page_title: Tasmania
section_title: Music and performing arts
hierarchical_section_title: Tasmania / Culture / Music and performing arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Night shot of Launceston's Princess Theatre on Brisbane Street
context_page_description: Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 km to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of about 537,000 as of December 2019. Just more than forty percent of the population resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, which forms the metropolitan area of the state capital and largest city, Hobart.
  Tasmania's area is 68,401 km², of which the main island covers 64,519 km². It is promoted as a natural state, and protected areas of Tasmania cover about 42% of its land area, which includes national parks and World Heritage Sites. Tasmania was the founding place of the first environmental political party in the world.
  The island is believed to have been occupied by indigenous peoples for 30,000 years before British colonisation. It is thought Aboriginal Tasmanians were separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 11,700 years ago after the sea rose to form Bass Strait.
context_section_description: Tasmania has a varied musical scene, ranging from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra whose home is the Federation Concert Hall, to a substantial number of small bands, orchestras, string quintets, saxophone ensembles and individual artists who perform at a variety of venues around the state. Tasmania is also home to a vibrant community of composers including Constantine Koukias, Maria Grenfell and Don Kay, who is the patron of the Tasmanian Composers Collective, the representative body for composers in Tasmania. Tasmania is also home to one of Australia's leading new music institutions, IHOS Music Theatre and Opera and gospel choirs, the Southern Gospel Choir. Prominent Australian metal bands Psycroptic and Striborg hail from Tasmania. Noir-rock band The Paradise Motel and 1980s power-pop band The Innocents are also citizens. The first season of the television series The Mole was filmed and based mainly in Tasmania, with the final elimination taking place in Port Arthur jail.
caption: The Princess Theatre and Earl Arts Centre, Launceston
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