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The Australian Wind Symphony is a professional wind ensemble based near Canberra, ACT, Australia. It was established in 2015 as the Canberra Wind Symphony, and became the Australian Wind Symphony in 2019 in order to meet broader touring, audience, and funding possibilities. The mission of the ensemble was to provide a professional performance opportunity for freelance Australian musicians, and to champion new music by living composers. In the five seasons pre-COVID the ensemble performed 256 works including 57 premieres in 34 concerts at 14 venues.

Launch and First Year
The ensemble launched on June 4, 2015 at the ACT Legislative Assembly, and completed its first concert series at the Ainslie+Gorman Arts Centre. It established academic credit for ANU School of Music performance students, and was provided with a residency at The Street Theatre in Canberra. In addition to season performances, the ensemble launched its first ‘Lest We Forget’ concert: a performance dedicated to all who have served in uniform, delivered at the Warriors’ Chapel at the Church of St. Andrew in Forrest, ACT, Australia. This performance has continued every year since the ensemble’s inception.

Continuing Achievements
The second year of this ensemble saw it bring large-scale wind ensemble music to reputable venues, such as the National Museum of Australia in addition to its performances at The Street Theatre. It was this year that an audience-based partnership funding system was established, which enabled audience members to sponsor a specific member of the ensemble through the ‘Fan Club’. During this year, the ensemble continued to build its online presence by releasing recordings on YouTube, with a favourite arrangement of Abide With Me combined with The Last Post (by USA arranger Jay Dawson) gaining tens-of-thousands of views.

Into its second and third years, this ensemble partnered with the USA-based St. Olaf Band to perform a sell-out concert at Llewellyn Hall, Canberra. It was also successful in attaining Matched Boost Funding from the Australian Cultural Fund, and was the first wind ensemble to ever be included in the Canberra International Music Festival.

In 2018 the ensemble launched its ‘Spirit Review’ audience submission platform, which enables audiences to submit and share their own personal experience of ensemble performances, in the spirit of spreading the joy and wonder of new live music. A collaboration with an international champion choir paved the way for the ensemble to tour a performance to Wollongong, NSW: the first hint of the touring model this ensemble would later adapt. In 2018 the orchestra also performed a new work by Australian composer Michael Dooley – Winds of Hope – which was commissioned by a private benefactor specifically for this ensemble.

In 2019 Australian Wind Symphony became the first private Australian wind ensemble to ever pay players full professional rates, as it partnered with Marina Prior to deliver a large-scale outdoor spectacular in Braidwood, NSW. It also commissioned a full concert of bespoke arrangements from revered Australian big band icon Ed Wilson (of the Daly-Wilson Big Band), in a show celebrating Ed’s 50th year in show business. This performance toured regionally.

At the end of 2019, the ensemble chose to broaden its reach and expand its touring branch. By changing the ensemble’s name to Australian Wind Symphony, it launched a modest re-brand that would enable the organisation to reach more players, more audiences, more venues, and more potential funding opportunities.

To date, the ensemble has performed 61 regional, Australian, or World premieres, the last being a performance of Love and Light by USA composer Brian Balmages.

Structure
Although privately owned, the Australian Wind Symphony operates essentially as a co-op style organisation. No individual or organisation generates a profit, and performers divide ticket sale money equally. Various agreements and partnerships are in place to assist the organisation in defraying expenses, to give musicians the maximum payout. The organisation is run for free without payment by two passionate professional musicians. The ensemble occasionally attracts sufficient funding to cover full player payments which overrides the co-op approach.

Icons and Symbols
Australian Wind Symphony performers wear a pin in the shape of a feather. The feather represents the ensemble in full flight. The logo for the ensemble was designed by co-owner and principal flute Sarah Nielsen, and features on a number of promotional items including T-shirts and hoodies.

