The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra (MCO) is a professional Australian classical music ensemble based in Melbourne, Victoria.
Each year MCO gives over 50 performances including seasons of orchestral chamber music and works for smaller ensembles in its home city and on tour within the state, it runs its own chamber music festival, participates in other festivals and events, and runs workshops and masterclasses."What's On", Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
History Foundation and artistic direction The orchestra was founded in 1990 under its original name, the Australia Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (APACO),"Australia Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra", Move Records. Retrieved 6 August 2023. by oboist Jeffrey Crellin"60 seconds with ... Jeffrey Crellin", Monash Memo, Monash University, 26 April 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2023. who served as its first artistic director. Crellin was also principal oboist of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), and because of the close association between the two ensembles, a number of MSO musicians also played in the chamber orchestra.Usher, Robin. "New Era for Pro Arte", The Age, 16 August 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
In 2006, after 17 years in the position, Crellin resigned as artistic director and was replaced by violinist William HennessyWilliam Hennessy AM. Retrieved 6 August 2023. who held the position until his retirement in 2021. In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2018, Hennessy received the General Division of the Order of Australia – AM award "for significant service to music as a concert violinist, artistic director, mentor and educator".Commonwealth of Australia. Adjournment: Victoria: Queen's Birthday Honours, Senate Hansard, Thursday 21 June 2018, p. 3682. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
The current director is violinist Sophie Rowell, appointed from 2023, and prior to that was MSO's concertmaster."Artistic Director", Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 6 August 2023.Paget, Clive."Sophie Rowell appointed Artistic Director of Melbourne Chamber Orchestra", Limelight, 12 April 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2023."Sophie Rowell, Violin: Artistic Director – Melbourne Chamber Orchestra; Former Concertmaster – Melbourne Symphony Orchestra", Australian World Orchestra, updated 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.Sophie Rowell, Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
Change of name In an Australian Financial Review report, journalist Katrina Strickland called the old name, Australia Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, "a clunky, confusing moniker".Strickland, Katrina. "Rebadge strikes chord Name changes inspires growth", Australian Financial Review, 20 August 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2023. This view was held by other view held by others including, significantly, the orchestra's then executive chairman, Brian Benjamin, who said, "We undertook an exhaustive research project, looking at chamber orchestras worldwide, and discovered that more than 80 per cent name themselves after their place of residence." As a result, the decision was made by Benjamin and Hennessy for the name to be Melbourne Chamber Orchestra."Melbourne Chamber Orchestra", Move Records. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
In 2022, the acronym "MCO" was trademarkedIP Australia – Trademark registration 2301301. Retrieved 12 December 2004. and in 2024, the name "Melbourne Chamber Orchestra" was also trademarked.IP Australia – Trademark registration 2301300. Retrieved 12 December 2004.
The Other Melbourne Chamber Orchestra In the early 1990s, Spiros Rantos (1945–2004)Spiros Rantos, Retrieved 12 December 2024. founded the Rantos Collegium which performed as 'Melbourne Chamber Orchestra' for a couple of years before wrapping up in 1996."Spiros Rantos Career History". Retrieved 12 December 2024. Move Records recorded and distributed a CD during this time.Move Records. Retrieved 12 December 2024>
As discussed above, at the same time, Crellin's group was performing as APACO and would later change to MCO to align with the opening of the Melbourne Recital Centre. Other than the name, there is no connection between the two groups.
Audiences expansion and increase in activities In its early days, MCO concentrated its seasons in Melbourne's Federation Square The Edge theatre which seated 450 people. As concert attendances quickly reached about 350 and were continuing to grow, the need was obvious for a larger auditorium.
