Arts and entertainment
Hobart is home to the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, which is resident at the Federation Concert Hall on the city's waterfront. It offers a year-round program of concerts and is thought to be one of the finest small orchestras in the world. Hobart also plays host to the University of Tasmania's acclaimed Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute (AISOI) which brings pre-professional advanced young musicians to town from all over Australia and internationally. The AISOI plays host to a public concert season during the first two weeks of December every year focusing on large symphonic music. Like the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the AISOI uses the Federation Concert Hall as its performing base.
Hobart is home to Australia's oldest theatre, the Theatre Royal, as well as the Playhouse theatre, the Backspace theatre and many smaller stage theatres. It also has three Village Cinema complexes, one each in Hobart CBD, Glenorchy and Rosny, with the possibility of a fourth being developed in Kingston. The State Cinema in North Hobart specialises in arthouse and foreign films.
The city has also long been home to a thriving classical, jazz, folk, punk, hip-hop, electro, metal and rock music scene. Internationally-recognised musicians such as metal acts Striborg and Psycroptic, indie-electro bands The Paradise Motel and The Scientists of Modern Music, singer/songwriters Sacha Lucashenko (of The Morning After Girls), Michael Noga (of The Drones), and Monique Brumby, two-thirds of indie rock band Love of Diagrams, post punk band Sea Scouts, blues guitarist Phil Manning (of blues-rock band Chain), power-pop group The Innocents are all successful expatriates. In addition, founding member of Violent Femmes, Brian Ritchie, now calls Hobart home, and has formed a local band, The Green Mist. In addition, Ritchie curates the annual international arts festival MONA FOMA, held at Salamanca Place's waterfront venue, Princes
