MSO announces first date of major UK and European Tour

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to announce it will embark on a major five-city tour of the UK and Europe in August 2025 – its first international tour with full orchestra since visiting North America in 2019.

Chief Conductor Jaime Martín and the MSO begin the tour at the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival on 22 August. The MSO will then perform in Spain, Italy and Germany before returning to the UK for its final performance. Details of these concerts will be announced in coming weeks.

The MSO will be in prestigious company at Edinburgh International Festival with the classical music program also featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra and MSO artistic partners, the NCPA Orchestra from Beijing. The MSO concert will feature the world premiere of Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s MSO commission Treaty with William Barton (yidaki/didgeridoo) as soloist. The program also includes Edward Elgar’s In the South and Modest Mussorgsky’s vivid Pictures at an Exhibition, featuring its majestic finale The Great Gate of Kyiv.

Chief Conductor Jaime Martín said the musicians are looking forward to sharing music with our northern hemisphere colleagues and audiences.

“After successful tours of our Asia-Pacific region in the past few years, it’s wonderful to start our international tour at Edinburgh International Festival where we will be performing Deborah’s evocative new work with the incomparable William Barton on yidaki,” says Martín. “This is an incredible opportunity to showcase the virtuosity of the MSO and share new Australian music with UK and European audiences.”

The MSO was the first Australian orchestra to tour internationally (1965) and has been a leading cultural ambassador in supporting and promoting Australia’s arts and culture on the international stage.

MSO Chair Edgar Myer said: “The decision to embark on the Europe tour heralds our first return to the region in more than 10 years. The opportunity to perform on some of the world’s great stages serves to promote the cultural identity of our city, showcasing the best of Australian arts to a global audience.”

About Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival is the original festival. It’s the one that started it all, the igniting spark that established Edinburgh as the world’s Festival City.

The next International Festival takes place 1–24 August 2025, under the direction of Festival Director and Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti. Benedetti’s vision for the International Festival is to create the deepest level of experience, through the highest quality art, for the broadest possible audience.

The Edinburgh International Festival was founded in 1947, the inspired idea of Rudolf Bing, a cultural pioneer and Jewish refugee, working with a group of civic and artistic leaders. Together, they created a festival that transcends political boundaries through a global celebration of the performing arts.

Over the following 77 years the International Festival’s hand-picked programme of world-leading dance, opera, music and theatre has continued to bring people of different cultures and viewpoints together every August. Meanwhile, the International Festival’s sister festivals have grown up around it – each of them contributing to the atmosphere of unparalleled excitement that transforms the city each summer.

Shining far beyond what you see on stage, the International Festival also offers year-round pathways for people of all ages and backgrounds to discover and participate in live performance. Learn more at eif.co.uk/about .