Fine Tune September 2014

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A Bulletin from
Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust September 2014

NZ Youth Choir in Dunedin with Dean Sky-Lucas, David Squire and Morag Atchison
Photo: Pieter du Plessis

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Classical Expressions

The Wellington-based members of the NZ Youth Choir come together as a 20-voice chamber choir on Monday, 13 October, in the Genesis Energy Theatre, Expressions Arts & Entertainment Centre, at 7:30pm for the final concert in the Classical Expressions 2014 concert series.

Conducted by Music Director, David Squire, the choir will present a selection of works from the NZYC’s 2014 repertoire including settings of Shakespear’s texts, a double-choir 17th-century motet by Peter Philips and Eric Whitacre’s ‘Little Man in a Hurry’. The programme will also include spirituals from Michael Tippett’s ‘A Child of Our Time’, a kapa haka number and, as a souvenir of its 2013 tour to the USA and Canada, George Shearing’s ‘Lullaby of Birdland’.

For further information click here.

Or telephone (04) 527 2168

Requiem for the Fallen

This is our last reminder to choral supporters in the South Island to book for this performance of Ross Harris/Vincent O’Sullivan commission in commemoration of World War I on Sunday, 19 October in Dunedin Town Hall. The work brings together the New Zealand String Quartet, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, taonga puoro composer Horomona Horo, tenor Richard Greager under the baton of Karen Grylls. Arts Festival Dunedin promise that the hall will be reconfigured in a dramatic and unique way by director Jonathan Alver to stage this work. For more information click here.

John Button, Dominion Post reviewer, described the premiere in the NZ Festival in February this year as "an unforgettable occasion", and Elizabeth Kerr in the NZ Listener said "impeccable performances by choir and string quartet captured the anguished pain and beauty of the work".

Voice of the Soul

In September 2014, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir’s latest CD under the baton of its Music Director, Karen Grylls, received a 5-star review by William Dart in the NZ Herald.

Verdict: The country's premier chamber choir maps out an unforgettable journey.

Recommending this issue, William Dart writes: "The packaging is luxuriant – a sturdy, book-like cover, with 20 pages of useful text, all adorned with the ethereal feather images of Maureen Lander. We are reminded, in this age of the charmless download, that CDs can indeed be objects of beauty".

He went on to say, "traditional repertoire like Morten Lauridsen's Six Fire Madrigals and Britten's Five Flower Songs reveals the unimpeachable technique and musicianship that Grylls demands and gets".

To buy your copy of this remarkable CD, go to www.choirsnz.co.nz/cd/voice-of-the-soul on the Choirs Aotearoa website. The CD costs $25 plus an additional $5.00 charge for postage and packaging for each order.