Singapore Symphony Orchestra to make 2025 Australian Debut with a Multi-city Tour

Lauded as one of the world’s best orchestras by BBC Music Magazine in 2022, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is set to embark on a multi-city tour in Australia from 12 – 16 Feb 2025. With concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, this overseas engagement marks the orchestra’s highly anticipated debut in the country.  

The SSO has performed in Europe, Asia, and the United States, including festivals such as the Dresden Music Festival and BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2014. Most recently, the orchestra presented its first overseas performance post-pandemic at Japan’s Asia Orchestra Week in Oct 2024.  

Singapore and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and Choruses presented Carmina Burana in August 2024 (Photo credit: Singapore Symphony Orchestra)

A Cross-Border Collaboration  

The historic tour will see the SSO teaming up with three Australian organisations: Sydney Opera House (SOH), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), and Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). The warm partnership exemplifies the agreement signed by the National Arts Council (Singapore) and Creative Australia earlier this year, committing to greater collaboration in the arts between both nations. 

Separately, the Singapore Symphony Group and MSO signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2018, which was later extended through 2025, resulting in cultural collaborations such as August’s joint choral-orchestral performance Carmina Burana, held at the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore. The historic concert also featured a 200-strong chorus from Singapore and Melbourne Choruses, along with a trio of sterling Australian soloists.  

(From left) Principal Cellist Ng Pei-Sian, Music Director Hans Graf, violin soloist Chloe Chua (Photo credit: Singapore Symphony Orchestra)

SSO’s Virtuosity on Full Display  

SSO Music Director Hans Graf will join the national orchestra in this spirited tour. Since 2019, the Grammy award-winning Austrian conductor has led the SSO in three concert seasons, and through the pandemic years of restricted live performances. Under the baton of Graf, the SSO will first perform in the SOH, followed by Hamer Hall in Melbourne, before concluding in QPAC.  

Taking the stage with the SSO is 17-year-old Singaporean violin sensation Chloe Chua, who makes her Australian debut as well. Together with Principal Cellist Ng Pei-Sian, she will perform Brahms’ final orchestral work – the 1887 Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. The young violin star shot to fame after winning joint first prize at the 2018 Menuhin Competition and was SSO’s youngest Artist-In-Residence for two concert seasons. Ng has served his title with the SSO since 2010 and is regarded as one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation with accolades such as the Commonwealth Musician of the Year in 2007.  

The orchestra will offer audiences in Australia a sample of the Singapore sound with award-winning Luciola singapura by Singaporean composer Koh Cheng Jin. The piece was inspired by the Singapore firefly and features the distinct sound of the Chinese instrument. Concluding the illuminating programme is Tchaikovsky’s tremendous Fifth Symphony.

Singapore Symphony Australian Tour 2025 (more details here)
Sydney Opera House – 12 Feb
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall – 14 Feb
Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane – 16 Feb