Do you want to dance? Cry? Scream out loud at the way the world is heading? All that is being done for us in symphonic sound by the QSO just down in Grey Street.

The building was accidentally designed as it is, making it a perfect secret space for locals. Changing the concept of Southbank from a glitzy resort to today’s local friendly space, meant that the entrance is a storey higher than the street. You can walk up the nondescript stairs from Grey Street, or find your way around the concrete pillars off the Jacaranda Walk at Southbank and find one of the most magnificent concert halls of the world. The Basil Jones Orchestral Hall is like the Petronas Twin Tower Philhamonic Hall in Kulala Lumpur. Magnificant sound. And it’s ours Westenders.

Get along to have a great deal of fun. So far only the Con and AMEB students, young and old, seem to appreciate it. But I’m sure the various and diverse peoples of West End, South Brisbane, Highgate Hill and Woolloongabba can do Basil proud and make it our own.

Tonight at 7.30pm you can hear the world premiere of the Guitar Concerto “migrating with swallows” that Tasmania’s Gerard Brophy’s wrote and our own Karin Schnaupp and the QSO is playing expertly. That’s preceded by the Australian premiere of Iranian / Austrian Anahita Abbasi’s “why the trees were murmuring”. After the interval, you can cleanse your musical palate with Mozart’s Concerto No. 40.

What will you hear? Firstly you’ll hear Abbasi’s brilliant soundscape. It has viola trills, trombone sighs, sound overlays and whispers as the sounds of the city are combined with that of crickets and frogs leading to the ever calming sound of water. It’s a piece to hear for yourself. If you are a music student or musician, it’s a must hear. It’ll give you inspiration and introduce you to the poetry of Iran’s film director Forugh Farrokhzad who, coincidentally, died 58 years ago yesterday aged 32.

Next you’ll hear Brophy’s piece with “the wind wailing and learn that the world is a rose … a precious gift, not earned by shared as it seeks freedom”. Now doesn’t that sound like West End? Brophy reminds me of Shostakovich, telling tales in music that politicians don’t want to hear. And Karin Schnaupp played games with the orchestra, bringing the guitar sounds out from behind a wall of sound only to dance back into the sounds of the various instruments. A delight.

Umberto Clerici is extending the orchestra, giving them challenging pieces to play. And he’s challenging us too. He wants patrons dancing in the aisles, and who better than a West End crew to bring his vision to life in full colour and in harmony?

Made for West End audiences.

And after the interval? A little soundtrack to fresh air and sunshine is followed by the second movement of warm slippers, a good book and a cat on your lap. Sated from that, you’ll get to dance among friends and then to hop on the skateboard and career after your run-away dog along the Riverside Drive, arriving home with the wind in your hair and no accidents.

It’s all West End. The only challenge left is to get more of us along more often so we can reduce the ticket price. Good student prices, special prices for locals who walk in and great new signage would open up a world we really need at this time in history.

Get along if you are rich in music. Tickets are $100 tonight. Worth it. Really it is a good investment as you’ll be able to use the inspiration to change the world, as these composers did.

See: https://qso.com.au/events/2025/special-events/clerici-and-schaupp

Kerry McGovern