Speeches
Friday, 02 June 2023
Reception for the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Rod and I always hope that our guests will enjoy their time with us at Government House. Tonight, as we welcome four members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra for a special performance, we are very confident that you will do so.
In Adelaide we are proud to be a UNESCO city of music, but it remains important to appreciate and engage with what lies beyond our borders. As Governor I am keen to encourage exploration of wider horizons through the arts.
Rod’s and my love of the ACO goes back some 15 years when we first heard the orchestra perform in Wigmore Hall in London when I was Acting High Commissioner.
It was an immense joy to experience such exceptional Australian talent in a global city like London that has access to a plethora of artistic excellence.
We were transfixed and inspired.
I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Evans, ACO’s Managing Director, about twenty years ago. He has kept in touch despite our respective job and country moves and has the enviable skill of crafting his letters on behalf of the ACO to make the recipient feel they are written personally for them.
Earlier this year, Rod and I were in the audience for the ACO’s thrilling Four Seasons concert in the Adelaide Town Hall just two days after the Adelaide Festival.
After attending 49 Festival and Fringe events, Rod and I thought our appetite for culture of all kinds had been well and truly sated.
But the ACO is so thoroughly invigorating, we found ourselves leaping to our feet to join the thoroughly deserved standing ovation and proposed a concert here at Government House for South Australia-based ACO supporters.
Despite the ACO being booked years in advance, a date was found.
I am sure you will all join with me in thanking tonight’s performers - Mr Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director, Satu Vanska, Stefanie Farrands and Julian Thompson - and wishing the ACO well for the rest of its season, and its eagerly awaited 50th Anniversary in 2025.
May your music continue to enthral, inspire, and bedazzle us well past then.