Help Support Our Musicians To Sustain Their Careers
YOU can support the career of many talented musicians by making a small donation to this important annual fundraiser. Your tax-deductible donation will help TMO continue providing musicians with a platform where they can build their personal skills and confidence, perform at the highest levels, and share experiences with other like-minded musicians in a positive and collaborative environment as they navigate the unique challenges of sustaining a music career in Australia.
After more than 15 years of exceptional performance, The Metropolitan Orchestra has become relied on for creating outstanding, professional, and accessible live music for a wide scope of audiences, as well as being a conduit for supporting exceptional musicians in building their individual careers in music.
“TMO has become an absolutely vital creative and professional home for me. I have had a lot of wonderful experiences and opportunities around the world, but none have done as much for my career and personal life as TMO has.”
Jacinta Mikus, TMO Flute/Piccolo
The Metropolitan Orchestra has always been committed to creating outstanding opportunities for our talented musicians which in turn supports their musical careers. In addition to these many concerts which span a wide variety of music genres, TMO has become recognised by musicians for the supremely functional and supportive work environment where musicians can strive for personal development, share with each other through mutually respectful peer-to-peer relationships, and engage in a team atmosphere with common goals, as they navigate the challenges of sustaining a music career in Australia.
By keeping our amazing talent engaged and committed to music creation, we are proudly supporting the growth of the greater Australian musical landscape and culture. Your contribution towards this fundraiser will help TMO to continue providing exceptional opportunities and crucial support to its musicians.
Read on for details on how we strive to achieve this ambitious goal.
Our Mission
TMO’s mission has always been to inspire a love and enjoyment of classical and orchestral music to a wide range of audiences through accessible, first-class concert performances, and to provide professional performance opportunities to outstanding Australian musicians, composers and soloists.
In this mission, we strive to build audiences through low-cost, accessible, and non-intimidating concerts without lessening the exceptional level of professionalism. Our unique and collaborative performance environment is designed to support each individual musician on their own unique journey with the hope that their involvement in TMO’s family of musicians will help them maintain a career in music. In this way, we can halt the loss of exceptional musicians either from our shores, or completely away from a career in the arts.
“TMO continues to be a very important part of my life in both a personal and professional sense; it is a collective of excellent musicians dedicated to the highest standards of music-making but it is also a family in music for us all.”
Dominique Guerbois TMO Violin
Please help TMO to continue offering extensive musical opportunities not only for our audiences, but for our musicians. Support our 2023 fundraiser and allow first-class music to not only stay alive, but grow while continuing to be accessible to all.
Supporting Musicians Through First-Class, Live Performance
We are proud of our long history of supporting and developing musicians so they can sustain viable careers in music whether they are composers, soloists, young artists, tutti orchestral players or children starting out on their musical journeys. We are committed to encouraging more musicians to want to have a career in the arts. That is why our musicians refer to The Metropolitan Orchestra (TMO) as their musical family. We want every individual in TMO’s family to thrive, and in doing so continue growing the Australian musical landscape. You can help us to continue supporting our many wonderful artists through this year’s fundraiser.
“As with many of us in the orchestra, I am also a passionate music educator. I firmly believe that in order to teach well, I need to be able to play well myself. Being a part of the orchestra keeps me practising, and keeps my fire for music alive, which in turn I can use to inspire the next generation of musicians.”
Caroline Kelly, TMO Violin
Our founding Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Sarah-Grace Williams is a vocal supporter of Australian artists, continually championing opportunities for our incredible homegrown talent. Her passion for supporting exceptional musicians in Australia has been the driving force behind the collaborative culture at TMO which is built on the pillars of mutual respect, a shared passion for music, and a commitment to first-class performance. TMO not only provides a positive and supportive performance and rehearsal environment for musicians, we also deliver significant performance opportunities to a wide audience demographic. TMO’s dynamic environment is the perfect place where artists can share with peers, build skills, and fine-tune the art of live performance.
