About Us
Our Orchestra is renowned for it’s dynamic programming, entertaining Victorians of all ages, with various tastes, for nearly 100 years.
The VSCO is the longest existing orchestra in Australia and the only orchestra conceived by a State Government (Mr. John Meagher), in all of Australia, which makes us very unique in our origins as well as in our original purpose, entertaining at Government functions and our ongoing purpose, that is providing a free service to the people of Victoria, especially to those in rural and regional areas that suffer from natural disasters and need a bit of high quality, light entertainment that’s accessible and affordable as well as enjoyable.
Photography by Agatha Yim, Polyphonic Pictures
Loretta Frances Meagher
President of the Victorian State Concert Orchestra & Concertmaster
Concertmaster and soloist since 2010, performing at numerous sold out concerts around Victoria every year.
“Loretta has not only led the orchestra with great skill and aplomb but has played as a highly accredited soloist, performing celebrated violin concert pieces to the great enjoyment of the many sold out audiences around Victoria. I have been continuously impressed with her organizational ability and her professional attitude at the many concerts we have worked on together.”
– Gerald Keuneman, Conductor, Victorian Concert Orchestra
Loretta has been passionate and dedicated about the violin since she began her studies at age 7, playing in many local orchestras and string ensembles, including the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra, Geminiani, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Pops Orchestra and participated in many National Music Camps and Eisteddfods.
At the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Loretta formed a successful violin/cello duo performing weekly, for 2 years at the Spaghetti Theatre Restaurant, the Spaghetti Tree and Clifton Hill Hotel, the highlight being a performance at the dinner given in honour of Wan Li, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China at Government House, Melbourne. This was followed by extensive work with string quartets, winning in 1987 the Musical Society of Victoria's 'Herbert N. Davis Chamber Music Award' which was presented by Sir Yehudi Menuhin. During this time, Loretta was also working as a violin teacher at Avila College and Bialik College. In 1990 Loretta was awarded her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University.
Moving to Adelaide, Loretta then studied with the highly regarded Australian violin pedagogue, Ms Lyndall Hendrickson where she also studied Educational and Psychological Learning Theories at the University of Adelaide and was awarded her Graduate Diploma in Education, majoring in Classroom Music and Instrumental Methodology. Loretta also assisted Ms Hendrickson for 6 years, teaching beginner violin to students in the String Methodology component of the Bachelor of Music Degree, at the University of Adelaide. She was awarded a scholarship and in 1995, implemented a beginner violin teaching program at Gloriamus, Jakarta, Indonesia. In 1996, Loretta furthered her violin performance studies with the internationally recognized Miss Beryl Kimber O.B.E., F.R.A.M. at the University of Adelaide, receiving a Graduate Diploma in Music Performance. She was also awarded the ‘Alexander Clark Memorial Scholarship’ and her L.Mus.A.. During this time Loretta taught at many private schools, Mercedes College, St. Ignatius College, Prince Alfred College, St. Peter’s Collegiate Girls’ School. Continuing violin studies for a short time with Dr. Semyon Kobets, she also studied Clinical Pilates, working with physiotherapists as well as studying physiology and reading extensive literature on posture.
Returning to Melbourne, Loretta worked as a teacher at Carey Baptist Grammar School and freelance violinist performing with many orchestras such as La Fraternità di Solisti, Melbourne City Opera, Pro Musica, Nicholas Chamber Orchestra, Star Chorale, etc. and numerous musical theatre production orchestras.
Recently, Loretta recorded a solo violin composition by the Melbourne based and highly esteemed composer, Barry McKimm, which will be released in the next few months. It forms part of a larger work called ‘Colombine’.
Currently Loretta is also very honoured to have received a dedication by Barry McKimm, for his new Second Violin Concerto
Warwick Stengårds
Conductor
Following a four-year engagement as Assistant Generalmusikdirektor at the Volksoper Wien and a seven-year tenure as Erster Kapellmeister at the Luzerner Theater, Warwick Stengårds is an Australian/Swedish freelance conductor based in Vienna.
In addition to an extensive symphonic canon, Stengårds has a music-theatre repertoire of over 100 works performing with companies such as Vienna State Opera, Volksoper Wien, Folkoperan Stockholm, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, Chamber Made Opera and West Australian Opera where, in 1991, he was appointed Music Director.
Operatic highlights include the world premieres of Naske’s Die Rote Zora, Das Städtchen Drumherum, Enakos, Koehne's Love Burns, Tahourdin's Heloise and Abelard, Ingham's Transfigured Night, Koukias' Mikrovian and Australian premieres of Reimann’s Die Gespenstersonate, Turnage's Greek, Williamson's Our Man in Havana, Swiss premieres of Greek, Kraus’ Soliman II and Joplin’s Treemonisha
Stengårds also has wide experience with choral groups. In addition to a four-year term as Director of Queen's College Chapel Choir, he was Music Director of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir for four years followed by a three-year appointment with the University of Western Australia Choral Society. He has conducted the West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Choruses, the undergraduate choirs at the Universities of Melbourne, Monash, Macquarie and Western Australia, the Ashton Smith Singers, the Newcastle University Choir, the Willoughby Symphony Choir and Harmonia Sacra.
In Europe, aside from the internationally acclaimed Johann Strauss Capelle and Schönbrunner Schlossorchester where he was appointed Chefdirigent in 2004, Stengårds has conducted the Ulster Orchestra in a series of concerts and recordings for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the SL Orkester, the Uppsala Kammarorkester, Klangforum Wien, MUSIKFABRIK (Koeln), the Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Saarbrücken (featuring soloist Andreas Scholl), DalaSinfoniettan, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the European Doctors Orchestra and the Nürnberger Symphoniker.
