820 People attended the Philharmonic Orchestra 20th Anniversary Concert held at the Gold Coast Arts Centre in July this year. This concert was a culmination of a special project partly supported with financial assistance from Gold Coast City Council in partnership with Arts Queensland.

Among our excellent audience were 65 children under 12 years of age, many of them experiencing for the first time an orchestral concert in such a wonderful venue.

Review by Kate Peters, The Gold Coast Bulletin dressing roomers , 22-07-04.

"I caught an excellent concert by the Gold Coast Philharmonic Orchestra last Saturday night, with an appreciative audience on hand for the 20th anniversary concert Journeys. A varied and interesting program featured several guest soloists, The Gold Coast Dancers Company and a multimedia presentation. Interesting and amusing compering was courtesy of Howard Ainsworth, and the conductor, Mark Turpin, presented the musicians in a well balanced and enjoyable program."

At midday the following day a celebration BBQ was held at the Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) Base Southport. The Philharmonic Concert Band joined in this celebration and provided light music entertainment under the baton of their conductor, Denise Collins. This was a great opportunity for people to get to know one another and everyone agreed that the VMR Base provides an excellent venue for events.

Also in July on Saturday 24 the Philharmonic Orchestra presented a performance of the April program Lights! Camera! Action! for the Tweed Bowls Club to another appreciative audience.

This concert was conducted with professional style by orchestra member Kevin Scott. The orchestra again displayed their versatility as musicians performing works from recent blockbuster movies as well as old favourites. The wonderful piano playing by orchestra member Josh Evans featured in many of the scores and delighted the audience. Concertmaster Barbara Gardner performed a beautiful solo Cinema Paradiso and leading clarinettist Diane Sale delivered an unexpected (and terrific) encore with her harmonica solo I Still Call Australia Home.

The compere, Johnny Veen, from the Tweed Bowls Club, rated the concert as first class entertainment and congratulated the musicians on the presentation of an excellent program.