TMO’s many concerts since 2009 have been presented across many genres. Each concert allows musicians to experience different performance environments where they gain vital experience in support of their own careers in music. Whether they are professional performing musicians, musical educators, or first-class musicians working in other fields, TMO’s flexible work and performance environment is the perfect place where each passionate individual is able to share and be a part of the music-making process. We want every individual in TMO’s family to thrive in music and in doing so, we will enhance Australia’s cultural environment and support the vital Arts Sector in this country.
“The latest analysis from the Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR) shows cultural and creative activities continue to boost the Australian economy. The analysis shows cultural and creative activities contributed $122.3 billion to our national economy in 2019–20.”
Why Is It Important For Musicians To Perform Regularly At The Highest Levels
In Australia, there are very limited full-time performance opportunities to keep our musicians employed. The potential for our musicians to sustain a full-time performance career with one employer in this country are minimal at best. As a result, our musicians need to be adaptable, flexible, and creative with their careers. Many are self-employed or work in other aspects of music. ALL want to perform at the highest levels.
“I never dreamed that such an orchestra could exist. An orchestra that fulfills a passion and lust for playing music, with people who have become like family to me. An orchestra that allows its members to contribute not only to the decision-making of our vast scope of repertoire, but in the execution and presentation of our concerts.”
Ezmi Pepper, TMO Cello
TMO offers a rare opportunity for these many hard-working musicians to come together and deliver concerts of the finest quality, and in doing so, be able to sustain and build on their many capabilities. This not only helps the individual, this also helps our greater cultural landscape as many of these outstanding individuals will (and do) go on to achieve incredible things to enhance Australia’s vital arts industry.
Musician Testimonials
Please click on the link below to read over 30 testimonials that we have received from our highly valued orchestral musicians. We hope this will give you a sense of just how important having a unique and supportive organisation like TMO is for each exceptional artist and for the greater arts landscape.
We cherish each individual not only for their artistic skills but for their unique and much-valued contribution to The Metropolitan Orchestra.
Click Here To Read TMO Musician Testimonials
What Types Of Performances Do TMO Musicians Get Engaged For?
Each year TMO curate a number of concerts as part of their annual season. The 2023 season is composed of 5 mainstage Met Concerts, 4 Chamber Concerts over a single weekend in TMO’s inaugural Chamber Festival, and 4 Children’s Cushion Concert Series (24 concerts) aimed to entertain and introduce kids and families to the magical world of orchestral music and instruments. This is a total of 33 self-produced concerts this year alone.
TMO is passionate about great Australian music while supporting incredible Aussie composers. In 2023 our annual season will include 11 Australian works and an amazing 7 commissioned world premieres.
On top of all this, TMO has built a powerful reputation for versatility, professionalism, and energy which is highly sought after by promoters, producers, and touring artists looking to work with a versatile and capable orchestra based in Sydney. It is the hard work, flexibility and passion shown by each musician at TMO that takes to the stage which helps us to secure each important performance which forms a key component of our annual income stream.
“TMO provides me with invaluable experiences as a freelance musician – to play top flight orchestral repertoire with an established cohort; to exercise leadership as a section principal; to play a wide range of styles including soundtrack, chamber, Dixieland jazz, commercial music as well as standard orchestral music.”
Gareth Lewis, TMO Trombone
Some recent engagements have included the Muppets Movie live with orchestra at the International Convention Centre, Synthony, which is a fusion of electronic dance music, live orchestra, DJ’s and vocalists performed at Aware Super Theatre in Darling Harbour, plus over 30 amazing shows of the play Amadeus performed at the Sydney Opera House from December 2022 to the end of January 2023 starring Michael Sheen. Please click here for an extensive list of performers with whom TMO have worked.
Educational and Development Programs Offered By TMO
Since our inception back in 2009, TMO has initiated a number of musician development and support programs as we strive to help artists to build individual careers in music. These have included our Composer Development Programs, Artist Development Programs such as Composer in Residence and Young Artist Programs, Conductor Development, Internships and Traineeships.
