Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a South Australian performing arts organisation comprising 75 full-time musicians, established in 1936. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, the orchestra's primary performance venue is the Adelaide Town Hall, but the ASO also performs in other venues. It provides the orchestral support for all productions of the State Opera of South Australia and all Adelaide performances of the Australian Ballet. It also features regularly at the Adelaide Festival, and has performed at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, WOMAdelaide and several other festivals in Adelaide. History. In 1936 the South Australian Orchestra  was supplanted by the 50-member Adelaide Symphony Orchestra led by William Cade, and sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (later the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC). The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55-member South Australian Symphony Orchestra, with Henry Krips as its resident conductor. The orchestra reverted to its original title, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in late 1975. The ASO's highlights have included its 1998 performances of Richard Wagner's "Ring Cycle", the first Australian production since 1913 (although it was widely and erroneously claimed to be the first ever in Australia). The orchestra participated in  the first fully Australian production of "The Ring" in 2004. In 2007, the orchestra partnered with Hilltop Hoods to prepare a re-orchestrated release of their album "The Hard Road", titled "". In 2009 Premier and Arts Minister Mike Rann proposed and provided government funding to the ASO to commission a major orchestral work about climate change. The ASO's world premiere of Gerard Brophy's "The Blue Thread", inspired by the River Murray, was performed at the Concert for the Earth at the Adelaide Town Hall on 27 November 2010. The Rann government proposed and arranged funding for two further  ASO commissions, the first an orchestral tribute to the cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, and the second commemorating the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli. The world premiere of "Our Don" by Natalie Williams was performed by the ASO in August 2014. The world premiere of an ANZAC Requiem by composer Iain Grandage and librettist Kate Mulvany was performed on 22 April 2015. In 2015 the Hilltop Hoods collaborated for a second time with the 32-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the 20-piece Adelaide Chamber Singers Choir for their next re-orchestrated album titled "Drinking from the Sun, Walking  Under Stars Restrung". In February 2016, the Hilltop Hoods released their second album of reworked songs featuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, "Drinking from the Sun, Walking under Stars Restrung", which debuted at #1 in the charts. In 2016 the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra formed its first Artistic Leadership Team, comprising its new Artist in Association, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Sir Jeffrey Tate, and the orchestra's own Principal Conductor, Nicholas Carter. Carter was the youngest Principal Conductor in the orchestra's history, and the first Australian conductor to be appointed to a Principal Conductor position with  a major Australian orchestra in almost 30 years. In 2017 the orchestra was central in the Adelaide Festival's staging of Barrie Kosky's "Saul –" a production from Glyndebourne Opera in the UK, and again in 2018 for the Adelaide Festival's Glyndebourne Opera production and Australian premiere of composer Brett Dean's new opera, "Hamlet". These performances were received with critical acclaim and numerous Helpmann Awards. In 2018 the Artistic Leadership Team evolved to include young violinist and the orchestra's new Emerging Artist in Association, Grace Clifford; Australian composer and the orchestra's new Composer in Association, Cathy  Milliken; and British conductor and the orchestra's new Principal Guest Conductor, Mark Wigglesworth. Current composition. the Artistic Leadership Team consists of Pinchas Zukerman, Cathy Milliken, and Mark Wigglesworth, while the orchestra comprises a total of 75 musicians. Venues and ongoing work. The orchestra's primary performance venue is the Adelaide Town Hall, but the ASO also performs in other venues such as the Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide and its own Grainger Studio. The ASO provides the orchestral support for all productions of the State Opera of South Australia, as well  as the Adelaide performances of the Australian Ballet. The orchestra is also a regular featured ensemble at the Adelaide Festival, and also appears as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival and WOMAdelaide.