About Us
Founded in 1991 as the Novocastrian Arts Orchestra, with a name change in 1999, Orchestra Nova is the only symphony orchestra in the Newcastle and Hunter region to have rehearsed and performed continuously to the present time.
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A mix of amateur and semi-professional musicians, and a wide range of ages are represented. Many members are also involved in local musical theatre groups, choirs and community bands.
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Over the years Orchestra Nova has featured the talents of instrumental and vocal soloists (both emerging and established) from Newcastle and Hunter regions and has also premiered new works by composition students and established composers.
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Orchestra Nova has collaborated successfully with a variety of musicians and groups resulting in novel and enjoyable concert programmes. Some of these collaborations have involved choirs of adults and children, a jazz band, jazz and folk singers and instrumentalists, classical ballet, Latin dancers, and highland dancers with piper and drums.
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Each year, three formal concerts plus a Children’s Concert are presented.
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Audiences at Orchestra Nova concerts are presented with a wide range of programmes often based on a particular subject or theme such as “A Day at the Proms”, “A Night in Vienna”, “Paris to Berlin”, “Enchanted Europe”, “Bohemian Splendour”, “Popular Concerto Movements”, “Dances from Around the World”, “Young Musicians In Concert”, “Not So Strictly Ballroom”, “Music From Stage and Screen”. Both audience and orchestra members are welcome and encouraged to suggest ideas and music for future concerts.
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From classical music through the ages to jazz, folk, rock, pop, film music, musical theatre and beyond, Orchestra Nova aims to introduce and broaden the appeal of symphonic music to audiences of all ages.
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Our Objective
and Purpose
Orchestra Nova is a community orchestra that provides an environment for quality orchestral musical experiences for musicians.
We promote the appreciation and enjoyment of orchestral music in the cultural life of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie regions through public performances.
Meet the Team for Term 1, 2025
John Kellaway
Guest Conductor
A.MUS.A; L.MUS.A (SYDNEY), ATCL; LTCL (LONDON), FELLOW TRINITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC LONDON, DIP.MUS.ED (NEWCASTLE), B.MUS.ED (NEWCASTLE), DSCM (SYDNEY)
John Kellaway has been Conducting for fifty years. He has toured extensively throughout Australia and Internationally. He has been a Director of the International Trumpet Guild. He was Lecturer in Trumpet and Music at the University of Newcastle for thirty two years. Prior to that he was a NSW Secondary School music teacher. Before retiring in 2016 he was the Coordinator of the University Conservatorium of Music in Newcastle. John has performed as a soloist for the Hunter Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Nova, Armidale Symphony Orchestra, Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Australian Army Band Darwin, National Wind Orchestra Belgium, International Trumpet Guild Kiev - Gothenburg - Kentucky - Chicago. He has conducted Newcastle PCYC Brass Band, Maitland City Brass band, Cardiff North Lakes Brass Band, Toronto Brass band, Darwin City Brass band, Waratah Brass, Armidale Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Nova, Hunter Symphony Orchestra, Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Lake Macquarie Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Hunter.
John has recently been appointed a Guest Conductor for Orchestra Nova and Musical Director of Waratah Brass in 2025.
John is a Life Member of PCYC NSW, Band Association of NSW and is Patron of the Mid North Coast Sinfonia.
Stephen Aveling-Rowe
Assistant Conductor
Stephen Aveling-Rowe is an organist, cellist, conductor, and professional wildlife photographer. Although his musical education began with the piano, he became the first Suzuki Organ student in Australia as a pupil of David Clark, graduating in 2013.
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Receiving AMusA in Pipe Organ in 2014, he naturally decided to pursue music and at 16, he began a BMus at UNE. After transferring to the Avondale Conservatorium in 2016, he with two other organists travelled to Europe for his second concert and study tour, the first being in 2012, performing in the Netherlands and the UK, where he also studied liturgical and choral music in an intensive at Cambridge. He graduated in 2019 with a BA - Specialisation in Music, and having studied organ under Philip Swanton, the same year received LMusA in Pipe Organ with distinction.
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As a cellist and presently principle with the Newcastle Youth Orchestra, he has played numerous works including Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town”, Haydn’s “The Creation”, Handel’s “Messiah”, Britten’s “Noyes Fludde”, and “The Carnival of the Animals”.
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Notwithstanding a brief foray into the world of aviation, in 2021 he returned to his love of the humanities at Avondale University where he is currently lecturing in photography, completing a Graduate Diploma in Theology, and developing his musical passions studying orchestral conducting with Dr. Ian Cook. In closing, he says, “I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to open a new musical chapter, to continue developing musicianship, and to perform together with Orchestra Nova!”
2024 Committee Members
President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Ordinary Members
Carolyn Mather
Elizabeth Young
Andrew Hocquard
Leala Darby
Van De Groot, Daniella Cahill
Ex Officio
Musical Director / Conductor
Stephen Aveling-Rowe