“The Metropolitan Orchestra provides a unique opportunity for composers, such as myself, to workshop and bring to life our creations in a professional environment. A resource of this calibre is just not available logistically or financially for emerging Australian artists.”
Adrian Hallam, TMO French Horn and Composer.
In 2022, TMO launched TMO Junior which offers a range of educational and performance programs and opportunities for primary and high-school musicians of all levels. TMO Junior is growing each year and in 2023 will include both the Junior String Camp 3-day educational and performance program, as well as the Instrumentalist Festival performance day. All TMO Junior events are run and adjudicated by our exceptional musicians.
Each of these first-class experiences builds a sense of teamwork and self-confidence which is fundamental in supporting musician careers while also cultivating a uniquely resilient and dynamic ensemble that can deliver on any type of commercial opportunity.
How Will Your Donation Be Used?
Your donation will cover the many costs involved in keeping TMO’s ship floating. This could mean anything from supporting musician costs, purchase and/or hire of equipment and music such as staging, lighting, and instrument hire such as timpani and percussion, marketing and advertising, or helping us to pay our rent, pay our hard-working employees and generally keep the creative doors open. We are always looking for ways to create more, to do more, and to make exceptional music accessible to more Australians. This can’t be achieved without adequate funding and resources. We are a frugal, extremely busy, and very cost-conscious organisation that has survived for over 15 years “on the smell of an oily rag”. You can be sure that your important financial contribution will definitely be used wisely.
What Government Support Do We Get?
We are honoured to have the continued support of the Inner West Council who amongst other support, provide us with essential in-kind venue hire for all rehearsals and concerts that we deliver locally. Without these vital cost savings, TMO would not be here today.
We also thank the NSW and Federal Governments for the range of support that they so importantly provided to arts companies like TMO during the recent Covid epidemic. Outside of this support however, TMO receives no regular state or federal government funding. You may not be aware, but all major performing arts companies receive considerable government funding to support their continued and sustainable operation. The fact that we have been in operation for over 15 years without any significant ongoing government funding is a testament to our resilience and never-say-die attitude. In the post-Covid world however, this lack of sustainable ongoing financial support is causing extensive stress on our organisation and threatening our ability to continue creating and presenting each performance opportunity.
We will of course continue to strive for as many funding options as possible including vigorously applying for as many relevant grants and opportunities that are available. Philanthropic funding is urgently needed to sustain our operation and allow us to continue creating music of all types, presented to all audiences, whether they be young children, seniors, or seasoned music lovers.
Any donation you can make will go a long way to helping us survive and continue offering our musicians an encouraging, supportive and professional world in which they can not only have viable musical careers, but continue to grow. Let’s all work as hard as possible to keep our many wonderfully talented artists in music and in doing so, positively contribute to the Australian budget, society, and culture. Please help by donating today.
CORPORATE AND LARGER PERSONAL DONATIONS
The last few years have been extremely challenging for our not-for-profit arts company with many corporate and large donors abstaining from supportive partnerships in the arts. We need these partners now more than ever. If you are considering a larger (or regular) donation, would like to create a support partnership with your company, or would like to investigate ways that you can make a greater impact for our organisation, we would welcome starting a discussion with you. Please reach out directly to our Managing Director to organise a discreet chat in the first instance.
Managing Director – Bevan Rigato
M: 0416 079218
E: bdr@metorchestra.com.au
For More Information Visit The Links Below
Visit The Metropolitan Orchestra’s about page at https://www.metorchestra.com.au/about/
What’s On at TMO here https://www.metorchestra.com.au/whatson/
Review our entire 2023 season here https://www.metorchestra.com.au/concerts/
For Past Concert Programs visit https://www.metorchestra.com.au/concerts/past-concerts/
Don’t forget to follow us on socials for the latest TMO happenings.
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/themetorchestra
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/themetorchestra/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/TheMetOrchestra
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-metropolitan-orchestra
For a comprehensive video library of past TMO performances, visit our Youtube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMetropolitanOrchestra