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
Symphony 20th century, more symphonies have been written for concert band than in past centuries. Although examples exist from as early as 1932, the first such symphony of importance since Hector Berlioz wrote the "Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale" in 1840 is Nikolai Miaskovsky’s Symphony No. 19, Op. 46, composed in 1939 (Battisti 2002, 42). Some further examples are Paul Hindemith's Symphony in B-flat for Band, composed in 1951; Morton Gould's Symphony No. 4 "West Point", composed in 1952; Vincent Persichetti's Symphony No. 6, Op. 69, composed in 1956; Vittorio Giannini's Symphony No.3, composed in 1959; Alan Hovhaness's Symphonies No. 4,