Sydney Opera House calls for young composers to write new audience cue

Sydney Opera House and the Australian Youth Orchestra have put a call out for Australians aged between 12 and 21 to rewrite the Sydney Opera House’s fanfare: the short 30-second blast of music that calls theatre-goers to their seats.

Eight winning composers will workshop their pieces with storied composer Nicholas Vines, the Australian Youth Orchestra, and a conductor, who will refine the works. The eight pieces will then be recorded and used – a different piece each month – as the bell cue that indicates when Opera House audiences need to return to their seats.

This will be the first time the Opera house audience bells will be changed in over forty years, but fans of the now-iconic fanfare can rest easy: the Sydney Opera House have assured us that this is not a permanent replacement, but that they will be using the fanfares instead of the usual audience bells on certain occasions and in certain venues.

Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron tells TMN of the idea behind the project: “We felt [it] was a great way to encourage the creativity of young Australian artists, and to present their work in an interesting way to a very broad audience.”