Melbourne-based development organisation Noteable Values has unveiled a new program, aimed at Australia’s Arts Administrators who miss the thrill and joy of performing. In a partnership with The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Music Chairs: The Administrators Orchestra aims to address some issues facing the way that arts administration operates, while also providing some of the most crucial members of the industry with an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues outside of office spaces and reignite the love of music that some may have lost along the way. Planned for January 2022, the project will allow administrators to flex some musical muscles through performance workshops and rehearsals, forming a kind of orchestral camp for adults. Limelight chatted with the program’s founder Susan Eldridge, as well as pianist Chai Jie Low – who is one of the three project team managers together with violist Jin Tong Long and baritone/composer Alex Owens – to find out more about the audacious idea.

The Administrators Ochestra

Interview with Susan Eldridge

Where did the idea for the Arts Administrators Orchestra and Musical Chairs come from?

In 2019, I was Founder and Director of IgniteLAB at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where...