Melbourne Chamber Orchestra has become the first Melbourne-based arts organisation to join Giving Culture’s national corporate gift voucher program. It follows Sydney new music specialist Ensemble Offspring recent sign up to Giving Culture’s roster of partners and will further broaden access to live performance.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s inclusion gives existing Giving Culture gold and silver voucher holders immediate access to the orchestra’s upcoming Overgrown Paths concerts in Melbourne, Yackandandah and Mornington from 7–10 May.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Photo supplied

Led by MCO Artistic Director and violinist Sophie Rowell, the program combines music and poetry, culminating in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the composer’s original sonnets narrated by actor Helen Morse. The concert also includes Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade, Libby Croad’s Portraits for string orchestra with poetry by Eleanor Percy, and Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path.

MCO Executive Director Adele Schonhardt said the partnership would help the company reach new audiences.

“Giving Culture is a great initiative that helps make the arts more accessible to a community that might not have been aware of our ‘tiny but mighty’ orchestra otherwise,” she said.

Giving Culture co-founder Martin Aungle said adding MCO marked an important...