9 July 2009
Intervarsity Choral Festival celebrates with premieres
Image: Don Kay Choristers from universities around Australia are gathering in Hobart for a week in July to celebrate 60 years of Intervarsity Choral Festivals. Hosted in Tasmania for the first time in a decade, the Festival attracts up to two hundred singers to work with composers, conductors and orchestras. The highlight of the festival program is two world premieres: new works by Don Kay and Matthew Orlovich will be performed in the concluding gala concert on Friday 17 July.
Matthew Orlovich's work is a setting of a Roland Robinson poem The Blue Gum Forest. This work, for a cappella choir and bass-baritone soloist, was commissioned by the Festival especially for the 60th anniversary celebrations. Don Kay’s Northward the Strait was inspired by Tasmania’s North West, the region of his childhood, and is dedicated to the people of that region. Commissioned for the Bicentenary and originally performed as a choral suite of four poems by Gwen Harwood, the work has been extended to include all six of the poems in Harwood’s original commission. This will be the first performance of the complete set of songs.
The concert, directed by the Tasmanian composer and conductor Simon Reade, will also feature a choral version of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Festival Overture, performed together with the Hobart Wind Symphony. TSO Chorusmaster, June Tyzack will prepare the choir and conduct the a cappella works.
Event details
17 July 2009, 8pm
Stanley Burbury Theatre
Information: festival website
© Australian Music Centre (2009) — Permission must be obtained from the AMC if you wish to reproduce this article either online or in print.
Subjects discussed by this article:
As a national service organisation, the Australian Music Centre is dedicated to increasing the profile and sustainability of Australian composers and other creative artists. The AMC facilitates the performance, awareness and appreciation of music by these artists through: composer and other creative artist representation and assistance; resonate – its online magazine; library and retail services; sheet music publishing; and the management, administration and publication of project-based initiatives. Its library collection holds over 30,000 items by more than 500 artists.
Comments
Be the first to share add your thoughts and opinions in response to this article.
You must login to post a comment.