The Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Vanguard program stepped out the Opera House, mixing Mozart and Gershwin with Bradman’s baggy green and other memorabilia.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Vanguard program stepped out the Opera House, mixing Mozart and Gershwin with Bradman’s baggy green and other memorabilia.
By Julie Power
March 19, 2025 — 10.30am
It was a pitch-perfect night at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
Instead of the sound of leather on willow, the thwack of ball hitting bat, the music of Mozart and Gershwin floated over the wicket along with Stephan Koncz’s A New Satisfaction and an arrangement of the 1930s song Our Don Bradman.
The concert in the Members Pavilion by six performers fromthe Sydney Symphony Orchestra was part of the Vanguard series, designed to nurture the next generation of music lovers and patrons by taking the music to them at venues outside the Opera House.
Gabriel Mather, 17, was likely the youngest in an audience that skewed to those in their 30s, 40s and beyond.
Gabriel’s mother Emma McDonald had invited him as her plus-one, thinking the year 12 student would like the historic sporting treasures, including Bradman’s baggy green cap and AFL player Buddy Franklin’s shoes, brought out from the SCG Museum for music patrons.
And he did.
“I like the venue, it is pretty cool. And the music. I think I am underdressed, though,” Mather said, looking down at his long shorts. “Mum told me it wasn’t formal.”
Reader, youth trumps expensive labels.
Advertisement
Victoria Fox-Smith lingered over the cricket memorabilia. As a board member of the Melba Opera Trust, a scholarship program for young opera singers, Fox-Smith said the drive was to make classical music and opera accessible to young people.
“In Europe, it is cheap and subsidised by the government, so people want to go. Here, it will cost you $200 to $300. It is major.”
Loading
Fox-Smith said many young people couldn’t even hum. “They’re not interested in going to the opera or the symphony orchestra, they’d rather listen to their own music.”
Kate Shaw, a KPMG partner, chairs the Vanguard program. She said it was designed to engage people who love live music in forums away from the orchestra’s home concert hall in the Opera House.
“We’re taking the musicians and putting them in different – and more relaxing – contexts for more people to enjoy.”
Over the years, the group has performed twice at the SCG and a car park in Kings Cross, as well as an architectural practice, the Darlinghurst jail and other very non-Opera House venues.
The music was usually esoteric, mixing recognisable music with classical, she said.
Loading
Unlike other performances by the SSO, the musicians involved in Vanguard design their own program.
A membership program, Vanguard is designed to encourage attendees to then also attend the SSO at the Opera House. How many convert? “Not as many as we like,” Shaw said.
The evening ended with an arrangement of Our Don Bradman ringing out over the ground before the musicians mingled with patrons.
“Our Don Bradman, As a batsman, he can sure lay on the wood; For, when he goes in to bat,
He knocks every record flat, For there isn’t anything he cannot do.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.