rival', the Sydney Royal Philharmonic Society, which was 'broke and in danger of extinction'. The choir changed its name to Hurlstone Choral Society in 1937, Sydney Philharmonia Society in 1969 and Sydney Philharmonia Limited in 1974. It employed its first professional manager in 1974. During this time, Sydney Philharmonia has worked with many conductors, including Eugene Ormandy, Otto Klemperer, Sir Eugene Goosens, Sir David Willcocks, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Granville Bantock, Sir Bernard Heinze, Sir Thomas Beecham, Georg Schnéevoigt, Hans Vonk, Ward Swingle, Zubin Mehta, Christopher Hogwood, Edo de Waart, Charles Dutoit, Mark Elder, John Nelson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Richard Hickox, and Sir Simon Rattle. The current musical director and chorusmaster is Brett Weymark . Sydney Philharmonia’s singing commitments have grown to the point where a typical year (2018) sees it perform 12 performances in its own concerts and 20 performances with the Sydney Symphony. Other commitments such as corporate events, commercial concerts and the like mean that the organisation mounts around 50 performances a year. Civic and community events Sydney Philharmonia has taken part in many civic and community events such as the 1988 bicentennial celebrations and the opening ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano as part of an international video link. Two years later, in 2000, it performed in both the opening concert Symphony at the Superdome and the live, globally telecast opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics, singing the Australian national anthem and an excerpt from Hector Berlioz's Te Deum that accompanied the lighting and ascension of the Olympic flame. Sydney Philharmonia took part in the 2001 centenary of federation celebrations in Sydney and Melbourne and the state memorial for former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. It performed with the Australian World Orchestra concerts in 2011 and the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular in 2012. Non-traditional offerings While Sydney Philharmonia has a long history of traditional classical-style choral concert presentation, it has in recent years gone considerably beyond this style in some of its concerts, with some notable success. The choir provided backing chorus for Video Games Live in Sydney 2015. The choir provided backing chorus for The Rolling Stones in Sydney 2014. The Vox chamber ensemble backed Labrinth in his performance of Earthquake on the television program The X Factor, 9 October 2012. The Beatles Unplugged was the title of an August 2012 concert which featured choral arrangements of Beatles songs with choreography