Cancel Choir at Macarthur Girls High School

Imagine that you just found out your favourite composer is a murderer (and got away with it). Or the songwriter you’ve been following for years just dropped a track fat-shaming his best friend. And a global conflict has suddenly made the guy who composed your wedding march really unpopular. What do you do?

Welcome to CANCEL CHOIR, where River City Voices dishes the dirt on your favourite classical musicians (and some favourites you mightn’t have met yet) in a concert that blends a showcase of the blockbuster classics relished by die-hard choral and opera fans alike, with an exploration of the contemporary cultural questions that cross from social media to the concert hall.

It’s a short, sharp and spiky show that contemplates the artist versus the artwork  and asks the big questions - how do we view old works with contemporary eyes and understandings? Why do we cancel some artists and not others? And what’s the cost?

Concert program includes songs by 16th Century composer Carlo Gesualdo, Beethoven (including excerpts from his Symphony No. 9 Finale), Puccini, Wagner, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and contemporary Ukrainian composer Natalia Tsupryk.

“Such a bold approach…is refreshing to see and made for an intriguing show. Finding its footing in the new and old…certainly marks River City Voices as a group to watch out for”.  Slam Messiah, Limelight Review, Maddy Briggs, December 2022.

DATE: Saturday 17 August   TIMES:   3.30pm  &  7.30pm

River City Voices

Conductor: Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith

Pianist: Dr Philip Eames

Macarthur Girls High School Choir