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John Keene
Conductor

John Keene is currently Principal Conductor of the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, a position held since 2023, and Associate Principal Double Bass of WASO, a position held since 2019. John debuted with WASO as a conductor in 2022, and has also conducted in multiple masterclasses under the guidance of WASO Principal Conductor Asher Fisch. He was a graduate of the Symphony Services International Conducting Program in 2016 and participated in several Australian Conducting Academy modules from 2022-2026. In Sydney, John managed and conducted his orchestra ensemble nouveau, and in Perth began The Orchestra Collective. John has played Principal Double Bass with the New Zealand and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras and the Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective, and Tutti with the Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. He regularly performs solo with ensembles such as Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and Cygnus Arioso, and teaches several double bass students at school and university.

John’s Chair is supported by Janet Holmes à Court AC through the Duet program.

Dr. Ashley Smith
Presenter

Described as ‘Incandescent... a masterly display of skill and insight’ (The Age), Ashley William Smith performs as a clarinet soloist and chamber musician across Australia, the USA and Asia. A laureate of major Australian awards including the Music Council of Australia Freedman Fellowship, an ABC Symphony International Young Performer Award, a Churchill Fellowship and the APRA Performance of the Year, he is a Buffet-Crampon and D’Addario Artist.

More than 30 works have been written for him, and in 2026 he will premiere a new clarinet concerto by James Ledger with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared worldwide with ensembles including the Australian String Quartet, Calder Quartet, Dover Quartet and Southern Cross Soloists. Ashley is an Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia (Chair of Woodwind and Deputy Head of School), and is active as an artistic director, public speaker and educator.

Jenna Smith
Trumpet

Jenna Smith is the Principal Trumpet of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Prior to this she held the position of Associate Principal Trumpet at WASO from 2019–2022.

Jenna performed as Principal Trumpet with the Australian World Orchestra in 2025. She has played with the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Opera Australia Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and the SSO Sinfonia.

Jenna enjoys playing solo repertoire and has performed as a soloist with WASO, The Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Sydney Wind Symphony.

Jenna is a passionate educator and enjoys teaching at the University of Western Australia’s Conservatorium of Music. Jenna has also appeared as a Guest Lecturer at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

When Jenna isn’t playing the trumpet, she enjoys playing board games with her husband, taking her singing greyhounds to the beach, and watercolour painting.

Jenna’s Chair is supported by John & Nita Walshe through the Duet program.

James Ledger
(b.1966)

James Ledger is a composer whose music has been performed internationally. He has held residencies with the Adelaide, Christchurch (NZ) and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Australian National Academy of Music, and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.

His first orchestral work Indian Pacific (1996) is still regularly performed around Australia. The work was composed while Ledger was living in London and Ledger describes it as "[being] borne from a third-party perspective of life in Australia if not genuine homesickness."

Although named after the train journey across Australia, Indian Pacific is not a "programmatic work". In other words, no specific sections in the music are meant to describe certain details of the voyage. The work is built around an unrelenting quaver rhythm that remains constant for most of the piece. It is scored for the usual orchestral forces but also includes piano and a large variety of percussion instruments. Amongst these is a small length of railway track that is played with metal beaters for that authentic train-spotting experience.

Amy Beach
(1867–1944)

Gaelic Symphony, 1st movement

Classical music in the United States was essentially European-based until the very late 19th century. There was little sense of an ‘American’ sound, as there was for Germany, France, England and Italy; each with their own idiosyncrasies and links to culture and history. The consensus was one of elitism and snobbery, i.e. the European model must be superior to anything that could be composed by a New World (American) musician.

Although there had been American composers prior to this, the very end of the 19th century saw the beginnings of an American school of composition and the acceptance of American sounds and ideas as being valid (if not yet seen as equal to European).

Most people attribute this to Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák was paid to travel to the USA in 1892 and set up the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Just as he had helped create a Bohemian sound by infusing folk song idioms into traditional classical forms in his native country, he sought to help create an American sound. He stayed for three years, and it was during this time he composed his Symphony No.9 From the New World.

