Bradman tribute 'Our Don' (2014) among world premiere works presented by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Luke Dollman, composer Natalie Williams and soprano/granddaughter Greta Bradman – all Adelaide University Elder Conservatorium graduates – were part of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's Our Don world premiere presentation.
Image courtesy University of Adelaide
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presented a world premiere in 2014 of Our Don, an all-Adelaide musical tribute to cricket legend Don Bradman by Natalie Williams. This was another aspect of the orchestra’s ongoing immersion in innovation.
Commisioned by the South Australian government, the multi media Our Don featured Bradman archival video, with Elder Conservatorium graduate Luke Dollman conducting the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s music written by another Adelaide University Elder Conservatorium graduate Tanunda-born Natalie Williams. The night’s performance included Golijov’s Songs by another distinguished conservatorium graduate Greta Bradman, soprano and granddaughter of the cricketing legend and music lover.
Adelaide film and television actor Gary Sweet, whose first major role in 1984 was as Donald Bradman in the Network Ten miniseries Bodyline, the story of the 1932-33 Test series between England and Australia, narrated the text by biographer Peter Allen.
The Bradman tribute – and another commemorating the Gallipoli landings (ANZAC Requiem by composer Iain Grandage and librettist Kate Mulvany, in April 2015) – followed another South Australian commission in 2009 when premier and arts minister Mike Rann proposed and provided government funds to the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for major work about climate change. The world premiere of Gerald Brophy’s The Blue Thread, inspired by the River Murray, was performed at the Concert for the Earth at Adelaide Town Hall in 2010.
The town hall was the orchestra’s primary performance venue but it also presented at other venues such as Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide University’s Elder Hall and its own Grainger Studio in Hindley Street, Adelaide city.
Among awards for the Adelaide Symphony were:
2004 Helpmann Award finalist for best classical concert for Requiem and The Grainger Special.
2008: Helpmann Award for best classical concert, Sibelius Festival. 2012: Helpmann Award finalist for best symphony concert, Master Series 3, Fire Series.
2013 APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association)/Australian Music Centre’s arts award for excellence in music education for the Australian emerging composers creative workshop with Tan Dun and six young Australian composers.
2016 Arts South Australia Ruby Award for sustained contribution by an organisation.
2019 winner of best independent classical album in the AIR Independent Music Awards, with the Grigoryan Brothers and Banjamin Northey.
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra won an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Award for its 1997 album, Peter Sculthorpe: Sun Music, with David Porcelijn conducting. Other albums nominated were Dream Child (1995, best children’s), Powerhouse; Three Poeme of Byron; Capriccio Nocturnes Unchained Melody with Dabid Procelijn and János Fürst conducting (1995), Gorecki Symphony No.3 with soprano Yvonne Kenny (2002), Sculthorpe Requiem and orchestra works with Arvo Volmer (2007), Home with Greta Bradman, Adelaide Chamber Singers, Luke Dollman (2018); Bach Concertos with Grigoryan Brothers and Benjamin Northey (2019), Beethoven Piano Concertoes with Jayson Gillham and Nicholas Carter (2020).
