The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra will return to Adelaide Festival Centre to farewell its long-serving concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto, the orchestra announced today. While the ASO has returned to live performance following the shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – performing its ‘Sanctuary’ community centre concerts, and yesterday’s Classics Unwrapped 3 concert at the Barossa Arts Centre – the Natsuko Plays Beethoven concert on September 19, conducted by Dane Lam, marks the orchestra’s return to Adelaide’s main stage.

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s outgoing Concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto. Photo © Claudio Raschella

“While the orchestra can’t celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth by performing all nine Beethoven Symphonies as originally planned, we’re thrilled to mark this special occasion with one of our closest friends – Natsuko Yoshimoto,” said Managing Director Vincent Ciccarello. “The September date will be especially poignant, as we farewell our long-serving, esteemed concertmaster.”

“As a performer I treat every concert as if I’m playing the piece for the first and the last time but, this being my final year, I feel quite emotional, as it will be the last time that I play these works with this wonderful orchestra,” Yoshimoto said.

Yoshimoto will perform...