There was great excitement backstage and in the audience as Darwin Symphony Orchestra prepared to climb one of classical music’s greatest summits – Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – in its epic final concert for 2023.

Darwin Symphony Orchestra: Odes to Joy. Photo © Paz Tassone

With 130 performers on stage for this event – including the Darwin Chorale and four soloists led by the incredible soprano Emma Matthews – it was a dazzling performance that left everyone on a high.

And yet, in his introduction, DSO Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Jon Tooby paid tribute to a man who wasn’t there.

The original program for Odes to Joy was to open with a selection of songs from an award-winning collaboration by Mr Gurruwiwi and Darwin violinist and composer Netanela Mizrahi. Mr Gurruwiwi was a Yolngu elder, a leader and teacher of law, dance and yidaki, and the Gamurrung songman for Galpu Clan of Elcho Island.

Tooby spoke of how performing some of this “mesmerising” choral music in Indigenous languages during The Djari Project’s 2021 Darwin Festival concert had left a mark on him.

But with Mr Gurruwiwi having passed away in 2023 and sorely...