KPO’s opening concert for 2025 features two eminent Australian artists. In recent years Harry Sdraulig has gained international recognition as a composer, collaborating with many acclaimed artists. He is now the most frequently commissioned and performed composer of his peers here in Australia. In 2021, Torrent, was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as part of the 50 Fanfares Project.

Hyung Suk Bae won the KPO Concerto Competition in 2008 performing, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor - generally considered to be the most challenging and greatest of all the cello concerti - and has gone on to become an acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, orchestral musician and artist. Written in 1894, with the standard format of three contrasting movements, it is scored for full romantic orchestra plus 4th horn.

When Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony in E minor was premiered in 1888, community reaction was mixed and the composer himself believed it to be a failure. Since then this symphony has become one of the most loved and recognised of all Tchaikovsky’s compositions - and an audience favourite.