Sydney Chamber Choir Reveals 50th Anniversary Season
The season includes international collaborations, a European tour, five huge concerts, and the world premieres of five newly commissioned Australian works.
By: Stephi Wild Feb. 05, 2025
The Sydney Chamber Choir has followed its 2024 season with the launch of its 2025 Season Program. One of Australia's premier choral ensembles, the Choir is celebrating its 50th anniversary with international collaborations, a European tour, five huge concerts - including two in Sydney's City Recital Hall - and the world premieres of 5 newly commissioned Australian works.
Its first concert, in February, features a collaboration with German vocal quintet Ensemble Nobiles to honour the life of Lutheran theologian and fighter for justice Dietrich Bonhoeffer and commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. The music is a world premiere, with a new mass setting and five new motets composed by composers from Australia, Germany, USA, UK and NZ. The Collaboration with Ensemble Nobiles continues on the choir's tour to Germany in May, culminating in a gala concert in the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
In April Sydney Chamber Choir performs Faure's Requiem, joined by soloists Angela Brun (Soprano), Andrew O'Connor (Bass baritone) and Thomas Wilson playing the newly installed Dobson organ at St James', King St. The Requiem will be performed along with Australian and German choral treasures the choir will perform on tour.
The 50th Anniversary Gala (5 July, City Recital Hall) features new specially commissioned works from five of Australia's most exciting compositional talents: Luke Byrne, Anne Cawrse, Meta Cohen, Nardi Simpson and Paul Stanhope.
The centrepiece of this gala will be the performance of Paul Stanhope's beautiful and profound setting of the Requiem, starring Brooke Window (Soprano), Richard Butler (Tenor) along with an ensemble of outstanding chamber musicians. The Gala will coincide with the launch of the choir's important recording of the Stanhope Requiem, which was the winner of the APRA 2022 Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Choral.
Connections in September sees the welcome return of two highly decorated and beloved former Musical Directors, Nicholas Routley and Paul Stanhope sharing conducting duties with incumbent Sam Allchurch, in a program exploring the rich traditions of sacred a cappella music across the centuries.
Finally, for Bach's Mass in B minor in November, the Chamber Choir is thrilled to welcome back a stellar group of soloists – Sara Macliver (Soprano), Helen Sherman (Mezzo-soprano), Andrew Goodwin (Tenor) and David Greco (Bass) as well as old friends the Muffat Collective Orchestra for what will be a truly magical evening of one of the greatest works ever written for choir and orchestra.
Artistic director Sam Allchurch (picture attached) invited all music lovers to the festive musical feast and party that this year's celebration promises.
“The Sydney Chamber Choir's highly significant contribution to Australian culture over 50 years is truly something worth revelling in! We start with a new collaboration, with Leipzig-based vocal quintet Ensemble Nobiles. We will also travel to Germany in May to join other international choirs to perform a set of new works by composers from around the world.
Our April concert showcases one of the gems of the choral repertoire, Gabriel Fauré's setting of the Requiem. And our Gala 50th Anniversary Concert in July embodies one of the central aims of the choir over its 50 years – the commissioning and performance of new works by Australian composers. When we premiered Paul Stanhope's Requiem in 2021, the audience knew they had experienced something special. In this concert – when we will proudly also release our own recording of the work – we'll delight in sharing its beauty again… along with four more new Australian compositions.”
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