We enjoy performing! Our annual calendar always includes our own annual concert or soirée in October/November, as well as our very popular Christmas Soirée in December. Singing at choral@abbotsford (formerly choral@montsalvat) in May is always a joy.
And we love taking part in other festivals like the ANCA Community choirs choral festival and the Ashburton and Surrey Hills music festivals. Occasionally we compete at Victorian choral eisteddfods such as Knox, Boroondara and Waverley. We sing at aged care facilities and really love being engaged for weddings or birthdays! We support those in need of a choir at funeral services, too.
The usual format for our annual concert is that the afternoon starts off with the choir showing its more serious side: For example in 2025 the program featured the William Byrd Mass and in 2026 it will be Pergolesi’s wonderful Stabat Mater. Add pieces like Mendelssohn’s Laudate Pueri into the mix, well, let’s just say if you’re not spiritually uplifted by the end of the first half, we give up on you!!
The second half of our annual concert sees us fast-forwarding through the centuries to the present. En route, we pay homage to the ear-worm with jazz standards such as How High the Moon, Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive, Summertime and that big band favourite from the forties, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Those with a more contemporary bent will be delighted to find we include Sting in our line-up, with the achingly beautiful Fragile and Fields of Gold finding a place in our repertoire.
Modern choral masters Bob Chilcott, Eric Whitacre, Samuel Barber and David Brunning leave our audiences wanting more with songs (respectively) like the fabulous Jazz Mass, Sure on this Shining Night, The Seal Lullaby and Radiant Sisters of the Day.
Our Christmas gig is always fun. We pay respectful homage to the meaning of Christmas with a selection of beautiful carols and Christmas-themed music. Arrangements by John Rutter are a perennial favourite!
