Southbank Series: Celestial Threads Warrnambool

A very warm welcome to Orchestra Victoria. It’s a pleasure to share this program with you—one that draws us into story, sound and the vast imaginative worlds music can create.

We are thrilled that Orchestra Victoria is able to bring this program to Warrnambool. Performances like this are an important part of our commitment to sharing exceptional live orchestral music across the state and connecting with audiences beyond the metropolitan stage, and we are proud to continue our relationship with the welcoming community of Warrnambool. 

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 joining us, and for supporting Orchestra Victoria as we share music with audiences across regional Victoria.

Jessica Gethin
Artistic Advisor