Season Preview 2020

With a program of great scope and vision, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs will ring in its 100th birthday in 2020. Central to the celebration of this significant milestone is the commissioning of 12 Australian composers as part of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ 100 Minutes of Australian Music initiative, which will see the Philharmonia perform at least one new work at every concert throughout the year. Comprising senior, early-career and Indigenous composers, the initiative is a serious, and welcome, commitment to new work and Australia’s developing musical landscape.

Brett Weymark. Photo © Keith Saunders

“I go back to the Emerald City play by David Williamson – if we’re not telling our own stories we always think life happens somewhere else, in a different accent,” says Artistic Director Brett Weymark. “The fact that we’ve got 100 minutes of new work in 2020, I would like every year to be like that. [2021] should be 101 minutes of new music.”

The 12 composers commissioned by the Philharmonia are Brett Dean, Elena Kats-Chernin, Deborah Cheetham, Joseph Twist, Brooke Shelley, James Henry, Nardi Simpson, Will Yaxley, Matthew...