Following their critically acclaimed European tour, Melbourne’s own Australian Chamber Choir return for their final performances of 2015, Chapel Royal.
Pomp and ceremony will abound as an orchestra of period instruments including baroque trumpets, oboes and bassoons accompany the Choir in a regal concert program that includes audience favourite, Zadok the Priest as its centerpiece.
Since King Sigbert of the Angles established the body of singers and musicians known as the Chapel Royal in 635 AD, British monarchs have employed their country’s finest composers to write music for weddings, funerals, coronations and other special occasions.
Australian Chamber Choir Director, Douglas Lawrence brings together a program of works from selected Chapel Royal composers including George Frederic Handel, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Thomas Tallis and Australian Malcolm Williamson, who became the first non-British Master of the Queen’s Music in 1975.
In June and July this year, the ACC were met with standing ovations and rave reviews from Europe’s leading newspapers when they presented 16 performances across Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. For the first time, a group of 30 delighted fans accompanied them on tour.
The Chapel Royal program includes: George Frideric Handel – Two Coronation Anthems: Zadok the Priest and My heart is inditing; Orlando Gibbons – O clap your hands; William Byrd – Ave verum corpus, Haec Dies; Henry Purcell – Te Deum Laudamus, Entrada and Funeral Sentences for Queen Mary; Thomas Tallis – I will not leave you comfortless; and Malcolm Williamson – from English Eccentrics Choral Suite (1964) – The Quacks, The Traveller, An Amateur of Fashion.
Founded by Douglas Lawrence OAM in 2007, the Australian Chamber Choir has undertaken five European concert tours, given many concerts in Australia, released four CDs and recorded several programs for ABC Classic FM, always broadcast nationally. Acclaimed in five countries by audiences and critics alike, glowing reviews and return invitations are testament to the Choir’s international standing
Music students and graduates, an engineering student, professional musicians, a computer programmer, a translator and teachers make up the 18-member choir, which has six sopranos, four altos, four tenors and four basses. The singers themselves represent a cross-section of Australian multi-cultural society, a fact that fascinates European audiences.
The Choir includes Douglas’ wife, Elizabeth Anderson, who has received plaudits from European critics for her harpsichord performances and son, Jacob Lawrence, who conducted the choir twice during their recent European tour and will sing in Pinchgut’s production of the opera Armida in Sydney next year.
Chapel Royal
Church of the Resurrection, Corner Mt Macedon Road and Honour Avenue, Macedon
Performance: Saturday 7 November 2015 – 3.00pm
Bookings: www.auschoir.org
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 216 Richardson St, Middle Park (Melbourne)
Performance: Sunday 8 November 2015 – 3.00pm
Bookings: www.auschoir.org
For more information, visit: www.auschoir.org for details.
Image: Australian Chamber Choir (supplied)