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
A Colour Symphony and Eugene Goossens to write a piece each. Howells wrote "Sine Nomine" for wordless chorus, which was not given its second performance until his centenary year 70 years later, in 1992. Goossens wrote a piece called "Silence" for chorus and orchestra. Elgar's own contribution was his orchestration of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Fantasia and Fugue in C minor". Bliss decided to write a symphony, but was at first undecided what the theme or character of the work would be. He could not get started for some weeks. One day, by chance, he came across a book on heraldry in which he