The West Australian Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2023 program, a finely curated blend of popular masterworks and new music with plenty of light and shade in the mix. Pulling it all together is a raft of guest conductors and a line-up of soloists that sees international powerhouses rubbing shoulders with musicians drawn from within the orchestra’s own ranks.

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Asher Fisch has several reasons to be cheerful. Not only was he the only international artist to fully sustain his role during the global pandemic – a feat that saw him endure around half a dozen gruelling periods of Australian quarantine – but it’s also his tenth season at the helm of an orchestra whose sound he has helped shape for a decade.

WASO Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Asher Fisch. Photo © Daniel James Grant

“Everything I say might look like I’m taking credit for it, which isn’t the case, but it’s a very, very good orchestra now,” Fisch tells Limelight on a Zoom call that includes his...