Zelman Symphony capacity audiences of Mahler's epic Eighth Symphony - the "Symphony of a Thousand" - at the Melbourne Town Hall. In what was believed to be "a first" for an Australian Community Orchestra, the performances involved over 580 performers including an augmented Zelman Symphony of some 125 players led by Guest Concertmaster, Wilma Smith, Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), and featuring many guest principal players from the MSO and other top orchestras and music institutions. David Macfarlane played the magnificent organ, a 370 voice choir was formed from nine community choirs, and an 80 voice children's choir involved students
Nagauta Symphony Nagauta Symphony The Nagauta Symphony is a symphony in one movement composed in 1934 by Japanese composer Kosaku Yamada. Kosaku Yamada was the first major Japanese composer to study the European tradition, and the first to write in the symphonic and operatic forms. He was responsible for introducing Japanese audiences to much of the European orchestral tradition through his conducting. In his compositions, Yamada had been working to combine European traditions with Japanese classical music since at least 1921, when he composed "Inno Meiji" which combined Japanese and western instruments. Composed in 1934, the "Nagauta Symphony" represented the culmination of