2025 is the 75th anniversary of the Preston Symphony Orchestra and the opening concert for the year marks the occasion with a bang. Shostakovich is frequently requested by the orchestra’s players and his Festive Overture makes for a celebratory start. A core part of the orchestra’s identity is the annual Youth Concerto Competition – and the first concert of the year features violinist Anne-Marie Johnson, the winner of the Youth Concerto Competition in 2008, now Acting Associate Concertmaster at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She is returning to Preston in 2025 as the soloist in Bruch’s awe-inspiring first violin concerto. Contemporary Australian music is also an important part of PSO. The concert concludes with Katy Abbott’s recent work Hidden Thoughts 3: Stories of Awe in a version specially commissioned for community orchestra.
The Music
Shostakovich
Festive Overture
Bruch
Violin Concerto No.1
Katy Abbott
Hidden Thoughts 3: Stories of Awe
Anne-Marie Johnson
Anne-Marie was the winner of the Preston Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition in 2008, playing the first movement of the Bruch Violin Concerto No 1. Looking back, she says ‘it was a pivotal point in my career and remains one of my most cherished memories’. She returns to perform the complete concerto in 2025 as the Acting Assistant Concertmaster, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Anne-Marie joined the 1st violin section of the MSO in January 2018, after completing a master’s degree in Geneva, Switzerland. This followed studies at the Australian National Academy of Music, with William Hennessy, and the Sydney Conservatorium. Anne-Marie has participated in masterclasses and had lessons with many extraordinary artists including James Ehnes, Christian Tetzlaff, Donald Weilerstein, Arabella Steinbacher, Tasmin Little, Dong Suk-Kang, the Borodin Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Pacifica Quartet and the Takacs Quartet.
Anne-Marie has won a succession of awards in Australia and overseas, and appeared as a soloist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Corpus Medicorum and the ANAM orchestra. She was a founding member of the Australian Octet and has performed chamber music in the Musica Viva, Vasse Felix, Port Fairy Spring Music and Melbourne Festivals.