Entertainment
9 August, 2026
History for composer
AN Atherton Tablelands composer will become the first high school student ever commissioned by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra when his original work premieres at ‘Symphony Under the Stars’ during The Cairns Festival.
Jon Platz’s orchestral work, ‘Prelude for a Painted Sky’, will be performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at Munro Martin Parklands on Saturday 29 August. Mr Platz, now a first-year university student in Brisbane, received the commission while still in high school through the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Compose Program.
Mr Platz said the commission was both humbling and exciting.
“Through the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s compose program, I have had the privilege of working alongside many talented young composers, so I know the standard of writing and creativity that’s out there,” he said.
“It’s a tremendous honour and something I am incredibly grateful for. It’s a wonderful opportunity to challenge myself as a composer and to write something that will be shared with a live audience from my local area.”
Mr Platz said Prelude for a Painted Sky was inspired by the landscapes of Far North Queensland and reflected the colours, light and textures that had shaped his life growing up in the region.
The work features bold brass writing, driving rhythmic ostinati and sweeping dynamic swells to capture the changing moods of sunrise, sunset and tropical night skies through the sound of a full symphony orchestra.
“Growing up in Far North Queensland has had a huge influence on the way I think about music,” Mr Platz said.
“I hope the audience is able to share in that experience and be transported, even for a few minutes, to the spectacular skies that inspired the work.
“More than anything, I hope they leave with the same sense of wonder I feel whenever I look up at a Far North Queensland sky that is so magnificent, it could have been painted by the hand of a master artist.”
Presented by Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Cairns Regional Council, Symphony Under the Stars will be held at Munro Martin Parklands on Saturday 29 August as part of Cairns Festival. Under conductor Nil Venditti, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s program will also feature Copland’s clarinet concerto with QSO section principal clarinet Irit Silver, music by Bernstein and Gershwin, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Polish Symphony’ and the world premiere of Mr Platz’s Prelude for a Painted Sky.
For more information, tickets and the full program, visit www.cnslocal.s.gy/JOJUto.
