Triple choral treat
The West Gippsland Chorale, Sounds of Southgate and St Paul’s Anglican Grammar Senior School Choir will share the stage in a memorable concert at the Warragul Community Church on Sunday, May 21 at 2pm.
Entitled “Movers and Shakers”, the triple-bill choral-fest will feature individual and combined choirs performing works by acclaimed Australian composer and Sounds of Southgate musical director Kathryn Sadler along with many other enchanting melodic works.
Kate studied voice at Trinity College, London; education at Surrey University; opera and music theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts; and, as the inaugural recipient of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust scholarship, advanced choral conducting with Dr Doreen Rao at the University of Toronto.
Her memorable “Movers and Shakers”, the signature piece for the concert, delivers with more than 90 singers on stage.
The West Gippsland Chorale, conducted by Simon Loveless and accompanied by Lisa Fraser, will perform a varied program including “Contrapunto Bestiale Alla Mente”, from a set of comic madrigals written by Banchieri for Mardi Gras celebrations.
Highlights include “Il Est Bel Et Bon”, a famous French 16th century chanson, along with “Dirait-on”, the final movement of Lauridsen’s “Les Chansons Des Roses”.
Chorale soloist Lynne Davine will soar above the chorus in the serene part-song “The Blue Bird”, by Irish composter Charles Villiers Stanford.
And by request, the chorale will repeat Jake Runestad’s moving “Let My Love Be Heard”.
Melbourne-based choir Sounds of Southgate, under the direction of Kate Sadler and accompanied by Linda O’Brien, will perform the “Sweeney Todd Prelude”, “Rhos-onSea”, and “Volta Do Mar Largo” from Paul Jarman’s “Turn on the Open Sea”.
The audiences will hear two premier per- formances of Kate Sadler works in “Because I’m Free” and “Ngapartji Ngapartji”.
A familiar contribution will be Mascagni’s magnificent “Easter Hymn”.
St Paul’s school choir, conducted by Lisa Fraser and accompanied by Heather Mason, will begin its stage and screen inspired collection with the “Seal Lullaby” originally commissioned by Disney.
It will be followed by “Somewhere” from “West Side Story”, “It’s Quiet Uptown” from “Hamilton”, and “Seasons of Love” from “Rent”.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for concession and free for school children. They are available from Need2Read in Warragul, online at trybooking.com/PHWN or at the door.