Musicians from across the inner west recently gathered at the Williamstown Town Hall for the first official performance of the Inner West Symphony Orchestra.
The community orchestra was founded in October last year by three Yarraville music teachers who realised there was no significant musical outlets for residents in the west unless they travelled to the eastern suburbs.
Alison Farr, Emma Rudin, and Elisa Kelly created the orchestra, recruiting Yilin Wang, who is now one of 60 musicians of all ages and talent levels to be a part of the musical talent.
This is Ms Wang’s first time playing with an orchestra since performing with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra almost 20 years ago.
“To work so hard with a group of people from such diverse backgrounds and ages towards a big goal is something you don’t really do that often,” she said.
“It is imperative when its not experienced before, because it feels like a community orchestra in that way.”
Ms Wang said rehearsals have been consistent every Monday at Footscray Primary School in order to prepare for the opening night which she said was bigger than expected.
“We sold around 400 tickets which is quite a lot for a community concert, especially being our first one,” she said.
“It shows the demand for a community orchestra from the community.”
The orchestra performed works by Sibelius, Bizet, Tchaikovsky and local composer George Barsoum.
The orchestra is now working on new repertoire for its next concert in July, including Holst’s ‘The Planets’ and Sibelius’s ‘Finlandia’.
Details: www.iwso.com.au
