West Australian Symphony Orchestra

West Australian Symphony Orchestra — Perth’s resident symphony

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra is the principal symphony of Western Australia, with around eighty musicians and a typical year of approximately one hundred concerts. The principal home is the Perth Concert Hall on St Georges Terrace, with substantial touring within Western Australia to Bunbury, Albany, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie. The chief conductor since 2025 is Australian conductor Jessica Cottis, succeeding Asher Fisch (in the role from 2014–2024) — Fisch’s decade in Perth produced one of the most distinctive symphonic identities in the country, built on the Brahms-Mahler-Strauss central-European Romantic tradition.

What they’re known for

Asher Fisch’s tenure left the WASO with the strongest German-Austrian Romantic repertoire identity of any Australian orchestra — the annual Brahms cycle, the regular Strauss tone poems, and the Mahler symphonies that punctuated his decade became the orchestra’s most distinctive programming line. Cottis has continued the Brahms-Mahler thread while expanding the contemporary commissioning programme; recent commissions have included works by Cathy Milliken, Ross Edwards and the Perth-based composer Iain Grandage.

The WASO’s role as the pit orchestra for West Australian Opera at His Majesty’s Theatre is a substantial calendar item — the orchestra plays approximately four mainstage opera productions a year alongside the symphonic season. The combination of symphonic and opera programming gives WASO musicians a more diverse working calendar than several of the eastern-states symphonies.

Home venues

• Perth Concert Hall — 1,729 seats, the principal symphonic home. The hall is currently slated for a major redevelopment that will close it for several years; the WASO will move to interim venues during the closure period.
• His Majesty’s Theatre — used for the West Australian Opera mainstage productions where the WASO is the pit orchestra.
• The Perth Concert Hall is also used for the major touring orchestral acts and the international guest-conductor visits to Perth.

The season pattern — and how to book

The WASO announces its annual season in mid-September. Subscriptions open immediately; single tickets follow in late October. The marquee programmes — the annual Mahler symphony, the chief-conductor-led marquee weeks, the international guest soloist visits — sell out fastest. The Friday-Saturday subscription pair is the standard format (same programme both nights). The cheapest reliable seat-buying strategy is the choir stalls behind the orchestra, which give a conductor’s-eye perspective at a discounted price.

Planning a trip

The Perth Concert Hall sits on St Georges Terrace at the heart of the Perth CBD — five minutes’ walk from any CBD hotel. Pair the concert with the State Buildings dining (Wildflower, Hadiqa, Halford) and a daytime visit to the Art Gallery of Western Australia or the Perth Cultural Centre at Northbridge (10 min walk). A Perth symphony weekend pairs unusually well with a day-trip to Fremantle (30 min by train) for the heritage architecture, the Round House and Bathers Beach.

Tour reach beyond the capitals

The WASO runs an annual regional Western Australian tour to Bunbury, Albany and Geraldton, with chamber-format groupings of the orchestra. International touring is occasional — recent decades have included tours to China and South-East Asia. The Perth Festival each February-March is a substantial WASO calendar event, with the orchestra performing three or four festival programmes in collaboration with the festival’s chamber music curatorial line.

Useful links

• Official: waso.com.au
• Venue: Perth Concert Hall
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