With the new Melbourne Recital Centre due to be opened in February 2009, the orchestra planned to make that its main performance venue. At the time, commentator Robin Usher wrote in The Age, "There were doubts that the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra would survive its first year because it was felt the challenges of adapting to the Melbourne Recital Centre's 1000-seat Elisabeth Murdoch Hall would prove too rigorous. But the orchestra has thrived; attendances have more than doubled, with subscriptions up 60 per cent, and the best is yet to come. It has just announced two programs to be conducted by England's Sir Neville Marriner, 85, founder of the Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, in November."Usher, Robin."Orchestra plays its strengths", The Age, 8 August 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
According to an annual report, by 2016, seven years after its move to the Recital Centre, audience support had grown to the extent that MCO decided to increase its annual season there from 11 to 13 concerts.Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Melbourne Chamber Orchestra Inc.: Annual Information Statement 2017. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
As for all arts organisations, from when the first known case of COVID-19 in Australia was reported on 25 January 2020 until the pandemic was declared in September 2022 by the Australian government to be over, public movement was restricted and audience attendances at arts events dwindled. MCO was badly affected and only six of the 53 seasonal performances originally planned for 2020 took place. As the report for that year says, "The orchestra pivoted to digital small-format chamber music performances for the majority of the year. In total the orchestra still presented 36 performances and events, not including its Facebook-based Moments Musicaux project. These performances included 11 digital streaming performances on Melbourne Digital Concert Hall.Melbourne Digital Concert Hall. Retrieved 6 September 2025. In December, MCO was able to present an 11-performance live-audience celebration of Beethoven's 250th anniversary across eastern Victoria and Daylesford, with a string quintet."Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Melbourne Chamber Orchestra Inc.: Annual Information Statement 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
Little changed for MCO during the two years following the pandemic. But a more positive picture emerged in the 2023 summary which showed that between it and the preceding year there had been a 51% increase in attendances at all events, and a 39% increase in paid attendances at the main Melbourne orchestral concerts.Their Reports to the Community are available for the years 2016–2023 on their website. The 2024 report is yet to be released.[Reports to the Community Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
MCO is now listed as one of the Melbourne Recital Centre's "Key Representing Partners","Key Presenting Partners", Melbourne Recital Centre. which makes the centre MCO's Melbourne venue for its annual orchestral seasons."Orchestral", Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 6 August 2023. Recitals of music for smaller chamber ensemblesChamber Concerts, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 6 August 2023. are presented at other city venues including The Edge in Federation Square.
MCO also tours regional and rural centres in Victoria providing programs from their Melbourne season. The 2017 report cited earlier noted that in that year there had been "22 regional touring performances to communities from Mornington to Yackandandah, adding that the orchestra was "one of Australia's most active tourers of classical music beyond urban centres, adding significantly to the diversity of music that audiences are able to access."
In September each year, MCO runs a chamber music festival called A Feast of Music at Daylesford and other nearby towns."A Feast of Music", Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 13 August 2023. Another annual engagement is the Chamber Music Dining at Narkoojee,"Chamber Music Dining at Narkoojee", Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 13 August 2023. a winery in Glengarry, Victoria.Narkoojee Winery. Retrieved 13 August.
2025 was the first year in which MCO presented performances outside of Victoria. The first,Fantasia, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Retrieved 6 September 2025. involving the entire orchestra along with musicians from the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School,Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Retrieved 6 September 2025. took place at the Snow Concert HallSnow Concert Hall. Retrieved 6 September 2025. in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory on 30 April. The second will be on 21 September at UKARIA Cultural Centre,UKARIA Cultural Centre. Retrieved 6 October 2025. Mount Barker, South Australia when Sophie Rowell will lead a quartet of MCO's string players and Australian pianist Andrea LamAndrea Lam. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
MCO's concerts continue to be accessible online through the Australian Digital Concert Hall subscription network and are broadcast and streamed online by Melbourne's music station 3MBS and Australia's national music network ABC Classic.
Repertoire MCO's repertoire ranges from early music to contemporary works.See, for example, a concert entitled "Illuminations" in which works by Mediaeval nun Hildegard of Bingen, Baroque singer and composer Barbara Strozzi, Romantic composer, conductor and virtuoso musician Giovanni Bottesini, and contemporary composer Andrea Clearfield were performed in September 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
Over the years, MCO has commissioned many new works from Australian composers: