Key Highlights
2022
- MSO extends agreement with Singapore Symphony Orchestra to 2025 in a joint statement announced by the Prime Ministers of Australia and Singapore.
2020 and 2021
- MSO and Singapore Symphony Orchestra perform digital side-by-side performances, Songs From Home, and Musical Friendship.
- Then Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Symphony Group, Chng Hak-Peng presents as part of 'Symphonic Diplomacy Cultural Roundtable' – a digital, inter-cultural panel discussion convened by the MSO.
2019
- MSO and Singapore Symphony Orchestra musicians performed together for first time at the opening of Paya Lebar Quarter, Singapore in partnership with Lendlease Singapore.
2018
- MSO signs four-year partnership signed with Singapore Symphony Orchestra (2019–2022).
Supporting Australia and Singapore’s commitment to develop mutually beneficial arts and cultural partnerships between our two countries, in 2018 the MSO signed a four-year cultural partnership with Singapore Symphony Group (2019-2022).
Having its genesis at the Australia-Singapore Cultural Leaders’ Forum, convened by the Australia-Singapore Arts Group, this partnership allows for music and the arts to be the platform for mutual understanding that leads to innovation and continuous growth for both organisations and for our people. The agreement with the Singapore Symphony Group promotes the exchange of musicians, administrative staff, conductors, and the development of co-commissions, digital collaboration, and touring.
The agreement was extended through to 2025 and announced by the Prime Ministers of Australia and Singapore in a joint statement.
"Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will renew their MoU on cooperation as an important marker that despite the pandemic, our cultural exchanges continue to flourish through innovative and digital ways of working and performing together.”
When in-person activity was impossible due to the Covid-19 pandemic, digital opportunities were created to continue cultural exchange. For example, in 2021 MSO convened the 'Symphonic Diplomacy Cultural Roundtable'; an in-depth inter-cultural panel discussion which covered a range of complex topics. Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Symphony Group, Chng Hak-Peng joined this panel of distinguished experts, to explore the importance of ‘soft’ diplomacy, and the role the artists can play in building international relationships.
The MSO and Singapore Symphony Orchestra came together to celebrate 55 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and Singapore in an uplifting virtual side-by-side performance on Friday 7 August 2020. In Songs From Home the two orchestras performed an original medley of Australian and Singaporean songs. The special performance included I Am Australian, We Are Singapore, Home, Waltzing Matilda, Click Go The Shears and Chan Mali Chan, led by MSO Principal Conductor in Residence Benjamin Northey and arranged by the MSO’s Luke Speedy-Hutton.
Songs From Home was presented in partnership with the High Commission of the Republic of Singapore in Canberra.
In 2021, the side-by-side collaboration continued online to mark Singapore’s National Day.
MSO x SSO | Musical Friendship: A Symphony for Two Orchestras | Australia - Singapore Collaboration
The MSO’s international engagement is supported by the Gandel Foundation through the MSO’s Now and Forever Future Fund.