The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has announced two new Creative Chairs, with Yorta Yorta soprano and composer Deborah Cheetham AO to be the orchestra’s First Nations Creative Chair, and music educator and researcher Dr Anita Collins appointed as the Creative Chair for Learning and Engagement.

Deborah Cheetham. Photo © Wayne Quilliam

Cheetham – who was voted Limelight’s Australian Artist of the Year in 2019 by our critics – has been working closely with the MSO recently. Her acclaimed oratorio Eumeralla: a war requiem for peace premiered (in its large-scale orchestral form) with the orchestra in 2019 and she has written a musical acknowledgement of country that the MSO has performed at the start of each concert since 2019. She was named Composer in Residence in 2020, with her Dutala, star filled sky appearing in the Season Opening Gala that year and her Nanyubak (Dreaming the future) premiering this February after the 2020 season was disrupted by COVID-19.

Dr Anita Collins – whose role will focus on identifying priority needs within Victoria’s music education sector and working through how MSO can proactively address these needs with content and resource development – is best known to...