So what is it that sets Musica Viva apart? I asked Carl Vine, Musica Viva’s artistic director since 2000, who was awarded the Order of Australia in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his distinguished services to music.

“Musica Viva exists solely to bring music to Australia. It is a single-purpose organisation, built on philosophy alone: music makes the world a better place. There is really no other agenda.”

Vine acknowledges that Musica Viva is no more special than other groups but says its brief is different: to bring the best of the world to Australia, “and we do it as brilliantly, efficiently and sustainably as we can”.

Mary Jo Capps, chief executive of Musica Viva since 1999 agrees that the organisation has something special.

“Musica Viva is uniquely positioned, I think, because it doesn’t have a core ensemble of performers,” she says. “It’s able to spotlight, to be constantly refreshing with the best of the best from around the world. That allows us to bring a string quartet, say the Borodin Quartet, one month, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge the next month and Imogen Cooper the month after that.”

She says as the organisation is not beholden to a particular group, it can bring a host of performers together who can then work with and inspire local performers of all standards – a rich and varied diet.

“That’s one part of our difference,” she says. “The other part is that 50 per cent of our financial activity ... happens for school kids in their schools. Our education program is a big focus for our Virtuosi and we do that very differently from anyone else.”

The Virtuosi is a wide, supportive group whose donations enable Musica Viva to offer its breadth of programs: the Schools Music programs, concert tours, yearly Musica Viva Festival, the Huntington Music Festival at Mudgee, master classes and coffee concerts.

And just how reliant is the organisation on this financial support?

“About 55 per cent of our revenue comes from selling tickets to our concerts, to our training programs, to our educational concerts – user pays,'' Capps says. ''About 27 per cent is government funding and the rest is from the private sector, corporations and individuals – almost a quarter of our funding. Without this we would not survive and we certainly wouldn’t be able to offer the full range of extensions and outreach, such as student rush tickets and family packages.”

Vine stresses the importance of the Virtuosi contribution. “If we didn’t have these donations, it would mean not only a massive cutback but also a massive rise in costs to our audiences: probably a rise of between 30 to 40 per cent in all ticket prices. So it’s a wonderful endorsement of the company that we do attract such strong patronage and without that – well, it wouldn’t destroy the company but the whole thing would be very hard to operate.”

He believes his greatest achievement since becoming artistic director in 2000 is also an economic one. “If you have great artists, more people are going to want to see them,'' he says, “so you need to be more flexible about how you’re going to work out your budget. I believe that music must, above all, be excellent and then you do everything you can to make it more sustainable. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Mary Jo and the chairman of the board.”

Vine says it is always necessary to be flexible when considering the cost of artists. “Obviously the quality of the music is first and foremost and then we do everything we can to make the finances support that level of excellence.”

Then there are the logistics of bringing a group such as the Choir of King’s College on tour. “Fifteen boy sopranos under the age of 14, so that brings special issues - and about 45 people altogether in the entourage.”

As a composer of note himself, Vine must know the importance of supporting Australian composers. Although William Lovelock was born and died in England, he spent more than 30 years in Australia and could be considered an honorary Australian. He, along with Vine and one of Australia’s most acclaimed composers, Ross Edwards, are all represented by their works in this year’s concert series.

“Supporting the best of Australian composition is a priority for us,” Vine says, “but I wouldn’t say it was our most important work. The most important thing is to keep bringing great music and part of that is great Australian music.”

Musica Viva has 120 musicians in 26 different ensembles touring schools throughout Australia and Capps says in each region the Virtuosi support activities in that particular area. “So it’s not about Canberra Virtuosi enabling a performance in, for example, the Pilbara. Local people support the activity in their area. And there’s all sorts of music: classical, Indonesian, indigenous, jazz, improvisation – an enormous variety of genres.”

A testimonial of just what Musica Viva’s Schools’ Program offers comes from a mother writing to a teacher at Lance Holt School in Western Australia: ‘'Anderson was delighted by the Musica Viva performance at school ... It wasn’t just a performance, it was inspiring and educational ...This event has given us the opportunity to advance his musicality and could lead to a genuinely significant outcome in his life.'’ It’s reactions like this that delights Capps and makes her feel all Musica Viva’s work is justified.

And when I ask Vine for an adjective or two to describe himself, he laughs but finally offers ''committed'' and ''perspicacious'' which seem to accurately describe a man who has given so much to the advancement of music.

Information: philanthropy@musicaviva.com.au, Call: 1800 028 255 (toll free – landline only)