In 1936 the South Australian Orchestra was supplanted by the 50-member Adelaide Symphony Orchestra led by
William Cade, and sponsored by the
Australian Broadcasting Commission (later the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC). The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55-member South Australian Symphony Orchestra, with
Henry Krips as its resident conductor. The orchestra reverted to its original title, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in late 1975. The ASO's highlights have included its 1998 performances of
Richard Wagner's
Ring Cycle, the first Australian production since 1913 (although it was widely and erroneously claimed to be the first ever in Australia). The orchestra participated in the first fully Australian production of
The Ring in 2004. In 2007, the orchestra partnered with
Hilltop Hoods to prepare a re-orchestrated release of their album
The Hard Road, titled
The Hard Road: Restrung. In 2009 Premier and Arts Minister
Mike Rann proposed and provided government funding to the ASO to commission a major orchestral work about
climate change. The ASO's world premiere of
Gerard Brophy's
The Blue Thread, inspired by the
River Murray, was performed at the Concert for the Earth at the
Adelaide Town Hall on 27 November 2010. The Rann government proposed and arranged funding for two further ASO commissions, the first an orchestral tribute to the cricketer
Sir Donald Bradman, and the second commemorating the centenary of the
ANZAC landings at Gallipoli. The world premiere of
Our Don by
Natalie Williams was performed by the ASO in August 2014. The world premiere of an
ANZAC Requiem by composer
Iain Grandage and librettist
Kate Mulvany was performed on 22 April 2015. In 2015 the Hilltop Hoods collaborated for a second time with the 32-piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the 20-piece Adelaide Chamber Singers Choir for their next re-orchestrated album titled
Drinking from the Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung. In 2016, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra formed its first artistic leadership team, comprising principal conductor,
Nicholas Carter, its new artist-in-association, violinist
Pinchas Zukerman, and principal guest conductor and artistic advisor Sir
Jeffrey Tate. Carter was the youngest principal conductor in the orchestra's history, and the first Australian conductor to be appointed to a principal conductor position with a major Australian orchestra in almost 30 years. In 2017, the orchestra was central in the
Adelaide Festival's staging of
Barrie Kosky's
Saul – a production from
Glyndebourne Opera in the UK, and again in 2018 for the Adelaide Festival's Glyndebourne Opera production and Australian premiere of composer
Brett Dean's new opera,
Hamlet. These performances were received with critical acclaim and numerous
Helpmann Awards. In 2018, the artistic leadership team evolved to include the orchestra's new emerging artist-in-association, Grace Clifford; Australian composer and the orchestra's then-new composer-in-association, Cathy Milliken; and the orchestra's then-new principal guest conductor,
Mark Wigglesworth. , the artistic leadership team consists of Concertmaster Kate Suthers, Emerging Composer in Association Jakub Jankowski, Conductor Laureate Nicholas Braithwaite, and chief conductor Mark Wigglesworth, and the orchestra consists of 75 musicians. In May 2024, the orchestra announced the appointment of Mark Wigglesworth as its next chief conductor, effective January 2025, with an initial term of three years. ==Venues and ongoing work==