Choir Concert Season – Semester 1, 2019

It’s that time of semester again. Choirs are in the final weeks of preparation for semester 1 concerts. It’s been a bit strange for me – it’s my first year of experiencing this from a non-student choir member perspective, for one. For another, I’m singing in two choirs this year – LaTUCS and MonUCS. So that’s double the work – and fun. I just spent the weekend at a choir camp (for the latter choir) and then an all-day rehearsal (for the former), in preparation.

Below are the concerts coming up around Australia for the various choirs of the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association (AICSA). I’ve grabbed them from Facebook, so follow the links to nab tickets! 😀

On Saturday, May 11th at 7:00PM, Sydney University Madrigal Society’s first concert of the year, Sublime & Ridiculous, will take you on an adventure to the weird and wonderful world of Renaissance musical humour. Check out the Facebook event for details! https://www.facebook.com/events/2365750140315595

ANU Choral Society’s next concert is on Sunday the 19th of May at 5PM at St Peter’s Church in Reid, Canberra. SCUNA will be performing some much-loved gems of the repertoire, including Purcell’s ‘Come Ye Sons of Art’ and Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’. Tickets are just $15 and the concert will be held at St Peter’s Lutheran Church in Reid, 5pm on Sunday 19 May. Join them for a lovely evening of music-making! Tickets via www.trybooking.com/489818

Step into a world of pure imagination with MonUCS: Monash University Choral Society! MonUCS will weave magic with music from many realms, including Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings. They’ll be performing at Chapel off Chapel in Prahran, 25 May, 5:30pm and 8:30pm. Tickets available via https://chapeloffchapel.com.au/…/pure-imagination-fantasy-…/

Join LaTUCS for an evening of fun on Thursday 23rd May! See the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/881387645531998/?ti=icl

Join QUMS: Queensland University Musical Society as they present a concert of Afternoon Delights: QUMS Presents a Day at the Proms, a concert filled with classic tunes such as Vivaldi’s Gloria in D and Handel’s Hallelujah chorus. No afternoon soirée would be complete without complimentary afternoon tea and homemade treats! There’s also a raffle with great prizes. Saturday, 1st June at 15:30. Afternoon Delights: QUMS Presents a Day at the Proms

20 Years of ROCS: help the RMIT Occasional Choral Society celebrate 20 wonderful and successful years of existence! Saturday, 8th June at 18:00. 20 Years of ROCSRMIT University – Kaleide Theatre

Singing for life

This year I’m singing in two choirs: the Monash University Choral Society (MonUCS) and the La Trobe University Choral Society (LaTUCS). It means my Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are taken during semesters (starting this week!). I love it.

No matter the stress or processing load of the day, I can walk into choir and relax during the singing parts. If I’ve had a busy day I need to give myself alone time before I can “people”, or interact with others, as despite my extraversion crowds can be overwhelming, especially at the end of a long day. (More on that in another post.) The actual rehearsal bits are fun regardless. I love getting into the rhythm of songs.

This year is different too, as I am no longer a student and therefore aren’t the one organising things. It’s nice to be on the other side and I have confidence in the current committees.

Today both LaTUCS and ROCS (RMIT Occasional Choral Society) are taking part in promo events on campus at Bundoora and Melbourne city respectively. I wish them luck!

If you’re interested in singing, why don’t you come over and have a go? Our choirs have no auditions and are very friendly places. Everyone can sing in my opinion – and singing is good for you, too.

Singing is such a big part of my life and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Sing it out as hard as you can…

On Saturday night I was in the audience for the Monash University Choral Society’s  Music Through Time concert. It was fantastic.

Each time I go to one of these I’m reminded of why I keep going. It’s so wonderful to watch friends and other choir members perform songs I know they’ve been working hard on all semester and seeing them having fun whilst doing so. The songs alternately moved me, roused me and entertained me. As I said to a few people after the concert, they all “gave me feels” and it was awesome.

MonUCS introduced me to songs I hadn’t heard before and to new arrangements of old favourites. They sang songs ranging from 12th-century classical through the centuries to 20th-century jazz and pop/alternative, right to 21st-century pieces. There were whole-choir pieces, sung acapella and with accompaniment, as well as solo and small-group works, and pieces with all of these.

