Established in 2012, AWO was founded by alumni of the Elder Conservatorium Wind Orchestra who sought to continue and progress the legacy of that ensemble’s distinguished director, the late Robert ‘Bob’ Hower (1953-2019).
Under the initial leadership of clarinettist, conductor, and educator, Peter Handsworth, AWO quickly established itself as one of Australia’s foremost symphonic wind ensembles.
Following Peter’s departure in 2015, the orchestra worked closely with some of Australia’s leading wind and orchestral conductors, including Dr. Luke Dollman, Dr. John Lynch, Matt Klohs, and David Polain, before appointing Bryan Griffiths as Principal Conductor in 2019.
AWO has featured local, national and international artists such as Jamie Adam (percussion), Celia Craig (oboe), Peter Duggan (cor anglais), Andy Firth (clarinet), Elizabeth Layton (violin), Owen Morris (trumpet), Andrew Penrose (percussion), Colin Prichard (trombone), Konstantin Shamray (piano), David Khafagi (trumpet), Sami Butler (percussion), and Gill Sullivan (piano).
AWO has engaged in a significant commissioning of Australian compositions, and have premiered Australian compositions by Anne Cawrse, Leah Blankendaal, Rachel Bruerville, Martin Cheney, Holly Harrison, Connor Fogarty, David John Lang, and Cassie To, as well as giving the South Australian premieres of Australian works by Katia Beaugeais, Jodie Blackshaw, Nigel Butterley, Ross Edwards, Melody Eötvös, Matthew Hindson, and Natalie Williams.
The orchestra has also presented the Australian premiere of compositions by Steven Bryant, Michael Colgrass, Roshanne Etezady, Julie Giroux, Ida Gotkovsky, Alan Hovhaness, Jess Langston-Turner, Christian Lindberg, John Mackey, David Maslanka, Scott McAllister, Stephen Montague, Oscar Navarro, Kathryn Salfelder, Aulis Sallinen, Frank Ticheli, Omar Thomas, Joan Tower, Geirr Tveitt, Alfred Uhl, Sam Young and Ellen Taafe Zwilich.
In 2024, AWO released their debut album on digital platforms titled ‘Tangent’, a showcase of recent Australian compositions for winds. AWO continued our championing of Australian music with our debut at the WASBE International conference in Gwangju, South Korea, in July 2024, providing a critically acclaimed performance to industry peers to a sold out 1,000+ seat venue. We collaborated with conductor and composer, Dr. Frank Ticheli, who conducted us the following day in a major outdoor concert to celebrate making our mark on the world stage.
