The Scotch College Music Auxiliary has been the driving force behind the Autumn Concert since it was first held in the Memorial Hall in 1966, and later in the new Dallas Brooks Hall as the ‘Farewell Concert’ for the South East Asia tour in 1970 when George Logie-Smith was Director of Music. In 1976 the concert was moved to the new Camberwell Civic Centre where it remained until 1989 when it moved to the Robert Blackwood Hall at Monash University. One of the main intentions of the concert was to provide an opportunity for soloists to perform as well as large ensembles, and there have been many notable concerto performances over the years.
During the next decade, the number of ensembles increased significantly, and by 2004 the number of large ensembles made the concert a huge night and a complex exercise in logistics! It was time to ‘Farewell the May’ and look forward a new era of concerts.
In 2005 the Ian Roach Hall in the James Forbes Academy at Scotch was opened, and, with 13 large ensembles, it was decided to run the concert as a two-night season, thus the ‘Autumn Concert Season’ came into existence.