WELCOME
I invite you to scroll through the following pages to explore our 2009 Season. No matter how hard one tries, it’s impossible to cater to all tastes at all times. Our tactic has been to place unlikely elements side by side, something which you wouldn’t necessarily try at home. Let’s put Barry Humphries and Beethoven side by side.
Music. Music starts where words end. Music transcends our differences and the concreteness of language. Our music inhabits a space that is open to all demographics and all ages.
Mysteriously, 20 years have passed since I started leading the ACO. This seems like a large number but in the greater scheme of things, it’s not.
I’m honoured to have had this brief association with this unique ensemble and I invite you and your friends to spend a number of precious hours with me and my colleagues in 2009.
To place these 20 years in context, please consider these humbling numbers.
Richard Tognetti
Watch a video introduction to the 2009 season.
VIEW 2009 SEASON CONCERTS
SUBSCRIBE TO THE ACO
30-70 Trillion Billion – Stars in the universe.
13.7 x 10 to the power of 9 – The age of the universe.
157 800 000 – Record price paid for a painting in 2006: Jackson Pollock’s No.5, 1948. $497 will buy you a seven-concert subscription, a whole years’ worth of priceless abstract art.
42 075 904 – Heart beats per year.
650 000 – Average hours in one life.
100 000 – Tickets sold each year to the ACO.
43 800 – Estimated number of hours practiced by an ACO musician (aged 30).
32 000– Age of the oldest extant art works (Chauvet Cave, Southwest France).
10 000– ACO subscribers. With the support of our subscribers the ACO has thrived. Thank you x 40x10 to the power of 22.
4000 – The age of oldest musical notation (in cuneiform on a tablet from Nippur, Mesopotamia, now Iraq).
2600 – Australian appearances by the ACO.
2236 – Individual pieces of music performed by the ACO
1200 – Different musicians employed since the ACO was founded.
840 – Minutes you’ll spend with us in 2009 (if you attend seven concerts).
425 – International ACO performances.
288 – The age of the oldest work in the 2009 season, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3. The newest works, a series of commissions, one for each tour, have not yet been composed.
200 – Millimetres that The Himalaya Range has risen in 20 years.
40 – ACO commercial recordings.
20 – Years I’ve led the ACO.
17 – Permanent members of the ACO.
10 – World premieres we’ll present in 2009.
9 – Emerging Artists that have performed as part of the ACO. This is testament to the power of the ACO’s Emerging Artists Program. We’re incredibly proud of these talented young musicians.
8 – Cities we perform in during our subscription season.
7– National tours in 2009.
6 – Guest artists in 2009: Humphries, Upshaw, Kuusisto, Marwood, Bezaly, Lazic.
5 – The average age of an ACO musician when they start learning their instrument.
4 – Australian Prime Ministers to have held office during my tenure.
3 – Decades making music as the ACO.
2 – Hours the average Australian spends watching TV each day. Also the average length of an ACO concert.
1 – Number of Australian Chamber Orchestras.