The Australian Chamber Orchestra heroes the music of the silver screen with its 2023 season

In 2022, the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) stepped into a transformative new era, moving into a permanent, custom-designed new home at Pier 2/3 in the heart of the revitalised Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. 

In 2023, the ACO continues to push into new frontiers, reimagining orchestral music for the next generation. Artistic director Richard Tognetti has created a program that delves into unexpected sound worlds, intertwining the old with the new, the revered with the undiscovered. Featuring seven ambitious national tours that will star some of the world’s great virtuosos, whilst also championing the talents amongst its own ranks, the ACO’s 2023 Season promises to see the Orchestra performing at its best.

“In 2023 the ACO will celebrate in the joy of collaborating with extraordinary musicians from across the globe,” says Tognetti. 

Tognetti will continue his exploration of music and film, as seen in the groundbreaking work The Crowd & I, which toured for the first time in 2022 after brewing for more than a decade. In the performance, Tognetti directs the ACO live on stage alongside striking imagery and footage captured from across the globe. The work that Tognetti is spearheading in the integration of live orchestral music and cinema is comparable to the leaps that Sydney Theatre Company's artistic director Kip Williams' is making in the groundbreaking "cine-theatre" approach. 

While cinema was just one element in the collection of footage featuring swarming crowds and microscopic worlds in The Crowd & I, the 2023 outing A Clockwork Orange and Beyond (May 12-17, City Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House) throws a more direct focus on the relationship between orchestral music and film. 

_{Photograph: Warner Bros | ‘A Clockwork Orange’}

“This includes a national tour with Will Gregory, one-half of UK electronic music duo Goldfrapp, for a concert that delves into the music of Wendy Carlos and Delia Derbyshire – two composers whose astounding capacity for experimentation and invention paved the way for the most revered film scores of the last 50 years,” says Tognetti. 

Carlos’ audacious and wildly original film score for A Clockwork Orange makes the film as much hers as Stanley Kubrick’s, while Derbyshire gave the famous Doctor Who theme its indelible sci-fi sound. The pair paved the way for the likes of Vangelis, John Williams and Hans Zimmer, the greats behind some of the most affecting and quintessential music in cinema.

Beyond the world of cinema, 2023 has much more in store for the ACO. According to Tognetti: “We will also reunite with incredible soloists, and dear friends, including pianist Polina Leschenko, violinist Ilya Gringolts and Egyptian-Australian brothers Joseph and James Tawadros for concerts that traverse from the greatness of Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart to some of today’s most thrilling composers.”

Contemporary composers joining the throng this year include the US’s Caroline Shaw, the youngest-ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Italy’s Giovanni Sollima, and Australian composers Ross Edwards, Holly Harrison and Harry Sdraulig.

_{Photograph: ACO/Georges Antoni | Principal violinist Helena Rathbone at Pier 2/3}

The Orchestra will celebrate three of Mozart’s great symphonies, the ‘Paris’, ‘Haffner’ and ‘Linz’, in Mozart (Jun 24-25 and 27-28, City Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House) a spectacle featuring period wind and brass players handpicked from across the world and string musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). In Postcards from Italy (Sep 19-24, City Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House), the Orchestra pay homage to a country famed for its rich history of music, art and food; while Bohemian Serenades (Aug 4-6, City Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House) sees the ACO bask in the folk-inspired music of Dvorˇák and Bartók.

The ACO also continues to hold up its reputation as Australia’s most travelled orchestra, both nationally and internationally. In 2023 the Orchestra will embark on two international tours, with planned concerts in North America, Canada, Japan, the UK and Europe. In addition to performing seven national tours in 2023, the ACO will perform at the UKARIA, TarraWarra and Vasse Felix festivals, while ACO Collective will embark on a tour to regional Queensland and New South Wales.

The Orchestra also continues to present concerts and events at its award-winning home at Pier 2/3, with programs announced in early 2023.

Check out the full 2023 Season program at aco.com.au.