Fifteen of Australia’s rising classical music stars will participate in the orchestra’s intensive training programme.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has announced the names of the 15 musicians who will take part in its Fellowship programme in 2017. The Fellows will spend a year with the orchestra in an intensive training programme that will include working with SSO Chief Conductor and Artistic Director David Robertson, rehearsing and performing with the SSO, receiving lessons with SSO musicians and participating in masterclasses with the orchestra’s guest artists across the year.

“This year 15 highly talented young musicians are about to have one of the best years of their lives, as participants in the only full-time training programme for emerging professional musicians in Australia,” Fellowship Artistic Director (and Principal viola) Roger Benedict told Limelight. “It will be hard work but they have a lot to look forward to: playing on the Sydney Opera House stage alongside their SSO mentors, playing chamber music with great artists like Anthony Marwood, touring regional NSW and playing to the widest possible audience – in settings as diverse as a corporate boardroom and a maximum security prison. I can’t wait to share the journey with them.”