2014 is promising to be one of the most exciting years yet for the Sydney University Graduate Choir. We have a diverse series of concerts planned, giving us glimpses of other times and places, of sorrow and loss, quiet reflection and ageless joy.
The journey begins in May, as we explore The Salzburg Connection, through the music of two of its greatest composers: WA Mozart and Michael Haydn, brother of Joseph Haydn. Haydn’s Missa Pro Defunctis for Count Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach, which strongly influenced Mozart’s own Requiem, will be the centrepiece for this concert, which also features Mozart’s Te Deum KV141, Dixit and Magnificat KV193, and Missa Brevis in F KV192.
The Salzburg Connection – Sunday 4 May at 3pm, Great Hall University of Sydney
In August, to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, we will premiere An Australian War Requiem, composed by Christopher Bowen OAM. Taking as its main text letters between soldiers at the front and their mothers at home, the Australian War Requiem represents a meditation on conflict and loss from a uniquely Australian perspective.
An Australian War Requiem – Sunday 10 August at 3pm, Sydney Town Hall
We end the year in the chill beauty of deep winter, enjoying An English Winter’s Evening in the company of Gerald Finzi (Requiem Da Camera, In Terra Pax) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (The First Nowell, Fantasia on Greensleeves).
An English Winter’s Evening – Sunday 7 December at 5pm, Great Hall University of Sydney
Tickets for the first concert of the season—The Salzburg Connection—will be on sale from the end of January. Also, given the significance of the event and the anticipated high level of interest, we will open sales of tickets for An Australian War Requiem from mid-February. You can find more information about how to purchase tickets under ‘Hear us’.
You might consider circumventing the queues by purchasing a subscription to the whole 2014 concert season. The total price for the 3 concerts is $125 (a saving of up to $20), and you also have the opportunity to order your programmes at a discounted price. In addition you will have a seat reserved in the Subscribers seating area, and may enter the Great Hall through a separate entrance.
For more information download the subscription brochure, here.
We hope you’ll enjoy another memorable year of great choral performances with the Sydney University Graduate Choir.