‘Every large centre of population, every city, needs connections. We need connections with culture, with expression beyond our everyday articulations, and that can be [achieved through] music, art, dance, all forms of human artistic expression,’ says Jessica Cottis, the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Canberra Symphony Orchestra (CSO).
‘Classical music is one of those great forms of culture – and the beauty of music, of course, is that it carries us emotionally through time. So going to a symphony orchestra concert gives us a different way of existing for that moment of time, for that one hour, that hour-and-a-half, whatever it is. And these are the very things that make us human, but also enable us to be human,’ she tells ArtsHub.