertmasters are currently the Fiji-born Wilma Smith, and Markus Tomasi. Its longest serving chief conductor was Hiroyuki Iwaki, later named Conductor Laureate of the orchestra, who died in 2006.
The MSO has received widespread international recognition in overseas tours to the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Korea, Europe (2000), China (2002), St Petersburg, Russia (2003) and Japan (2005). In January 2007 the Orchestra embarked on its second European tour, visiting five cities in Spain (Castellon, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Pamplona, Madrid), Paris, Berlin and Milan.
In January 2000, the 104-member orchestra, under the baton of the then Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Markus Stenz, represented Australasia at the Festival of the Five Continents in the Canary Islands alongside other orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic.
The MSO has crossed-over into contemporary pop and rock music on a number of occasions. In 1986 the orchestra teamed with Elton John, culminating in the album Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 1989 concerts with John Farnham led to the DVD Classic Jack Live. In 2004 they performed with rock musician Meat Loaf; the DVD release of this performance reached the number one position in the UK music DVD charts.
Another notable cross-genre performance was with KISS on February 28th, 2003, in the so-called KISS Symphony. Notable recent recordings by the MSO include the symphonies of Tansman for Chandos and performances released under the orchestra's own label MSO LIVE.
The MSO has an extensive Community Outreach and Education program and offers orchestral fellowships through the Australian Youth Orchestra.
