About this organisation
Summary of activities
Our principal activity is to encourage, promote and support the Australian Chamber Orchestra and its performance, learning and engagement activities to a large and diverse domestic and international audience and the management of our home performance, rehearsal and event venue for internal and external supported hirers. In 2024 the Company presented 237 concerts to an audience of over 125,500, the Company s largest annual audience in its history. These performances were held across Australian metropolitan centres including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, regional centres including Warrnambool, Narre Warren, Geelong, Wangaratta, and Gippsland (VIC); Goulburn, Wollongong and Wyong (NSW) and internationally in cities including New York and Hong Kong. The Company collaborated with world-renowned musicians and artists including First Nations Australian didgeridoo player and vocalist William Barton, pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, singers Stuart Skelton, Catherine Carby, and Iestyn Davies, oud player Joseph Tawadros, riq player James Tawadros, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, classical accordion player James Crabb, harpsichordist Chad Kelly and guitarist Sean Shibe. The Orchestra also performed Richard Tognetti s award-winning cinematic collaboration with film director Jennifer Peedom, River, on a national tour, premiered a new collaboration with Sydney Dance Company, Silence & Rapture, which was choreographed by Rafael Bonachela and featured dancers Emily Seymour and Liam Green along with singer Iestyn Davies, and presented a special concert with popular journalists and podcasters Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales, For the Love of Music, which was performed in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The Company gave four world premieres of works by Australian composers Anne Cawrse, Jakub Jankowski, Chad Kelly and Harry Sdraulig. In addition to this, the Company performed seven Australian premieres of works by international composers Britta Byström, Tom Coult, John Luther Adams, Cassandra Miller, Julia Wolfe, Thomas Ades and David Fennessy. The Company released two new recordings in partnership with ABC Classic across digital and CD formats: the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated film, Memoir of a Snail, and Kilar: Orawa | Rautavaara: The Fiddlers. The Company was also awarded the 2024 AIR Award for Best Independent Classical Album. The Company was delighted to announce a new violin joined its collection of Golden Age string instruments. The 1741- 44 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù violin was acquired by the Company with the assistance of generous donations from Company supporters, to be played by Artistic Director Richard Tognetti. The Company hosted 284 events at its home at ACO On The Pier in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct and supported 27 arts organisations.
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Outcomes
Outcomes are self-reported by charities
Programs and activities
Name: ACO Live Performances
Classification: Performing arts (Arts and culture > Performing arts )
Beneficiaries:- General community in Australia
Name: ACO Talent Development Programs
URL: https://www.aco.com.au/the-orchestra/aco-collective
Classification: Arts education (Arts and culture > Arts services > Arts education )
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Families
- General community in Australia
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: ACO Early Years and Community Engagement Programs
URL: https://www.aco.com.au/pier23/families
Classification: Arts education (Arts and culture > Arts services > Arts education )
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Financially disadvantaged people
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Music Commissioning and new work
Classification: Composition (Arts and culture > Performing arts > Music > Composition)
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- General community in Australia
- Overseas communities or charities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: ACO On-Demand - (StudioCasts, HomeCasts, Livestreams)
URL: https://www.aco.com.au/aco-on-demand
Classification: Performing arts (Arts and culture > Performing arts )
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Families
- General community in Australia
- Overseas communities or charities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: ACO Music and Movement Classes
URL: https://www.aco.com.au/whats-on/2025/music-and-movement
Classification: Arts education (Arts and culture > Arts services > Arts education )
Beneficiaries:- Early childhood - aged under 6
- General community in Australia
Name: ACO International Performances
Classification: Performing arts (Arts and culture > Performing arts )
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Families
- Overseas communities or charities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Finances
What is this?
This graph shows how much revenue (money in) and expenses (money out) the charity has had each year over the last few years. Charities have many sources of revenue, such as donations, government grants, and services they sell to the public. Similarly, expenses are everything that allows the charity to run, from paying staff to rent.
What should I be looking for?
First off, this graph gives a general indication of how big the charity is - charities range in size from tiny (budgets of less than $100,000) to enormous (budgets more than $100 million). You're also looking for variability - if the charity's revenue and expenses are jumping up and down from year to year, make sure there's a good reason for it.
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want revenue to be slightly above expenses. If expenses is reliably above revenue, the charity is losing money. If revenue is much larger than expenses, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
If a charity receives more money than it spends, that's a surplus (in business, it would be called profit). If it spends more than it receives, that's a deficit. This chart shows surpluses and deficits for the charity over the last few years.
What should I be looking for?
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want a charity to make a small surplus on average. A deficit means that charity lost money that year, which may indicate poor financial management or just a series of bad circumstances. If the charity always has a huge surplus, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
This chart compares the amount the charity receives from various sources, including donations (i.e. money given by the general public or philanthropy), goods and services, government grants, and other sources.
What should I be looking for?
Donations are an important source of revenue for some charities. Others rely more heavily on government funding, or on revenue from other sources. This is an indication of how much they need donors to accomplish their mission. Note that there is no 'good' or 'bad' amount of donations for a charity to have. It might be interesting to look at values over time - are they going up or down? A charity that gets less donations every year may be in trouble.
What is this?
Assets are things that the charity owns that are worth something. This could be anything from a car to investments. Similarly, liabilities are debts or obligations that the charity owes to someone else, like a loan or an agreement to pay for something.
What should I be looking for?
Firstly, in general a charity should have more assets than liabilities. If it doesn't, it implies that the charity might not be able to pay its debts, and you should look very closely at the charity's annual and financial reports to make sure they are taking steps to remedy this. Current assets should generally be above current liabilities - that means the charity can easily pay off the debts that are coming due soon. Beyond that, look for a large stockpile of assets. While a charity should have enough assets to keep it afloat in hard times (a 'buffer') if that stockpile gets too large the charity could be using that money more effectively. As always, if you have concerns check the annual and financial reports.
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