Key Highlights
2024
- MSO travels to Indonesia to deliver activity in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, culminating in a major performance at UNESCO World Heritage Site, Prambanan Temple, with MSO Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín.
- MSO welcomes two interns from Indonesia to complete a month-long program of engagement with all areas of the Orchestra.
2023
- MSO delivers arts management and orchestral workshops (sixth Youth Music Camp) in Yogyakarta and for the first time, in Bandung.
- MSO signs partnership proposal plan with the West Java Province.
2022
- MSO signs extended MOU with Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta until 2024.
- MSO delivers arts management and orchestral workshops (fifth Youth Music Camp) in Yogyakarta.
2020-2021
- MSO Managing Director, Sophie Galaise, assists His Highness Prince Notonegoro and his team in the creation of the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra.
2019
- MSO welcomes His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Yogyakarta and his delegation to Melbourne and the MSO.
- MSO signs extended agreement with Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (2019–2021).
- MSO delivers arts management and orchestral workshops (fourth Youth Music Camp) to representatives of 46 arts, cultural and learning institutions in Jakarta and Yogyakarta.
2018
- Third Youth Music Camp with a focus on Indonesian composition.
2017
- Second Youth Music camp for local students. The MSO became the first Western orchestra to perform at the UNESCO World Heritage Prambanan Temple Site.
- Yogyakarta’s Princess Mangkubumi joined the MSO’s Advisory Board to solidify the relationship between the MSO and Indonesia.
2016
- His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X established a three-year partnership between the MSO and the Yogyakarta Special Region to promote the growth of arts and culture.
- First Youth Music Camp, Yogyakarta. Workshops prioritised the inclusion of young women as musicians, event organisers and program leaders.
2015
- The MSO performed at signing of agreement between the Australian Government’s Australia Indonesia Centre and Yogyakarta Special Region.
In July 2024, the MSO travelled to Indonesia first stopping in Jakarta to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and Indonesia leading an Arts Management Workshop for key cultural institutions invited by the Australian Embassy. Moving on to Yogyakarta, the MSO conducted its annual Youth Music Camp and Arts Management Workshops. In his first MSO tour to Indonesia, MSO Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín, travelled to Yogyakarta with a larger cohort of MSO musicians to conduct a side-by-side performance at UNESCO’s Prambanan Temple, with musicians of the MSO, the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra, and Youth Music Camp students. Two agreements were signed before the concert: a four-year extension of the current agreement with the Government of Yogyakarta Special Region (2025 to 2028) and a new agreement with the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra (2025 to 2028). In October, the MSO welcomed two interns from the MSO’s Indonesian Arts Management and Music Camp programs to Melbourne for a month-long engagement and learning program. The Indonesia tour was generously supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the 2024 Indonesia and Melbourne program was generously supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant Program.
Since 2015, the MSO has enjoyed a strong relationship with the Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Our Memorandum of Understanding with the Region (extended for a third three-year period to 2024) incorporates a multi-year program of performances, annual youth music camps, knowledge exchange and touring.
In May 2023, a delegation of MSO musicians and management staff travelled to Yogyakarta, and for the first time, to Bandung in West Java, for 12 days of cross-cultural engagement, delivering the annual MSO Youth Music Camp and Arts Management Workshops in both locations. While in Bandung, a partnership proposal plan between the MSO and the West Java Province was signed, supporting the Implementation program of the cooperation between West Java and the Victorian Government. Demonstrating an outcome of the relationship between the two governments, Australia’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Ms Penny Williams PSM and His Excellency Ridwan Kamil, Governor of the West Java Province attended and witnessed the signing ceremony. Read more about it here.
The MSO’s relationship with the Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, His Highness Prince Notonegoro and his team remained strong across 2022 with a new memorandum of understanding being signed with the Vice Governor of Yogyakarta Special Region, Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya Paku Alam X, to extend the cross-cultural partnership for another three years. In October 2022, a delegation of MSO musicians and management travelled to Yogyakarta to work with students from across Indonesia in a series of instrumental and arts management workshops.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, the MSO’s Managing Director, Sophie Galaise, assisted His Highness Prince Notonegoro and his team in the creation of the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra which had their debut in June 2021. The MSO congratulates His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X and the Prince for their great vision, innovation, and tremendous courage to create a new orchestra so that the world may hear Yogyakarta’s rich musical tradition and sounds in a new voice on the orchestral stage.
In August 2019, and as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia now ASEAN celebration, the MSO delivered its fourth annual Youth Music Camp in Yogyakarta, leading to a performance featuring participants and MSO musicians. MSO staff also presented cultural management workshops in Jakarta and Yogyakarta for arts administrators, supporting a vision for cultural exchange, knowledge sharing and collaboration.
In October 2019, we were honoured to welcome His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Yogyakarta and his delegation to the MSO. Read more about it here.
In 2017, at the invitation of His Majesty Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the MSO was the first Western orchestra to perform outdoors at the UNESCO World Heritage Prambanan Temple Site. We were also the first professional orchestra to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No.2 in the region and were joined at that performance by the daughter of Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta, Princess Mangkubumi who sits on the MSO Advisory Council.
The MSO’s international engagement is made possible thanks to support from the Gandel Foundation through the MSO’s Now and Forever Future Fund.
Congratulations to the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra
Indonesia tour 2018 | Jakarta – Yogyakarta
Indonesia tour 2018 | Music camp workshops, Yogyakarta
Indonesia tour 2017 | Yogyakarta, Indonesia
The MSO’s tour to Indonesia is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria’s International Engagement program.