Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has launched its 2024 season, a wide-ranging campaign for our hearts, minds and inflation-weary wallets.

MSO Chief Conductor Jaime Martín. Photo @ Kristian Gehradte

MSO Chief Conductor Jaime Martín’s second season in the job starts by welcoming in the Chinese Year of the Dragon (with a program featuring superstar soprano Hui He), concludes with Handel’s Messiah, and includes a Beethoven Festival that will see Martín conduct all nine of the composer’s symphonies. Martín will also continue to explore the symphonies of Dvořák and Mahler.

Titled Many Stories, One MSO, the 2024 program welcomes some new faces into the MSO family: Leonard Weiss returns to Australia from New Zealand to serve as Assistant Conductor for two years; Katy Abbott will be MSO’s 2024 Composer-in-Residence and continue her Hidden Thoughts cycle, and Baroque expert and harpsichordist Erin Helyard will be Artist-in-Residence for 2024.

The 2024 program features 12 world premieres (11 by Australian composers), two premieres of international composers, 17 MSO debuts and 14 artists performing exclusively with...