In 2018, The West Australian Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 90th anniversary and it has much to shout about. From its humble beginnings in 1928 as a collection of unemployed musicians out of work with the advent of the ‘talkies’, it has become one of the most respected and successful orchestras in the country.
Medical Forum caught up with principal piccolo Michael Waye, who as a veteran of 30 years is the joint longest-serving current musician in the orchestra and WASO’s CEO Craig Whitehead to talk about where they’ve been and where the year’s celebrations will take them.
Michael is a Sydney native who after graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium headed west in 1987 to take up his first symphonic job and he’s been here ever since.
“I never wanted to be a soloist, which is a bit weird. I wanted to play in an orchestra and be a part of team. There’s nothing like the mass sound of an orchestra,” he said. “Being principal piccolo you are quite prominent in the texture in the orchestra, so the nerves have been a bit frayed on occasion but it’s been a good time.”
Michael arrived in Perth when WASO was still a part of the ABC and a big chunk of the orchestra’s time was not in the concert hall but in the ABC studios in Adelaide Tce playing straight to air.
Radio days
“It was a really nice time because we were still a part of the larger picture of the ABC, sharing the canteen with all the radio and TV people. I think I am still carrying the weight from those days. There was a pastry chef there who made these really delicious cream tarts and I couldn’t resist them. I had to have one at every break.”
“But we worked hard. We’d have a quick rehearsal, the green light would go on and, boom, we were broadcasting live or recorded for future airing. If we finished our allotted list early, the orchestra manager would scurry to the library to get another piece to record. No rehearsal, straight to tape. It could never happen now with all the industrial agreements in place.”
The transition from ABC to independent entity in the 1990s was a volatile and financially precarious time for the orchestra. Cast adrift, it had to establish its own funders and its own artistic direction. The steady hand of the then CEO Catherine Ferrari was credited as keeping the orchestra viable and establishing a businesslike administration, while her successor businessman Keith Venning knew how to chase down the dollars.
For Michael, longtime WASO chair Janet Holmes a Court has been a lynch pin.
“The evolution of WASO to the orchestra it is now has taken many musical directors and conductors and external influences. Janet Holmes a Court has been a great stalwart of the orchestra. We say some people collect football teams, well she collects orchestras. She has stuck with us all the way through as chair and has been largely responsible for who is appointed CEO, head of artistic planning and chief conductors – all the pivotal people who have shaped the orchestra.”
Settling the ship
With stability, comes development and that brings its own success and rewards.
“It’s nice to see the evolution from essentially a regional orchestra to one of the best in the country. The players and the style of players and style of conductors have changed enormously and the pulling power of the orchestra to get world-class soloists has gone up enormously,” Michael said.
That, he said, had so much to do with the current principal conductor, world renowned Asher Fisch, who landed in Perth three years ago and has had the city and its orchestra fall at his feet.
“Asher is a megastar on an international conducting stage, yet if we’re not playing as well as we should he’s humble to say it has something to do with him. That’s a huge difference from the autocratic conductors of the past. Now we have this collaborative relationship. It’s such a lovely thing.”
“I’m not retiring while Asher is around. I want to be there until his tenure finishes in 2023 and a lot of my colleagues feel the same way.”
Michael said the reputation of his principal conductor has brought the likes of Laurence Jackson to the concert master’s role.
“Laurence should be a soloist, he is so spectacular. But he loves playing in an orchestra and playing alongside him every concert lifts the standards of everyone.”
A star drops in
The personal breathtaking moment for Michael Waye was back in November 2007 when Vladimir Ashkenazy stopped off for an all-Russian concert on his way to take up the baton for the Sydney Symphony.
“We were playing the fourth symphony of Tchaikovsky with this powerhouse of a conductor. It is terrifying for a piccolo. I had to sit there for 45 minutes then pull out a massive solo. When we were done, this megastar of the universe came up to me as said he loved what I was doing. That gave me so much confidence.”
“I’m looking forward to doing Tristan and Isolde in August with Asher for the same reason. It’s really wonderful music and directed by a spectacular conductor and a dream Wagnerian cast.”
“I want to make Asher smile. That’s my mission.”
Under Fisch, WASO has embarked on ambitious annual concert packages which began with the Beethoven cycle in 2015 and continues with this year will be the highly anticipated Tristan & Isolde concert staging.
For the WASO CEO Craig Whitehead, who has been in the chair for nine years, it is the ultimate statement in just how successful the orchestra has become artistically and as a cultural institution.
“From an artistic point of view we are at a high point in the history of the orchestra. This is the view of our orchestra members, our board and importantly our audiences. We have the right principal conductor, at the right time, who has brought out the excellence of our musicians,” he said.
Engaging and relevant
Craig is also enormously proud of WASO’s education and community engagement programs which sees the orchestra when not in concert visiting hospitals and schools, bringing the power of music to the ears of the young, the old, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged.
“WASO is most engaged orchestra in the country. Last year we presented 435 individual community activities to 50,000 people across WA and that’s not taking into account the performances on stage.”
“That’s an enormous undertaking by the company but it’s an important investment because we strive to be as relevant to the community we serve as we can be.”
Craig has helped steer the orchestra into a financial position the envy of orchestras around the country. But it’s taken a lot of effort and a lot of commitment.
When he was as he described “tapped on the shoulder” by chair Janet Holmes a Court to take on the CEO’s role, the GFC has just hit. The interceding years have been notoriously bumpy financially but he and his chair and mentor have drawn strong corporate support to the company.
“We have had a strong financial outcome in difficult economic times. Perth is currently operating in the worst economic conditions of the past 27 years and we are performing strongly. But our financials and the artistic and community programs are all interconnected. We’re succeeding because we have become more relevant and have an important role in the wider community.”
For Craig, telling WASO’s extraordinary story to the world is exciting and hugely satisfying.
He has one of the world’s best conductors inspiring his 83 orchestral members to artistic heights and a city loving what they do.
“It certainly makes life easier for me.”