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[title]When the Australian Chamber Orchestra revealed an expansive 2022 National Season this week, it also announced that early next year it will move to a permanent new home at Pier 2/3 in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. This is the first time the ACO will have its own performance venue, as well as somewhere to welcome community workshops and collaborations. Perched on the harbour in the heart of Walsh Bay’s revitalised cultural precinct, the building features custom-designed performance, events and rehearsal spaces alongside state-of-the-art recording and broadcast facilities.
“We can put on whatever we want with the view that the public have easy access to us,” ACO artistic director Richard Tognetti told us. “We are a public enterprise and proudly so, so it means that we can put on all these activities: adult learning, kids programs, weird programs, you know, highly experimental stuff.”
Even when we’re playing proto-punk, I still get called ‘this classical violinist'
With three decades at the helm of the ACO, Tognetti is showing no signs of complacency. He recalls the ACO’s first home in Kings Cross “opposite Porky’s and next to the Pink Pussycat” back in the heyday of the Glittering Mile when the Cross was “really rough and bohemian”. After they “got booted out of that place” the group went underground, literally, striking a deal on a “subterranean bunker” in Circular Quay. “We got three stories in a good location, but a horrible place, and we've been trying to find an alternative for years and years.”
Coming from a claustrophobia-inducing space with limited public access, Tognetti is excited by the idea that people walking past will be able to peer through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the new location and watch the orchestra rehearse. Though, he adds: “I think we will probably have to pull the curtains down when we're really rehearsing hard, because the view could be a distraction.”
Photograph: ACO/Anthony Browell
The new space, house in one of Walsh Bay's distinctive finger wharfs, is also fitted with active architecture, embedded with microphones that can be calibrated to achieve the desired sound. “So we're able to go from pretty dry and play amplified music, to anything from proto-punk, to jazz. And then when we play something from the Baroque era, where we want it to sound as though we're in a church with a long reverberation time, then we can ramp it up,” says Tognetti.
Moving into Sydney's largest arts precinct means that the ACO will now also be in the same neighbourhood as industry peers, including Sydney Dance Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Gondwana Choirs. Tognetti says he is going in hoping for “a culture of collaboration and openness”, but this is not something that he has come to expect “from arts companies in this country”.
“I just think that rather than fighting for scraps, engendering a sense of true collaboration would be a highly positive way for the industry to proceed,” he adds.
In addition to its national touring season, and its first-ever home venue shows, the ACO is also set to recommence international touring in 2022, with planned concerts in Berlin, London and Hong Kong, a welcome return to normality for the orchestra's world-class musicians.
Rather than fighting for scraps, engendering a sense of true collaboration would be a highly positive way for the industry to proceed
In Sydney, audiences will be able to see a bunch of concerts that show the variety of what the ACO is capable of, and as Tognetti explains, it’s a lot more than just ‘classical’: “I hate the term because it just denotes more things that we aren't than what we are. Even when we’re playing proto-punk, I still get called ‘this classical violinist’.”
The 2022 season opens with Piazzolla, a tribute to tango at the City Recital Hall (Feb 1-13). Driven by the rhythms of South America, it features long-standing friend of the ACO, classical accordion virtuoso and arranger James Crabb.
Fusing orchestral music with a cinematic experience, The Crowd & I is a passion project that’s been brewing for over a decade. In this multisensory experience, Tognetti directs the ACO live on stage alongside striking imagery and footage captured from across the globe. Catch it at the City Recital Hall (Aug 9-13) or the Sydney Opera House (Aug 14).
Later in the year, you can explore a rich tapestry of music from the United States with The American at the City Recital Hall (Nov 12-16) and the Sydney Opera House (Nov 13).
The home ground performances, which they’re calling ACO at Pier 2/3, include ACO Up Close (Mar 13-Nov 27) a series of intimate recitals where you can get to know the orchestra’s musicians, and ABC Classic presenters Vanessa Hughes and Russell Torrance will lead audiences through An Unauthorised History of Classical Music (Jul 25-Aug 15). The community program kicks off with ACO Relaxed Performances (Jul 10-Dec 2), 50-minute shows with a guest presenter that welcomes people on the autism spectrum, people with disabilities and additional access needs, parents and carers with babies, or anyone who would enjoy a more informal daytime performance experience.
Check out the full 2022 program at aco.com.au.