Some of the pieces we were treated to included (but were not limited to): Gloria Ad Modum Tubae (Dufay Guillaume) – whole choir piece; Say Love If Ever Thou Didst Find (John Dowland) – a lovely quintet performance; Jesu, Meine Freude (J. S. Bach); Jerusalem (Parry); an SATB version of Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen); a well-carried and embodied Affirmation (Savage Garden); The Longest Time – with a fine tenor melody; finishing with a rousing Sing! (Pentatonix). I’ve taken the title of this review from a lyric of the latter.

Of course, it ended with the after-party, singing more songs until some of us were a bit hoarse, snacking and chatting and playing games, well into the wee hours of the morning.

In short, it was a lovely night out.

Bravo, MonUCS, and thank you! 😀

I’m looking forward to next semester’s concert already.

 

Concert season is here…

The next few weeks have a few lovely choral evenings open if you’re in Melbourne.

Firstly, this week, MonUCS (Monash University Choral Society) are performing two shows for their “Music Through Time” event. “Join MonUCS as we take you on a musical journey through time in this whirlwind tour of choral music from the 12th century all the way to the 21st.”
Friday 18th (7:30PM_ and Saturday 19th (7:00PM) – get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/music-through-time-concert-tickets-45288554285?aff=efbneb
Facebook event here: Music Through Time
I’ve heard good things about it and I can’t wait to see all their hard work paying off. 😀

Then, next week, LaTUCS are having our concert on Thursday 24th May at 7PM. 😀 It’s going to be lovely, we’ve got songs from across the world in different languages to sing to you. We’ve called it, “Language of the Soul”. Facebook event here:   https://www.facebook.com/events/586094155090992/ 

Come along and be entertained and delighted. There’ll be something for everyone, so spread the word!

“An ORGANic Christmas” Concert Review

Last Saturday’s concert from MonUCS (Monash University Choral Society) was really good. It had fun pieces and grand pieces and carols. An organ accompanied some songs.

Their opening piece (Regina Coeli from Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni) began with quite the entrance. The choir walked in two columns between the audience seats in order to get to the front of the church to perform from. I thought that was pretty cool.

There were the pieces I hadn’t heard before, sung with vocal strength and expression. Operatic choruses which were gorgeous to listen to and surprising, emotional and sweet by turns. Some of these pieces had soloists – all of whom performed very well. These pieces included the Priest’s Chorus (from Die Zauberflote), Chorus of Enchanted Islanders (from Alcina), Dido’s Lament and Final Chorus (from Dido and Aenea) and even a humming one, Humming Chorus (from Madame Butterfly).

I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I watched my friends perform after weeks of hard work. I also enjoyed singing along to some of the carols as we were encouraged to do – though only at mezzo piano volume so as to hear the actual choir. The carols were not all your usual fare – in fact, two of them I only knew thanks to the carolling gigs last week. That made it all the more fun. Carols included Infant Holy Infant Lowly, Zither Carol, Gloucestershire Wassail and others.

The choir were balanced beautifully, each section blending well (the ultimate goal) while holding their own parts in a superb manner. Each section also had its chance to shine, enabled by the range of songs chosen. For example, it was noted that the tenors sang “without hesitation … and with a wonderful lightness” as one friend put it. The altos were the smallest section of the four, but it didn’t feel like it. The basses carried the bottom range as they are supposed to, giving strength and resonance, while the sopranos were glorious on top.

Bravo, MonUCS! I look forward to seeing what you’ll do next year – and to singing with some of you at MIV. Well done!

 

 

 

 

Holiday gatherings and fun

Writing this quickly before I head off to my last choir night of the year.

I’ll write a review of the concert I attended on Saturday (MonUCS’ “ORGANic Christmas”) tomorrow. I want to do it justice and time slipped by me today. In part because less sleep last night from a choir holiday party combined with the afternoon sun on a 37*C day is not conducive to productivity, I think. XD

Choir parties are the best – always great food and conversation with lovely welcoming people. Last night’s one had Karaoke even!

Carolling with MIV – and at LaTUCS’ own gig – has been really lovely this year. My favourite carols are a lot more complex now than the favourites I had when younger and it’s really nice to perform them with friends.

There are still a few chances to see the MIV carollers in the lead-up to Christmas, but I won’t be among them.

