WA Symphony Orchestra adds extra night to Winthrop Hall as audience embrace move from Perth Concert Hall

WA Symphony Orchestra has burst into 2025 with surging ticket sales at its new main-stage venue, University of WA’s Winthrop Hall, adding a third night to its opening program featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No.5. Thursday, March 6, is the new date, adding 830 seats to the existing concerts on March 7 and 8 for a combined 2490, compared with a notional 3000 over two nights at Perth Concert Hall, which is now closed for at renovations. “We’re thrilled with the response to our new season, it’s great to see that Perth audiences are so eager to engage with their State Orchestra,” director of programming and engagement Evan Kennea said. “By popular demand, we’ve added a third performance of our season opener, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, with Asher Fisch (WASO Principal Conductor) and Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano) — an exciting start to what promises to be a fantastic year of music!” Crowd-pleaser Gavrylyuk will play Rachmaninov’s popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the program will open with a world premiere of WA composer James Ledger’s Camera Obscura. Extra seats over the season will help make up for smaller capacity at Winthrop Hall, which WASO is also addressing by fanning out across metropolitan Perth with concerts at Government House Ballroom, His Majesty’s Theatre, and the State Theatre Centre’s Heath Ledger Theatre and Studio Underground. WASO will open the year with a regional tour to Bunbury and Mandurah on February 7 and 8, featuring Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending played by concertmaster Laurence Jackson, who will also direct his colleagues in Mozart’s Don Giovanni overture and Symphony No.40, and Britten’s Simple Symphony. The orchestra will be back in Perth on February 15 for A Night on Bay View at Claremont Park featuring soprano Rachelle Durkin, associate conductor Jen Winley and the WA Police Pipe Band. Fisch’s return to WA for the Beethoven program flags the importance to WASO of attracting its core subscription audiences to Winthrop, and he will follow up on March 14 and 15 with Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus, featuring a galaxy of WA singing stars. Tickets and details at waso.com.au.