With Perth Concert Hall closed for a $150.3 million redevelopment from 2025 until early 2028, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) has embraced the challenge of presenting its 2025 season in new venues with gusto.
Five key programming streams will be presented at five different venues in 2025, with WASO also celebrating contemporary Australian composers and highlighting its Orchestra members throughout the year – including Associate Principal Clarinet Som Howie, Principal Viola Daniel Schmitt and Associate Principal Oboe Liz Chee, who will perform as soloists across the season.
“2025 is a fresh new season for WASO, a ‘New World’ of music performed in Perth’s most iconic venues,” says Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser Asher Fisch, who celebrates his 12th year with WASO in 2025.
“One of our most diverse programs to date, this season includes thrilling symphonies, some of your favourite concertos, and new programs spanning the best of Baroque, chamber classics and an underground new music adventure. One thing that hasn’t changed is our commitment to artistic excellence and excitement. We’re delighted to welcome some exceptional guest conductors and soloists to WASO in 2025 and to present the world premieres of works by Australia’s finest composers.”
The University of Western Australia (UWA)’s cathedral-like Winthrop Hall and its superb acoustics will be home to WASO’s MACA Symphonic Series in 2025, a program of 10 evening concerts featuring many masterpieces of the orchestral canon, including Mozart’s Symphony No 21, Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 and more.
The Matinee Symphony Series for daytime concertgoers, featuring compact one-hour concerts on Thursday mornings and early afternoons, will be presented at the Heath Ledger Theatre, while His Majesty’s Theatre becomes the home of the new Baroque series, featuring some of Australia’s leading Baroque players performing the music of the era, including pieces by Handel, Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach.
The talents of WASO’s own musicians will be displayed in the intimate Chamber Series at Government House Ballroom, while those looking for bolder programming can experience music from the best local, national and international contemporary composers in the Underground Series at the State Theatre Centre of WA.
Read: ArtsHub’s 2025 season guide to the performing arts
Guest conductors Edward Gardner (UK), Satu Vänskä (Finland) and Sam Weller (the Netherlands/Australia) make their WASO debuts in 2025, and audience favourites Shaun-Lee Chen, Umberto Clerici, Vasily Petrenko and Otto Tausk make welcome returns.
Guest soloists include pianists Lukáš Vondráček (Czechoslovakia) and Alexander Gavrylyuk (Ukraine) and violinist Simone Lamsma (the Netherlands), as well as vocal soloists from across the country.
Featuring all-Australian composers, world premiere WASO commissions in 2025 include James Ledger’s Camera obscura, Andrew Schultz’s Symphony No 4 and Paul Stanhope’s Mahāsāgar, as well as new works from Melody Eötvös and WASO Composer in Residence Olivia Davies.
The winner of WASO’s 2024 Composition Project, Sahil Sidhu, will compose a new work for a family concert, Classic Adventures: Witches & Wizards, which also features music from The Wizard of Oz, Stravinsky’s Firebird and more, with the Orchestra performing under the baton of WASO Associate Conductor Jen Winley.
The 2025 season also features a week-long celebration of all five of Beethoven’s acclaimed Piano Concertos; a performance of Johann Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus with a star-studded all-Australian cast of soloists, the full Symphony Orchestra led by Fisch, and the WASO Chorus; and WASO Chorus Sings: Sacred at St Mary’s Cathedral, featuring a selection of sacred choral works from the height of the Renaissance to the modern day, organists Jonathan Bradley and Stewart Smith, and conductor Hugh Lydon.
The WASO at the Movies series returns with Jurassic Park in Concert, while Dan Golding and Andrew Pogson from the Art of the Score podcast bring The Music of John Williams to Perth, featuring music from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Harry Potter franchise and more, conducted by Nicholas Buc, and with Golding and Pogson as “enthusiastic and informative co-hosts“.
WASO will also present an important range of offstage programs throughout 2025, including its award-winning education series Crescendo, now in its 12th year and set to deliver music lessons to over 400 students in the Kwinana area (the full 2025 Education Program will be announced in February) and its artist development and community programs, including WASO’s Conducting Fellowship, the Australian National Conducting Academy and regional touring activities.
Read: West Australian Ballet’s 2025 season features world premieres and classic works
Richard Goyder AO, WASO Chair, says: “In 2025, WASO will deliver unforgettable musical experiences across the City of Perth and throughout the state. With new places comes new ways to connect, and we invite you to join us on this journey of discovery, as WASO leads the way.”
WASO Season 2025 subscription packages are now on sale, with single tickets available from Wednesday 15 January 2025.