As of next Monday, I’m off to Japan on a family holiday until the New Year. I will try to keep you more-or-less abreast of our journey with the help of Womble again  I make no promises as to when any updates will occur though.

Must dash to LaTUCS now….

Remember to buy concert tickets to see the MIV choir with soloists and orchestra perform on January 20th (less than ONE MONTH to go!!): Facebook event here and tickets here. Monday was spent getting decorations for MIV with other committee friends…. I’m getting excited now.

 

 

Fun stuff: all the choir things

Yesterday, my choir (LaTUCS) sang carols at an end-of-year event at uni. Nice and I’m hopeful it’ll lead to further opportunities.

This weekend (starting this evening) I will be a-carolling with MIV2018 people.  Tomorrow afternoon too. Our concert tickets for the end-of-festival performance are on sale now. Put the evening of the 20th of January 2018 in your calendars (Facebook link here – friends should expect invites shortly) and get some tickets via this link.

Also, MIV merchandise sales close on Monday, December 11th – this coming Monday which also happens to be the one-month-out date! Wow. If you want a tie-dye tote bag, a keepcup, promise of concert CD and participant photo, or tickets to the “Aquademic” Dinner, please head on over to miv.org.au, sign up for an account on the website and buy the things you want.

This weekend has other fun apart from carols. Tomorrow evening I’m attending a choir concert by MonUCS. Can’t wait – the program sounds really good. 😀 Here is a link to the Facebook event and click here for tickets (or get them at the door). Hooray!

 

A Damn Good Show

I went to a concert on Saturday evening, put on by Monash University Choral Society (MonUCS). It was a very fun event, though I’m rather tired today! Concert and after-party on one night + MIV Eurovision party on the next = big weekend. But very, very fun.

There’s something really special about going to an event like a concert and watching your friends perform. Different concerts, of course, have different vibes. Earlier in the year, I watched my boyfriend sing as part of a community choir for a Saturday afternoon event of the sunny-day live-music-entertainment sort. That was enjoyable. Saturday evening’s event was too but in a different way.

I watched the first concert to see my boyfriend sing in it. I didn’t watch with anyone else and after he’d finished, we left. Saturday was different because I was surrounded by friends as well as people I didn’t know who had come along for the same reasons as me: to support our friends and loved ones as they performed some wonderful music, the culmination of nearly three months’ hard work. It was an intimate yet grand setting of a church (so with great acoustics) and a good time was had by all.

Having attended a few MonUCS rehearsals earlier in the year, I had an idea as to what they’d be singing – but as it turned out, only a small one, as they’d added extra songs to their repertoire in the weeks since. As with any outing, feelings of anticipation and excitement played their part in preparing me for the show, as I got ready for and travelled to the event. I’d accidentally created a sense of atmosphere for myself before I left, by deciding to dress up a little. I love the buzz I get before performing something, especially in a group setting, and as I was reminded on Saturday I feel a version of that vicariously, too.

The concert on Saturday combined a range of different music types/genres, from the more classical (e.g. Mozart’s Te Deum, Vivaldi’s Gloria) to folk (e.g. Holst’s Swansea Town, Armstrong Gibbs’ Five Eyes). The first half had a mix of songs, while the second half was filled by the Gloria. I was swept up into the music from the first notes of the opening piece, Te Deum.

The sound of the singing, and the way the choir and soloists (for certain pieces) were complemented by the orchestra, moved me. I knew how hard they’d all worked to come to this moment and so I watched with a mixture of pride and joy in my heart as they gave us a lovely evening. It brought home to me again that while I love most kinds of music and singing, there’s something very special about choral music* sung by a massed choir. Singing/performing on one’s own or with a small group, with or without accompaniment, is one thing. Doing so in a larger group/massed choir is something else. Especially when you’re with friends. Listening, one is carried away by the sound of the pieces – both their musicality and the way that is used to convey a narrative (for example, in the folk songs). Done well, it is beautiful to listen to. Well done, MonUCS – and thank you.

P.S. See this link for a https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FGraf.von.Schwarzwaldschokoladeskleinkuchen%2Fposts%2F10154386452781813&width=500” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>review from a friend, David. He goes into a lot more detail about the pieces than I did.