Imagine a hall slowly filling with people. The stage glows softly, the air hums with quiet anticipation, and a single oboe sounds a clear, unwavering: “A” note. One by one, instruments join, violins, cellos, flutes, horns, each adjusting, aligning, agreeing. In that small ritual, the orchestra is born anew, ready to turn silence into meaning.

Classical music has a beauty that words can only circle around. It can lift the spirit, quiet the mind, or awaken memories long buried. Its melodies are woven with mathematics and emotion, its harmonies both rational and deeply human. A symphony is not just sound; it is architecture built in the air, designed to make listeners feel the weight and wonder of being alive.

You can hear that magic for yourself. In Pretoria, violinist Piet Koornhof and pianist Jana Mathee perform in the Musaion Theatre on 12 October.

Johannesburg’s Philharmonic Orchestra then launches its Spring Symphony Season on 30 October with conductor Michael Repper and violinist Jack Liebeck.

In Durban, the KZN Philharmonic opens its World Symphony Series on 6 November with Beethoven’s Eroica, and in Cape Town, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra performs Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending on 13 November at City Hall.

Each concert offers the same doorway into wonder, the moment when a hundred musicians breathe as one.

An orchestra is a civilisation in miniature, diverse, disciplined, and united by purpose. It draws its voice from four great families: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion, each with a distinct tone and personality. Every instrument is crafted with reverence, its maker shaping wood and metal so that the musician can give shape to feeling.

The modern orchestra took its form in the seventeenth century when Monteverdi began grouping instruments in defined sections. Over time, keys, valves, and larger ensembles expanded the colour range, and conductors emerged to unite ever-growing forces. By the nineteenth century, it was the ultimate expression of human collaboration in art.

So step inside a concert hall near you this season. Sit back, listen, and let the music remind you what harmony sounds like when people truly listen to one another.