Whilst Dvořák’s influence was positive, it wasn’t the only source of change. The Second New England School (aka ‘The Boston Six’) were a group of American composers who were striving to compose in their own style, not just replicate the European model. Comprised of John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote, George Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward McDowell and Horatio Parker; their music was influenced by folk music, First Nations and African-American music, and the music and stories of the immigrants that made up the melting pot of American culture. These elements, however, were not the key factor in the American style and they were at pains to ensure these features were not merely a novelty or gimmick. Whilst they added colour and context to the music, the Second New England School sought to infuse their music with the youthful energy and tenacious spirit of their newer culture.

Beach chose to use Irish Folk tunes as the melodic basis of this symphony. At the time, Irish people were considered a lower class in society. Beach’s recognition of their plight as immigrants to the United States and the use of their traditional music, was to represent a minority. This was in line with her view that American music should be diverse, inclusive, and cosmopolitan. Her view was generally not aligned with those of the upper classes and some of the negative reviews of the symphony may have been due to Anti-Irish sentiment.

The opening of the First Movement represents the harrowing sea crossing of the Gaelic immigrants. In addition to borrowing from her own song, Dark is the Night, she uses the lively, bagpipe-inspired dance tune Conchobhar ua Raghallaigh Cluann (Connor O’Reilly of Clounish) as the closing theme.

Joseph Haydn
(1732–1809)

Trumpet Concerto, 3rd movement

In its most traditional form, as crystallised during the Classical Period, the Concerto is a large-scale work written for orchestra and soloist. It centres on the Classical concept of balance; soloist and orchestra play equal roles, exchanging melodic lines and taking turns in the spotlight. The soloist, however, is undeniably the star. The Concerto gives them an opportunity to showcase their technical prowess and musicality.

A Classical Concerto is usually comprised of three movements:
I. Fast. Includes a cadenza near the end of the movement (Concerto-Sonata form)
II. Slow. Lyrical (variety of choices e.g. Ternary, Theme and Variations, Rondo form)
III. Fast. Sometimes a cadenza (Quick Rondo or Sonata-Rondo form)

Bedřich Smetana
(1824–1884)

My Country: Vltava

The tone poem depicting Bohemia’s greatest river, the Vltava (known in German as Moldau), is the second of the six spiritually and, to an extent musically, integrated movements making up Smetana’s orchestral masterpiece, the symphonic cycle My Country (Má vlast). Composed between 1872 and 1880 in patriotic celebration of the nation’s countryside, history and legend, it was intended to assert Czech identity within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, it symbolises the finer feelings of patriotism for people the world over.

‘Vltava’ depicts the course of the river through the countryside, by means of a rondo-like structure in which a pulsing theme first heard in E minor recurs and grows and will eventually achieve grandeur in E major. In passing episodes, the river encounters a hunt, a village festival and a moonlight dance of water nymphs. Challenged by the turbulent Rapids of St John, the river emerges broader, its spirits proudly lifted as it surges forth to meet its destiny – at Vyšehrad, dominating the right bank as it enters Prague, the legendary High Castle of Bohemia’s first royal dynasty; then on through the Golden City and beyond.

The resounding, foursquare ‘Vyšehrad’ motto with which the Vltava is greeted to Prague comes from the first movement of My Country. It is the musical and spiritual linchpin of the cycle, evoking glories of a medieval past, climaxing the river’s journey, and combining with a 15th century Hussite battle hymn to end the cycle in a grand apotheosis affirming the Czech people’s golden future.

Anthony Cane © 2008

First performance: 4 April 1875. Adolf Čech conducting.
First WASO performance: 7 June 1969. Thomas Mayer, conductor.
Most recent WASO performance: 11 & 12 November 2022. Johannes Fritzsch, conductor.
Instrumentation: three flutes (doubling piccolo), two each of oboes, clarinets and bassoons; four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba; timpani, percussion, harp and strings.