The Ady Ensemble was founded by Adrian Head, in 2011. The ensemble is project-based, coming together to perform two or three times a year, & whose members include professional musicians, recent graduates, tertiary music students, and talented community players.
Over its years of existence, the ensemble has produced performances of a high standard, which have encompassed well-known classical works, along with numerous commissions & World Premieres, the latter the result of collaborations with local and interstate composers. Since 2019, the ensemble has expanded to a full symphony orchestra.
Some of the ensemble’s highlights have included performing the Australian Premiere of Philip Glass’ 3rd Symphony in 2012, performances at the 4MBS Festival of Classics, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music & the University of Queensland School of Music. In 2014, the ensemble performed as part of the CPE Bach-1714 Festival- a world-wide festival, based in Germany, that celebrated the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Carl Phillipp Emmanuel Bach, & in 2016 it gave the first Australian mainland performance of Eddie Sauter’s Third Stream classic, Focus- written for Stan Getz in 1961. With the commercial release of the ensemble’s recording of Corrina Bonshek’s, “Dreams of the Earth” in 2021, the work received the “Contemporary Classical” award at the 2022 Queensland Music Awards. In 2022 the ensemble released its recording of Brahms’ 2nd Symphony.