Indonesia | Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Key Highlights

2025

The winning project from the 2024 Arts Management Workshop is funded for three performances by the Yogyakarta Special Region Cultural Department - MSO staff and musicians attend.
MSO staff and musicians attend workshops and rehearsals with members of the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra, Yogyakarta Royal Youth Orchestra and Yogyakarta Royal Chorus, as well as strategy sessions with the management team of the YRO.
MSO delivers the Youth Music Camp and Arts Management Workshop. Arts Management Workshop incorporates online sessions from senior MSO staff, extending the reach of the program.
Two interns from Yogyakarta visit Melbourne for a month-long program with the musicians and staff of the MSO.

2024

MSO travels to Indonesia to deliver activity in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, culminating in a major performance at UNESCO World Heritage Site, Prambanan Temple, with MSO Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín.
MSO welcomes two interns from Indonesia to complete a month-long program of engagement with all areas of the Orchestra.

2023

MSO delivers arts management and orchestral workshops (sixth Youth Music Camp) in Yogyakarta and for the first time, in Bandung.
MSO signs partnership proposal plan with the West Java Province.

2022

MSO signs extended MOU with Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta until 2024.
MSO delivers arts management and orchestral workshops (fifth Youth Music Camp) in Yogyakarta.

2020-2021

MSO Managing Director, Sophie Galaise, assists His Highness Prince Notonegoro and his team in the creation of the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra.

2019

MSO welcomes His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Yogyakarta and his delegation to Melbourne and the MSO.
MSO signs extended agreement with Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (2019–2021).
MSO delivers arts management and orchestral workshops (fourth Youth Music Camp) to representatives of 46 arts, cultural and learning institutions in Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

2018

Third Youth Music Camp with a focus on Indonesian composition.

2017

Second Youth Music camp for local students. The MSO became the first Western orchestra to perform at the UNESCO World Heritage Prambanan Temple Site.
Yogyakarta’s Princess Mangkubumi joined the MSO’s Advisory Board to solidify the relationship between the MSO and Indonesia.

2016

His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X established a three-year partnership between the MSO and the Yogyakarta Special Region to promote the growth of arts and culture.
First Youth Music Camp, Yogyakarta. Workshops prioritised the inclusion of young women as musicians, event organisers and program leaders.

2015

The MSO performed at signing of agreement between the Australian Government’s Australia Indonesia Centre and Yogyakarta Special Region.

The Harmony of Working Hand in Hand | MSO Indonesia Tour 2025

MSO in Indonesia

The MSO’s visit in October 2025 was the first engagement as part of the two four-year Memorandums of Understanding that were signed with the Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta and the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra. The delegation of five MSO string players plus MSO staff, including CEO Richard Wigley, commenced the visit with two days of workshops with the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra and Yogyakarta Royal Youth Orchestra. A highlight of these sessions was working with a former MSO intern, Elgar Putrandhra, who is now training as a conductor for the YRO. There was a forum held with staff and musicians from the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra to share experiences and involved a detailed discussion about orchestral operations. A strategy session with the YRO’s CEO, Prince Notonegoro, and senior staff discussed long term plans for both orchestras to further cultural cross-collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The MSO team were invited to the first performance of the winning project from the 2024 Arts Management Workshop at the Taman Budaya Yogyakarta. The project, Konser Sumbu Filosofi (the Philosophy Axis Concert), was created and conceived by Yose Prasetya, who received online coaching from MSO staff to assist with the preparation of this performance. The program was a success with three performances being held on the opening evening.

The theme of the 2025 Youth Music Camp was “The Harmony of Working Hand in Hand” and featured works by Handel, Australian composer Caerwen Martin, Karl Jenkins, Eric Whitacre and a new commission written by Yogyakarta composer and alumni of the University of Melbourne, Vishnu Satyagraha. Vishnu’s work, Aluna Digdaya, featured a traditional rice pounding device, the ‘Gejog Lesung’, where the wooden mortar and pestles became musical instruments, and also included singing and dancing from a modern performance troupe.

Australian Deputy Head of Mission, Ms Gita Kamath, joined the orchestra for the collaboration concert as a violinist – an impactful moment in this ongoing project between the MSO and Yogyakarta Special Region.

The MSO's 2025 engagement activities in Indonesia are supported by the Victorian Government.

In July 2024, the MSO travelled to Indonesia first stopping in Jakarta to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and Indonesia leading an Arts Management Workshop for key cultural institutions invited by the Australian Embassy. Moving on to Yogyakarta, the MSO conducted its annual Youth Music Camp and Arts Management Workshops. In his first MSO tour to Indonesia, MSO Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín, travelled to Yogyakarta with a larger cohort of MSO musicians to conduct a side-by-side performance at UNESCO’s Prambanan Temple, with musicians of the MSO, the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra, and Youth Music Camp students. Two agreements were signed before the concert: a four-year extension of the current agreement with the Government of Yogyakarta Special Region (2025 to 2028) and a new agreement with the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra (2025 to 2028). In October, the MSO welcomed two interns from the MSO’s Indonesian Arts Management and Music Camp programs to Melbourne for a month-long engagement and learning program.

The Indonesia tour was generously supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the 2024 Indonesia and Melbourne program was generously supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grant Program.

Since 2015, the MSO has enjoyed a strong relationship with the Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Our Memorandum of Understanding with the Region (extended for a third three-year period to 2024) incorporates a multi-year program of performances, annual youth music camps, knowledge exchange and touring.

In May 2023, a delegation of MSO musicians and management staff travelled to Yogyakarta, and for the first time, to Bandung in West Java, for 12 days of cross-cultural engagement, delivering the annual MSO Youth Music Camp and Arts Management Workshops in both locations. While in Bandung, a partnership proposal plan between the MSO and the West Java Province was signed, supporting the Implementation program of the cooperation between West Java and the Victorian Government. Demonstrating an outcome of the relationship between the two governments, Australia’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Ms Penny Williams PSM and His Excellency Ridwan Kamil, Governor of the West Java Province attended and witnessed the signing ceremony. Read more about it here.

The MSO’s relationship with the Government of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, His Highness Prince Notonegoro and his team remained strong across 2022 with a new memorandum of understanding being signed with the Vice Governor of Yogyakarta Special Region, Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya Paku Alam X, to extend the cross-cultural partnership for another three years. In October 2022, a delegation of MSO musicians and management travelled to Yogyakarta to work with students from across Indonesia in a series of instrumental and arts management workshops.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, MSO staff assisted His Highness Prince Notonegoro and his team in the creation of the Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra which had their debut in June 2021. The MSO congratulates His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X and the Prince for their great vision, innovation, and tremendous courage to create a new orchestra so that the world may hear Yogyakarta’s rich musical tradition and sounds in a new voice on the orchestral stage.

In August 2019, and as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia now ASEAN celebration, the MSO delivered its fourth annual Youth Music Camp in Yogyakarta, leading to a performance featuring participants and MSO musicians. MSO staff also presented cultural management workshops in Jakarta and Yogyakarta for arts administrators, supporting a vision for cultural exchange, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

In October 2019, we were honoured to welcome His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Yogyakarta and his delegation to the MSO. Read more about it here.

In 2017, at the invitation of His Majesty Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the MSO was the first Western orchestra to perform outdoors at the UNESCO World Heritage Prambanan Temple Site. We were also the first professional orchestra to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No.2 in the region and were joined at that performance by the daughter of Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta, Princess Mangkubumi who sits on the MSO Advisory Council.

The MSO’s international engagement is made possible thanks to support from the Gandel Foundation through the MSO’s Now and Forever Future Fund.