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Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra launches its 2021 season with programs of exquisite music, featuring internationally acclaimed guest artists, and outstanding youth music education programs.

The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra has announced its largest ever season, featuring three mainstage programs and three Voyage of Musical Discovery presentations together with their established and celebrated education programs for young and emerging musicians.

Co-artistic directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen are delighted to feature acclaimed Australian soprano Jacqueline Porter and British/Australian natural horn virtuoso Anneke Scott as part of a season including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Britten and Tchaikovsky, as well as lesser-known composers like Franz Berwald and Christian Cannabich.

Spanning more than 200 years of music, from the beginnings of the Classical era to the mid-twentieth century, and playing period instruments in historically-informed performance (HIP) style, the orchestra aims to deepen and enhance audiences' understanding and appreciation of the way music has  developed over this time.

The orchestra's footprint is bigger than ever before, with concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Canberra, Orange and Blackheath, including performances as part of the Canberra International Music Festival and Blackheath Chamber Music Festival.

In addition to its main concert series, the orchestra’s youth music programs nurture and develop the next generation of historically-informed musicians so that it may continue to offer historical perspectives and insights for many years to come.

The popular Voyage of Musical Discovery series is in equal parts concert and demonstration. Co-artistic directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen present each Voyage with musicians of the  Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra in the first half, and a contemporary guest artist or ensemble featured in the second. By placing cutting-edge Australian music alongside earlier Classical and Romantic works, listeners discover the many compositional links and similarities in structure, tonality, rhythmic function, orchestration and modes of expression.

Launched in 2014, the Young Mannheim Symphonists is a dedicated national youth orchestral training program in historically-informed performance (HIP).

Student musicians aged between 11 and 21 from metropolitan and rural areas take part in intensive workshops and rehearsals exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of HIP.

In 2021, hundreds of participants from all over Australia will work side by side with the specialist musicians from the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra at a YMS course, and each course will culminate in a performance of the works studied.

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra 2021 Concert Season

Concert Program #1 - Illuminate | Bruch, Britten & Tchaikovsky

SYDNEY PERFORMANCES
Tuesday 16 February 6.30pm The Hills Grammar School, Sydney
Friday 19 February 7.00pm City Recital Hall, Sydney

Program
Max Bruch: Serenade for Strings after Swedish Melodies in C minor
Benjamin Britten: Les Illuminations
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence, Op.70

Artists
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Rachael Beesley director
Jacqueline Porter soprano

Concert Program #2 - Evoke | Beethoven & Berwald

SYDNEY PERFORMANCES
Friday 26 April 6.30pm The Hills Grammar School, Sydney
Thursday 6 May 7.00pm City Recital Hall, Sydney

Program
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Trio in E-flat major, Op.38 for clarinet, violoncello and fortepiano (after Septet, Op.20)
Franz Berwald:
Grand Septet in B-flat major for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, violoncello and double bass

Artists
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra

Concert Program #3 - Emerge | Haydn, Mozart & Mannheim

SYDNEY PERFORMANCES
Friday 6 August 6.30pm The Hills Grammar School, Sydney
Friday 13 August 7.00pm City Recital Hall, Sydney

Program          
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No.3 in E-flat major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No.35 in D major ‘Haffner’
Christian Cannabich: Sinfonia No.54 in E-flat major
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.103 in E-flat major ‘Drum Roll’

Artists
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Rachael Beesley director
Anneke Scott natural horn
Emerging musicians from Young Mannheim Symphonists