Recent projects included:
Tyranny of Distance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Einstein Cantata with SonicFiction and concerts with the Luxemburg Philharmonie, Purcell’s Fairy Queen in South Africa for Cape Festival, Naske’s Das Städtchen Drumherum at the Vienna State Opera, Die Csardasfürstin in Leipzig, Die Fledermaus in Lüneburg, Madama Butterfly, Reimann’s Die Gespenstersonate for Opera Australia, Alcina for Gertrude Opera, the world premiere of Naske’s Enakos at the Vienna State Opera, Lost Operas of Oz for SOSA and concerts with the Australian Youth Orchestra and VCASS.
John Ferguson
Deputy Conductor
John Ferguson was born in London, and worked as a Musical Director for theatres, brass bands and choirs, and as an arranger and conductor for Television South West (TSW) and Thames Television.
As a conductor, John studied with Dr Roy Truby in the UK, and, in Australia with Robert Rosen, Myer Fredman and Barry Bignell. He holds a Master’s degree in conducting from the Victorian College of the Arts, and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2001 he received a Symphony Australia scholarship to study with Jorma Panula, and later a scholarship to the International Conducting Academy in Romania. Other conducting engagements have included the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra strings, the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra, the Australian Discovery Orchestra and engagements in Singapore, Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, including being guest conductor for the Xiamen International Piano Festival in 2016 and the Xiamen Philharmonic in 2019. He is founder and conductor of the Pro Musica orchestra and the Ambassadorial Youth Chamber Orchestra (AYCO).
John worked as a conductor for the VCA Opera School for four years, and was chief conductor for Melbourne City Opera. John has received the Theatre Guild ‘Musical Director of the Year’ award three times.
Dr Ferguson is regularly invited to adjudicate festivals and eisteddfods, has been an AMEB examiner since 1988, and has been a guest lecturer at Beijing and Chengdu Normal Universities and the Tianjin, Xiamen and Sichuan Conservatories in China. He has been an occasional lecturer at the University of Melbourne where he has also undertaken musicology research. Dr Ferguson was Director of Music at Scotch College from 1991 until 2025.
Soprano
Jane O’Toole
Jane is an experienced Singer, Entertainer and Producer, who has sung and performed a multitude of Roles around Australia and New Zealand. With a Post Graduate Diploma from The Victorian College of the Arts Opera Studio , Jane is as equally at home on the concert platform, as she is on stage at the Sydney Opera House. This is a far cry from her first degree in Science and Arts majoring in Physiology and Biology!
Jane has performed many lead roles for major companies and Orchestras both in Australia and New Zealand.
Having been described as “An Engaging comic Talent” by the West Australian Newspaper, and glorious by The Age ”the Glory of the Evening was Jane O’Toole … Pure and Thrilling”, Jane is sure to delight
Jane has also performed all the leading soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire
“Soaring soprano Jane O'Toole was unswervingly faithful to the time honoured original genre and her Poor Wand’ ring One was the evenings undisputed singing summit" - Melbourne Herald Sun, Bob Crimeen. She has also toured nationally with various Morning Melodies productions and has frequently been soloist with The Australian Army Band, the Victorian Concert Orchestra and the Australian Pops/Philharmonic Orchestra, including their Spirit of Ireland, Best of British and Sunday Pops series at both the Melbourne Concert Hall and Sydney Opera House.
Jane successfully completed many Nationals tours, including producing and starring in her own production “THE GIRLS FROM OZ” which was about Australia’s four great Divas, Nellie Melba, Gladys Moncrieff, Joan Sutherland and June Bronhill, which toured to over 40 Theatres around the country
Today, whilst still singing, Jane is also kept busy with her own Entertainment agency O&C Entertainment and is excited to be back singing with the Victorian Concert Orchestra
Tenor
Raymond Khong
A versatile performer having worked on television, radio and mainly stage, Raymond is a veteran of the Australian stage and has been active fornearly thirty years now, having started way back in 1993 with the Victoria State Opera, The Australian Opera and other notable companiesincluding Co-Opera, Eastern Metropolitan Opera, Melbourne City Opera and Chamber Made Opera.Having sung many roles, including Rodolfo (La Bohème), Prunier (La Rondine), Don José (Carmen), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Belmonte (Seraglio) and Ferrando (Cosi fan Tutte), his highlight was as the disturbed Tian Qing in Chamber Made Opera’s world premiere of The Possessed – a role which won him a Green Room Award nomination for Best Lead Performer.
Raymond has appeared on television and film, but his passion remains the stage, where he can be his flamboyant self and has freelanced with many groups touring the country for over 15 years, most notably as one of Australia’s Three Chinese Tenors, and in touring productions of Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, A Waltz Through Vienna.
Very active on the concert circuit, he was also for many years the soloist for The Australian Army Band, The Viennese Musical Society, The Victorian Concert Orchestra and Macquarie Philharmonia, which he was invited to present his style of humorous classical singing at the 50th Anniversary of the satellite dish at Parkes, NSW, “Opera Under the Stars” for then Governor General Quentin Bryce.
He continues to produce his own touring shows, presenting popera songs with a cheeky comedic flavour. He has recorded three albums- “Voices for Hope”, “Music From the Heart” and “Voyage”. In 2019, he was awarded a Fellowship Diploma in Music, mastering in Voice, and also received critical acclaim with his menacing portrayal of The Doctor in the Australian premiere of A Handmaid’s Tale opera, both in 2019.
During the COVID 19 lockdowns, he was still keeping relatively busy, singing Chen Fu in La Mama Theatre’s premiere performance of Noel Fidge’s Gang of Five on stage, and several feature television roles, for Toyota for the USA, The Department of Defence and in the Australian TV series Love Me opposite Hugo Weaving and Heather Mitchell.