Melbourne - Event

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra provides an annual season of concerts from late January to December (taking the height of summer off). Under chief conductor and artistic director Oleg Caetani, the orchestra plays around 130 performances annually across Victoria.

The 2009 season highlights include several performances at the orchestra's home - Hamer Hall at The Arts Centre in Melbourne - such as the Great Classics series (featuring concerts of Mendelssohn, Mahler and Beethoven) and MSO Pops, with evenings of swing music and classic tunes from superhero films.

Able to trace its forebears back to 1888, with the opening of Australia's Centennial International Exhibition, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) was actually founded in 1934 under the auspices of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which still runs the orchestra as a part of its Symphony Australia network.

In its seven decades the MSO has worked with such luminaries as Igor Stravinsky, Artur Rubenstein, Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin, as well such living artists as Mariss Jansons, Jessye Norman, Mstislav Rostropovich, Hakan Hagegard, Emanuel Ax and Sumi Jo. On the lighter side, the orchestra has accompanied the Three Tenors, Elton John, John Farnham, Frank Sinatra, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Barbara Cook, Ray Charles and Bryn Terfel.

The orchestra's website provides full details of the season, in addition to subscription series offers.