Making an orchestra takes time. You can book 80 musicians for a few calls and put on a concert, sure, but that still doesn’t make an orchestra. The culture, in the orchestral sense, develops slowly through repetition, cooperation, and shared risk. There's no shortcut.
At ANAM, that process is already embedded. It shows up in the way ANAM musicians perform together – a famous “ANAM way”. Damien Eckersley, ANAM Deputy Artistic Director, puts it simply:
“With most of the cohort on stage together performing major orchestral works, they're playing not only for the audience but also for each other. There's a healthy sense of pride and friendly competition involved. The winds, brass and percussion players want to show the strings what they can do, and the strings feel the same way in return.”
On Thursday June 25, the ANAM Orchestra will return to St Kilda Town Hall to perform the Central Park in the Dark concert program under the baton of Richard Tognetti. The program includes a musicians’ bucket-list piece, Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg. As Max Wung (cello, WA) says:
“It’s historically significant and, in many ways, a masterpiece. Verklärte Nacht pushes the boundaries of late Romantic harmony while still sitting within that expressive, ultra-Romantic world. It feels like it bridges the space between late Romanticism and early modernist expressionism, almost standing right at that turning point in musical language.”
It’s fair to note that many ANAM musicians are still forming their interpretive instincts as they play, which brings a certain volatility to the sound – something that can feel genuinely alive. Across the 2026 orchestral season, the repertoire moves between different historical moments, testing stylistic control as much as ensemble focus. It is this combination of youthful curiosity and rigorous chamber discipline that defines the ANAM Orchestra today.
Explore the upcoming ANAM Orchestra concerts via the button below, and don’t forget our special ticket offer: receive a 5% discount when booking tickets to two ANAM Orchestra concerts at St Kilda Town Hall, or 10% when booking all three concerts.
ANAM Orchestra Concerts
Words by Oxana Sitchuk.