About Us
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Melbourne Chamber Orchestra |
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provides the chance to hear great music of our civilisation, up-close and personal in the most acoustically inspiring performance setting in Australia.
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... the fresh, vibrant face of Australian chamber orchestral music. In the literature of music, MCO presents the poetry and novella, accessible and communicative works for small orchestra - with a "wall of sound" that Phil Spector would wish he could hear. read more >
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MCO plays the Holberg Suite for Sunday Arts.
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The journey so far
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Melbourne Chamber Orchestra has, since 2004, engaged in a structured and deliberate program of re-invention to take what was a good orchestra in Australia Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra to a great one.
Jeffrey Crellin set about re-fashioning the group he had founded in 1990 and William Hennessy took up the position of Concertmaster. Hennessy had been head of strings at the University of Melbourne for nearly a decade and had been struck by the unusual abundance of peak string talent that emerged in that time.
Gradually, the new players began to take their positions until, in 2007, Crellin retired and Hennessy took up the position of Artistic Director. As a former member of the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Hennessy brought the model to Pro Arte and a core group of 14 players was established comprising a collection of Australia's foremost new musicians, mostly members of chamber ensembles.
The concept for Melbourne Chamber Orchestra is for a unique Australian orchestra. It is a group of the finest of Australia's next-generation of string players; it creates performance opportunities at the highest level which supplement small ensemble and solo performance but do not replace it; and it aspires to perform and create great music.
The new Melbourne Chamber Orchestra took the stage in 2008, now with 18 core players, and will take the most important step in its life when it relocates to Melbourne Recital Centre in 2009.
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The MCO model
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Melbourne Chamber Orchestra is an orchestra comprising chamber ensembles and players of soloist calibre, permanent but part-time. It is like this for some very special reasons.
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- Melbourne has been the crucible for the emergence of Australia's next generation of fine string players, a factor which MCO was the first to recognise. The MCO concept fosters development of players at the highest levels. MCO has provided this group of players with more exposure to concert-standard performance than any other orchestra;
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- a variety of performance modes - orchestral, ensemble and solo - is essential to the development of peak professional musicians who embrace growth as a vital part of their musicianship. The MCO model permits players to pursue ensemble and solo performance elsewhere in Australia and overseas, while promoting the viability of Melbourne as a place of residence for artists of exceptional calibre;
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- audiences are attracted by great music and an orchestra which fosters local talent in a performance/composition environment, may still produce great music.
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To subscribe to our 2009 concert series, download our subscription form here.
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