Alexander Briger, Founder and Chief Conductor
grinning with pride. “Everybody knows how good we are at
sports, acting, business, but people don’t realise there are
more top class Australian classical musicians than any other
field. So I really wanted to bring it together and showcase to
the world and fellow Australians what we have produced in
the world of classical music. We’ve been talking about it for
25 years since we started off in our twenties. Very quickly it
was obvious that Australian musicians started getting jobs
in the best orchestras across the world. My fellow musicians
and I always wondered how good we’d sound if all of us came
together. That led to the inception of AWO,” added Briger.
“Two main challenges were logistics and finances.
Logistically bringing together so many people from so
many countries and cities around the world was difficult.
Booking their airfares, hotel accommodation, transport
of their instruments, etc. The second challenge was to
finance the orchestra. Ticket prices at concerts do not
generate enough revenue to cover the costs so we require
sponsorships and Govt. support. This can be hard as many
organisations need sponsorship and Govt. funding. We are
very lucky that we secured sponsors who are a great support
financially and also with their advertising and social media.
Gabrielle Thompson, Founding Director
We are always proud to acknowledge the support of our
Governments, both State and Federal,” explained Gabrielle.
Although the AWO is still a young orchestra, the rich
experience it’s players behold give it a very mature
sound. Owing to this, the orchestra has already performed
Mozart, Beethoven’s 9th Synphony, 7th Symphony,
Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and many other operatic works.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learnt over the years is to let
time occur. Becoming mature as a musician. I was in
such a rush when I was younger! Lots of musicians and
conductors today are in a rush. It seems to me that the
world is very keen on extremely young musicians. But
in actual fact, conducting needs time and maturity. If I
could do it all again, I would take time in doing things
without trying to do everything. Taking time to relax and
let things happen naturally as they occur and not be in a
rush,” reminisces Briger. “We would love to play with AR
Rahman or having something composed particularly for
us if we went to India. And Anoushka Shankar, of course!
She would be amazing to play with,” he signed off.
General Manager of the beautiful property Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgaty and
Lulu Bolgaty International Convention Centre, Girish Bhagat who facilitated
the entire concert at their premises said, "The AWO approached us about five
months ago even before the hotel opened. The whole vision was given to us and
it was very exciting. I was initially nervous to see how would Cochin accept this.
But the response has been phenomenal." He added that the concert was for a good
cause and the proceeds were going to the Autism foundation in Thiruvalla.
Girish Bhagat, General Manager
Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgaty
The
Score Magazine
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