Adelaide Wind Orchestra Home Page

The Adelaide Wind Orchestra (AWO) seeks to unite, educate, challenge, and enrich the South Australian public through the engaging and transformative power of music.

Pixelated Symphonies

7:30PM Saturday 8 March, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide
2:30PM Sunday 9 March, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide
Conductor - Dr. Nathan Cummins

Hollow Knight. Final Fantasy VII. The Legend of Zelda. Halo 3. Super Mario.

Experience the magic of these legendary symphonic video game soundtracks like never before! Join us for an unforgettable concert of musical enchantment as video game industry insider and composer Dr Nathan Cummins and AWO take you on a wild ride through this iconic music. From the epic adventures of Super Mario to the heartwarming melodies of The Legend of Zelda, immerse yourself and be swept away by the brilliance of Australia's leading symphonic wind orchestra.

Whether you're a casual gamer or an epic nerd, book now to indulge in the timeless music that has touched the hearts of millions.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the greatest video game music of our lives.

★★★★ "One of Australia's best" The Barefoot Review

Book now!

Gloriosa

Yasuhide Ito's Gloriosa ends in a blaze. It's the kind of finale that makes an audience sit up, and it gives this concert both its name and its character.

Two works by Australian composers, both commissioned by AWO, open the programme. Holly Harrison's Big Things is vivid and kinetic, crackling with energy. Connor Fogarty, the inaugural winner of the AWO Composition Contest, wrote us an Oboe Concerto that was lyrical and searching, premiered by Celia Craig. This time AWO's own Hannah Kovilpillai takes the solo chair, bringing something personal to a work that has already found its place in the repertoire.

Warren Benson's The Solitary Dancer sits quietly at the heart of it all: spare, tender, and hard to shake. Then Ito closes the night in that characteristic blaze of sound, ceremonial and electric, named for a flower of flame-like beauty.

Adult $35 | Concession $25 | Child $20 | Family $80

Book now!

Twisting Rivers

7:30PM Saturday 5 December, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide
Conductor - Timothy Frahn & Benjamin Wohlfeil

william schuman — chester overture (1956)
jodie blackshaw — twist (2013)
aaron copland — quiet city (1941/1992)
gustav holst - hammersmith (1930)
martin ellerby — paris sketches (1994)

from the murray to the thames, a selection of symphonic wind classics inspired by twisting rivers & cosmopolitan cities

Rivers don't travel in straight lines. Neither does this programme.
AWO closes its 2026 season with five works spanning post-war America, fog-bound London, and the backstreets of Paris. It opens with Schuman's Chester Overture, propulsive and confident, a tune from the American Revolution made entirely his own. Jodie Blackshaw's Twist follows: restless, shape-shifting, the kind of music that keeps you leaning forward.
The second half turns inward. Copland's Quiet City is among the most achingly beautiful things he ever wrote, a trumpet player haunted by the city he left behind. Holst's Hammersmith is stranger still, a portrait of a working-class London suburb that never quite resolves, and that he considered his finest work. Martin Ellerby closes the year with Paris Sketches, five impressions of the city, ending with warmth, wit, and a little swagger.

Adult $35 | Concession $25 | Child $20 | Family $80

Book now!

ANBOC 2026 - Sydney

6:45PM Saturday 3 October, Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
Conductor - Bryan Griffiths / Soloist - Hannah Kovilpillai

holly harrison — big things (2025)
connor fogarty — concerto for oboe & wind orchestra (2022)
warren benson — the solitary dancer (1966)
yasuhide ito — gloriosa (1990)

big, bold and glorious sounds of harrison and ito with an undercurrent of the electric and eclectic

We take our Gloriosa program on the road, with a performance at the ANBOC 2026 conference at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Book now!

Gloriosa & Hannah Kovilpillai

7:30PM Saturday 19 September, Elder Hall, University of Adelaide
Conductor - Bryan Griffiths / Soloist - Hannah Kovilpillai

holly harrison — big things (2025)
connor fogarty — concerto for oboe & wind orchestra (2022)
warren benson — the solitary dancer (1966)
yasuhide ito — gloriosa (1990)

big, bold and glorious sounds of harrison and ito with an undercurrent of the electric and eclectic

Hannah Kovilpillai is our soloist in this concert, in Connor Fogarty's concerto for oboe and wind orchestra. Hannah is an oboist and cor anglais player in the Band of the South Australia Police, a position she won in 2024. She has been a casual oboist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra since 2016, and also plays with the Adelaide Concert Orchestra, Southern Cross Symphony and the recently established Friday Productions. Prior to working as a full-time oboist, she achieved First Class Honours in Genetics and Masters in Genetic Counselling, and worked as a Genetic Counsellor in hospitals in Adelaide and Sydney.

Hannah began learning the oboe aged 10 and has been fortunate to learn from Seung-en Lee, Grant Dickson and Celia Craig (for whom Connor Fogarty's Concerto for Oboe & Wind Orchestra was written). She feels very privileged to be performing as a soloist with her AWO colleagues this evening

Adult $35 | Concession $25 | Child $20 | Family $80

Book now!