Gifts of love for Choir’s 50th Birthday Gala – 5 July
A celebration of music… and love
Sydney Chamber Choir’s 50th Anniversary Gala
Saturday, 5 July, 3pm at City Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place, Sydney
Sydney Chamber Choir, Australia’s premier art music vocal ensemble,
invites you to join its exquisite voices for a glittering celebration of its 50th year – and they’re providing the gifts!
Thrill to the beauty of all-new Australian music in this gala concert, when they give world premiere performances of five pieces
specially commissioned from five of the most exciting compositional talents in the country, each exploring a different facet of what love can mean.
But the gifts only get better! Then experience the emotional power of Paul Stanhope’s groundbreaking and award-winning re-imagining of the Requiem mass,
its ancient texts enriched with contemporary insights on love, loss, life and hope from poets including Emily Dickinson and Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
The concert not only features the extraordinary talents of the Sydney Chamber Choir (“a world-class chamber choir”)
but outstanding soloists Brooke Window, soprano and Richard Butler, tenor;
as well as featured instrumentalists Nicola Bell (oboe/cor anglaise), Andrew Barnes (bassoon), Euan Harvey (French horn), Emily Granger (harp) and Jess Ciampa (percussion).
“Commissioning music has been at the heart of the Chamber Choir’s music-making since its earliest years,” says artistic director and conductor Sam Allchurch,
“and we’re proud to be creating and sharing new masterpieces – a gift to you on our 50th birthday!”
Unwrap the first gift and discover Sydney composer Luke Byrne’s Song, all about what a man remembers when he is old (spoiler: it’s love).
The moving backstory to this will draw tears. You’ll have to be there to find out…
The next present is The Greatest of These by Adelaide’s Anne Cawrse.
Taken from Corinthian’s “Love is patient, love is kind” the biblical text becomes romantic, personal and surprisingly direct.
Melbourne composer Meta Cohen was not only a student of Paul Stanhope, but sang in the Sydney Children’s Choir with Sam Allchurch.
Meteora – with a text by her sister Leona – is the most virtuosic of the set. With a supernova metaphor and tender queer references, it is universal, relatable… loving.
Indigenous Sydney composer Nardi Simpson’s Dharriwa – Narran Lakes Dreaming celebrates love of country.
Inspired by the freshwater lakes of northern NSW, it features recorded voices of family and connects with an audience as if by magic.
“Insightful, accessible… warm and generous,” says Allchurch. “This is an invitation to share country… and respect it.”
Sydney Chamber Choir Publicity Images
Photo by Robert Catto, on Tuesday 12 November, 2024.
Then: Paul Stanhope’s We Might Be Fifty – which was composed for the Choir’s brief of ‘Love’.
Set to Catherine Mansfield’s love poem about sipping camomile tea on the couch, this is personal, grounded, homey.
“Let’s grow old together” is the romantic feel and the Chamber Choir – as the biggest interpreter of Stanhope’s work – receives the gift and passes it on to you.
Then the centrepiece of the concert, Stanhope’s magnificent Requiem – the culmination of 20 years of work and of which Allchurch says:
“This could be the most significant choral opus composed in Australia…”
How does one choose five commissions for a celebration of such Australian cultural significance?
Says Allchurch: “You look forward, not just back.”
Sydney Chamber Choir’s 50th Anniversary Gala
Saturday, 5 July, 3pm at City Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place
Sydney Chamber Choir, Sam Allchurch, Conductor
Artists
Brooke Window, Soprano | Richard Butler, Tenor
Nicola Bell, Oboe/Cor anglaise | Andrew Barnes, Bassoon | Euan Harvey, French horn |
Emily Granger, Harp | Jess Ciampa, Percussion
Program
Luke Byrne, Song (World premiere)
Anne Cawrse, The Greatest of These (World premiere)
Meta Cohen, Meteora (World premiere)
Nardi Simpson, Dharriwa – Narran Lakes Dreaming (World premiere)
Paul Stanhope, We might be fifty (World premiere)
Paul Stanhope, Requiem
Tickets from $30. Bookings: https://www.
