Queensland Symphony Orchestra connects audiences to the world and beyond in 2025

Expand your horizons and discover the transcendence of music with Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) unveiling a genre-crossing 2025 program that spans Shakespeare, circus, cinema, spirituality and stunning symphonies.

Music remains the heart and soul of QSO’s 2025 program, elevated through collaborations with the world-renowned performance company Circa, influential thespian John Bell, contemporary Australian composer Nigel Westlake and singer Lior, and Westminster Abbey organist James O’Donnell.

It begins with the Opening Gala: Rite of Spring (20 to 22 February), featuring gravity-defying performance artists from Circa alongside QSO’s 2025 artist-in-residence, violinist Kristian Winther, before traversing a diversity of sublime musical stylings from Giuseppe Verdi and Johann Strauss II to Hans Zimmer and John Williams.

QSO Chief Conductor Umberto Clerici said 2025’s theme of “spirituality and the world beyond” reflected the orchestra’s continued exploration and extension of its artistic reach. Maestro Clerici said that while some concerts connected to religious spirituality – such as Lior and Westlake’s dazzling symphonic song cycle Compassion (9 August) and Verdi’s Requiem (3 to 4 October) – most connected to broader spiritual themes.

These include life in Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique (17 May), death in Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 (28 and 29 November), fate in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (14 June), philosophy in Also Sprach Zarathustra (11 and 12 July), and the rituals and sacrifices of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Maestro Clerici:

This program explores beauty, transcendence and inspiration but also brutality and primal
instincts. The Rite of Spring is probably the most revolutionary work of the 20th Century and it is conceived as a ballet about pagan rites, sage elders and the propitiatory sacrifice of a young maiden.

It is one of the most physically engaging ballets, and we’ve partnered with a leader in contemporary circus, Circa, to bring this concert to life.

This juxtaposition of arts will make the music more vivid, dynamic and visually stunning. A desire to enhance music and immerse audiences in the majesty of music drives each QSO collaboration.

In 2025, that includes engaging renowned actor, director and founder of The Bell Shakespeare Company, John Bell, to narrate a concert inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest (3 May). QSO will also welcome international soloists and special guests, including Canadian superstar violinist James Ehnes, rising Swedish star Daniel Lozakovich and renowned pianists Sir Stephen Hough, Alexander Gavrylyuk and Javier Perianes.

QPAC’s magnificent Klais Grand Organ and its impressive array of 6,500 pipes will fill the Concert Hall when former Westminster Abbey organist James O’Donnell headlines The Royal Organist (26 July).

QSO will shine the spotlight on Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, credited as “The Waltz King”, in The Strauss Gala (10 and 11 May), marking 200 years since his birth.

It will also pay homage to a modern maestro in Art of the Score:

The Music of Hans Zimmer (23 to 24 May), presenting a catalogue of the composer’s most memorable pieces from Pirates of the Caribbean and Gladiator to Driving Miss Daisy and The Lion King.

The symphonies of the silver screen are brought to life by QSO in special presentations of James Bond: Skyfall (3 April), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (4 to 5 May), Brief Encounter (19 to 20 July), Home Alone (5 to 6 December), and its sixth annual movie mix-tape, this year with a red-carpet theme, Cinematic: The Oscars (24 to 25 November).

Maestro Clerici:

I am constantly looking to mix different art forms because we live in a time that is more visual than aural.

Acrobats, dancers, actors, filmmakers and light designers are welcome to collaborate and expand our horizons.

The music must be enhanced but not disturbed and audiences should feel immersed and moved but not distracted so I try to do projects with integrity and intellectual depth in mind.

I believe by performing strong music with full commitment, energy and depth, everyone will be touched , interested or at least made curious.

Just like for Shakespeare, the language may feel ‘old’ but the emotions and purpose are always contemporary.  In the end, art expresses human stories to other human beings.

QSO invites all music lovers to experience the joy of classical music in all its forms in 2025. QSO’s 2025 subscription packages are on sale from 16 September 2024 and tickets to individual concerts are on sale from 11 November 2024.

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