Southbank Series: Celestial Threads

A very warm welcome to Orchestra Victoria’s first Southbank Series concert for 2026. It’s a pleasure to share this program with you—one that opens the season by drawing us into story, sound and the vast imaginative worlds music can create.

This concert brings together music shaped by myth, magic and the cosmos, but it also reflects something more personal: the relationships and artists that make this orchestra what it is. I’m especially delighted to welcome conductor Alice Farnham in her debut with OV. Alice is a wonderful colleague whose clarity, insight and generosity in music-making make her an ideal guide for a program that moves between such contrasting worlds.

At the centre of the program is another kind of celebration—our own musicians. It’s a real joy to spotlight Mathew Levy, our Principal Percussion, as soloist in John Psathas’s Djinn. There’s something special about hearing a musician you usually see within the orchestra step forward in this way, and Mat brings both virtuosity and imagination to this vivid, rhythmic music.

The program also traces a quieter thread of connection between Imogen Holst and her father Gustav Holst. Imogen’s music is still too rarely heard, and placing it alongside movements from The Planets offers a chance to hear her voice on its own terms—clear, direct, and deeply felt—while also reflecting the musical world they shared.

And, of course, there’s The Planets itself. Even in these more intimate arrangements, the sense of scale and character remains—whether in the stillness of Venus or the irrepressible energy of Jupiter.

In this performance, the program is able to unfold in a single arc, revealing its full range of colour, energy and contrast. I hope you find, within it, both a sense of wonder and a moment to listen a little more closely.

Thank you for your continued support of Orchestra Victoria – we look forward to welcoming you back for the next concert in the series, In Full Flight on September 5th!

Jessica Gethin
Artistic Advisor