The commanding tones of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra will reverberate through the halls of Royal Park's Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery across six performances starting today.
The unique Royal Park Series held today, February 20 and April 10 will be the first time the TSO and QVMAG have teamed up, with the art gallery acting as an enthralling backdrop for the orchestra's first concert series of 2021.
TSO CEO Caroline Sharpen said the unique offering was a way of adapting to the challenges thrown at the orchestra by COVID-19 and she was excited to see the event come together.
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"Both concerts today are all but sold out and I think people are really attracted to the idea of being in this gorgeous gallery surrounded by artwork and music, and a glass of wine wont go astray," she said.
Ms Sharpen said in planning the Launceston based series the TSO was keen to have the offering personified by the strong and existing art culture evident throughout the town.
"Knowing that the format would be slightly smaller we were keen to find a space that would be iconic Launceston ... It's different to anything we're doing anywhere else in the state so its a Launceston series and its very, very nice to have a home here," she said.
QVMAG Creative Arts and Cultural Services general manager Tracy Puklowski said the series offered an opportunity to diversify the options available at the gallery, and provide a framework for future events.
"It's created a great opportunity to activate our spaces in different ways and what we were always keen to do was a attract new and different audiences as well," she said.
"I imagine that a lot of people coming to the series will be familiar with the art gallery but it may well be there are some that aren't which is exactly what we like to see.
"A lot of organisations the moment are working on smaller bespoke offerings in order to be COVID safe and that means there's an opportunity to think more laterally and that's actually bringing fantastic opportunities with it."
The first concerts on January 30 are called Sublime Strings are the debut performances for new TSO ensemble the Tasmanian Strong Quartet. The quartet will play works from Barber, Jessie Montgomery and Beethoven.
On February 20 the orchestra will add wind instruments to the initial string based performances. Called Strauss & Beethoven, the two sessions, one at 2pm and the other at 4:30pm, focus on works from the iconic composers.
April 10 will be a return to strings with performances of the Razumovsky Quartet.
All events are held during 2pm and 4:30pm time slots.
Tickets are available to the performances at the TSO website.
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