Bridging generations:
TSO and TYO shine together in unforgettable rehearsal

The Big Rehearsal is an annual event in which TSO musicians mentor their TYO counterparts during a day of rehearsals, culminating in an afternoon performance for family, friends and supporters. 

Jack Machin is the TSO’s Learning and Community Projects Manager as well as to a regular conductor of the TYO. He says the event is just as energising for the professional musicians as it is for their young mentees.

‘Everyone lifts on a day like this,’ Jack says. 

On the day, the combined orchestras performed a thrilling program of Prokofiev’s Montague’s and Capulets and Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides, and this year’s Tim Bugg AM Rising Star Award winner, 14-year old Samuel Hooper, took to the stage as soloist, performing Sarasate’s Caprice Basque Op. 24 with the TSO to a standing ovation.

We were honoured to be joined by the Hon. Madeline Ogilvie, Minister for the Arts, who welcomed guests and musicians alike while fondly remembering her own time with the TYO where she was a fledgling clarinettist. In fact, she brought her old clarinet along, offering to join in if needed!

The conductor for this year’s Big Rehearsal was Daniel Carter, from Germany’s Landestheater Coburg theatre. 

Daniel is a graduate of the Australian Conducting Academy and said it felt like ‘coming full circle’ by returning to the TSO to work with young musicians. 

As you’ll hear in this short video, Daniel was coming to Australia to conduct the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras and he simply ‘couldn’t say no’ when his school music teacher Kim Waldock (now the TSO’s Director of Artistic Development) asked him to pop by!