Conductor
The Australian Wind Symphony is co-owned by its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Geoff Grey, CSM. Originally a cornetist, clarinetist Geoff is a leading Australian wind ensemble practitioner with 40+ years of professional performances to date. Geoff is a direct descendant of notable English pianist and piano-maker Johann Baptist Cramer. While engaged as a professional musician in the Australian Army, his conducting career began through leading a choir in regional NSW before he became the music director for the award-winning Canberra Youth Wind Ensemble in the 1990's.

Geoff’s subsequent career as a professional conductor in the military paralleled his work in the community, developing his reputation as a creator of outstanding large ensembles. He conducted anthem recordings for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was the music director for official government functions for US President Barack Obama, numerous other Heads of State and the final two visits to Australia for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

After many thousands of performances, Geoff was awarded a Conspicuous Service Medal in the Australian Honours List (1998), and an an ARIA Gold Record in 2008. In 2015 Geoff co-founded the Australian Wind Symphony to focus on live music, support living composers, and create a platform for graduate instrumentalists to experience a professional wind ensemble and perform contemporary classical art music in Australia.

Geoff is also the Artistic Director of the ADF Arts for Recovery, Resilience, Teamwork and Skills Program - assisting wounded, injured and ill personnel re-find purpose through creative arts and music-based activities. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra, and also teaches conducting at his artists’ retreat in regional New South Wales, Australia.

Venues and Partnerships
After a launch performance at the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2015, the ensemble’s first formal concert series was delivered at Ainslie+Gorman Arts Centre. Australian Wind Symphony delivered its next four concert series at The Street Theatre Canberra, in combination with its annual Remembrance Day performance at The Warriors’ Chapel, Church of St. Andrew, Forrest. The ensemble has also performed in the High Court of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, Llewellyn Hall, Fitters’ Workshop, Drill Hall Gallery, Chevalier College Bowral, Essay and Conference Wollongong, The B (Bicentennial Hall), and The Q at Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. In 2020 the ensemble partnered with the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council to deliver its concert series at the newly-renovated Bicentennial Hall, adjacent to The Q, in Queanbeyan, NSW, however the first performance was delayed until 2021 due to the pandemic.

Annual Lest We Forget Performance
The Australian Wind Symphony has performed a special Remembrance Day concert on November 11 every year since its inception. The performance is themed around war, loss, hope, appreciation, recovery and beauty, delivering a different combination of programmatic music every year. The concert is performed at the Presbyterian Church of St. Andrew, Forrest, which also contains the Warriors’ Chapel. The chapel is a poignant setting for this performance, as it has the [|Ode of Remembrance] chiselled into the walls, and was created by a The Reverend John Walker, who lost three sons in The Great War. A favourite tradition of this performance is a special arrangement of Abide With Me/The Last Post (Arr. Dawson), with the soloist placed inside the Warriors’ Chapel. Recordings of this performance have become popular on the ensemble’s YouTube channel and licenced internationally. In 2020 a live performance was unable to be delivered, however the orchestra released a playlist of some of its unheard recordings, to deliver a version of this performance digitally during the pandemic. This annual event also includes readings by contemporary veterans, often of poetry they have composed.

International acclaim
The Australian Wind Symphony can be heard at the [|Peabody Essex Museum] in Massachusetts, USA. The recording serves as a critical transition between a gallery of 19th century Indian art into a gallery dedicated to the Davida and Chester Herwitz Collection of Modern Indian Art. As visitors exit the first gallery, they are leaving a space dedicated to art produced in India under British colonial rule and mercantile dominance. The last thing they encounter is an image of Gandhi at the spinning wheel with text describing his use of imagery of the Indian craftsman to promote Independence.

Visitors hear the Australian Wind Symphony as they transition through the vestibule to the second gallery, which immediately introduces them to the moments of Independence and Partition. They are still faintly able to hear it as they’re confronted by the first major work in the gallery, a large-scale painting by M.F. Husain depicting the British Raj. As one of the hymns that holds significance in association with Republic Day in India and one of Gandhi’s proclaimed favourite works, the music subtly nods to the themes and events of both galleries. An explanatory wall text featuring Australian Wind Symphony accompanies the exhibition.