For the first time in its 46-year-long history, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) brought its music to Australian shores, reaching over 6,000 audiences in three sold-out concerts at the iconic Sydney Opera House, Hamer Hall at Arts Centre Melbourne, and Brisbane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) on 12, 14, and 16 February.
Building on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between National Arts Council (NAC) Singapore and Creative Australia, plans for the tour began in early 2022. In August 2024, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra joined forces with the SSO for Carmina Burana at Singapore’s Esplanade Concert Hall in a choral-orchestral spectacular. This wonderful partnership came full circle with SSO’s debut multi-city tour in Australia, completing a rich cultural exchange across the two nations.
The Singapore Symphony slings a dazzling – and true-blue – Down Under debut.
The journey across Australia began long before the first note was played. From meticulously securing instruments for multi-destination freight to setting the stage for each performance in a new city, the team worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure a memorable experience for everyone in the audience.
Under the baton of Quantedge Music Director Hans Graf, the orchestra showcased Singapore’s original composition Luciola singapura, an award-winning piece by homegrown composer Koh Cheng Jin, commissioned by the SSO in 2021. The national orchestra concluded each concert with a powerful rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, followed by two encores — Scriabin’s Rêverie, Op. 24 and Tchaikovsky’s Écossaise, bringing the performances to a rousing close.
SSO certainly represented their nation to the highest standard...The entire show was packed with electrifying moments that made it impossible not to be swept away.
Elsewhere in the programme, violin sensation Chloe Chua made her own Australian debut alongside Sydney-born SSO Principal Cello Ng Pei-Sian in a performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. The duo’s interpretation of this late-Romantic masterpiece was a showcase of virtuosity and heartfelt musical conversation, drawing rapturous applause from audiences in all three cities. As a special tribute to the Australian audiences, the duo surprised attendees with the encore Waltzing Matilda, a beloved work often regarded as the country’s unofficial national anthem.
Beyond the concert halls, the tour also fostered meaningful musical exchanges. Shortly after touching down in Sydney, SSO Principal Trumpet Jon Dante, Principal Horn Austin Larson, and Associate Principal Trombone Damian Patti led a masterclass with members of the Sydney Youth Orchestra, sharing their expertise to inspire and nurture the next generation of musicians.
As the orchestra took its final bows, the tour not only marked a significant step in the orchestra’s growing international presence but also celebrated 60 years of Singapore-Australia bilateral ties, further underscoring the partnership between NAC and Creative Australia to strengthen cultural collaboration between both countries.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, the National Arts Council (Singapore), and the Singapore and Australia High Commissions for their unwavering support in making this tour possible.