Impressive and vibrant experience

Zimbe! African Folk with a Jazz Twist 

Saturday 12 July 2025 

Knox Church 

Billed as African folk music with a jazz twist, "Zimbe!" certainly filled Knox Church to capacity for unique ethnic music as David Burchell conducted City Choir’s midwinter concert on Saturday evening.

They began with The Word was God, by Rosephanye Powell — a strictly paced, declamatory, canon-styled piece (unaccompanied). 

The following Three Spirituals were generally brisk, full-harmony pieces composed in 1993 by David Hamilton, although In the Garden was a softer rendition of well-known text. 

Dunedin Children’s Choir contributed three items and joined for the main work. This choir, founded and conducted by Natasha Manowitz, performs with excellence and discipline, maintaining clear diction and well-intoned balanced harmony. 

Their waiata, Ehara i te mea, by Eru Timoko Ihaka, was accompanied by guitar (Helen Rutherford). 1914, written by Sue Mepham, told the story of horses who were used in World War 1 — "10,000 left our shore but only four returned". Banaha, a Congolese folk song with djembe accompaniment (Andre Harry), completed their performance. Their pianist was Susan Frame. 

Zimbe! Come, Sing the Songs of Africa, a vibrant celebration of African music and culture composed by Alexander L’Estrange, brings together soulful melodies, energetic rhythms and infectious harmonies showcasing rich musical African traditions, rooted in the American "Gospel" tradition. 

An outstanding jazz ensemble of Bill Martin (piano), Nick Cornish (saxophone), Andy Lynch (bass), Carl Woodward (drums) and Alex Burchell (percussion) provided exceptional accompaniment which carried the singers’ performance. Catherine Schröder showcased African dance routines in the centre aisle. 

Many of the 15 songs had the colourfully clad choir moving and clapping, and so were the audience. The drummers were sensational, especially in the triumphant final repeat of Freedom is Coming — Hamba Vangeli. Thula Mama, thula, a lullaby for mothers of imprisoned sons, was softer with emotional sax obligato. 

Altogether, this was an outstanding musical experience for choir and patrons alike. 

Review by Elizabeth Bouman, Otago Daily Times, 14 July 2025

Performance exquisitely delivered

 

Darkness & Light

Saturday 12 April 2025
Knox Church

City Choir Dunedin delighted a well-filled Knox Church on Saturday evening with "Darkness & Light" under the baton of its musical director David Burchell.

Knox Church was an appropriate venue for his selection of predominantly religious music. Most items were composed within the past 30 years, although the opening hymn, Thomas Tallis’s O Nata Lux de Lumino, was published in 1575. 

The Tallis inspired the smoothly performed O Radiant Dawn by James McMillan, which followed. Louis Vierne’s Clair de Lune, played solo by Christchurch organist Sea-am Thompson, opens delicately then becomes more intense as the work progresses. Thompson gained in confidence as he played this work, while his other solo, Kerensa Briggs’ Light and Darkness in the second part of the concert, showed why he has won an organ scholarship to study at Oxford University. 

In the exquisite Lux Aeterna by Morten Lauridsen, the 70-strong choir demonstrated its flexibility, the tenors and basses in particular rising to the challenge of this work.

The second half of the programme opened with Matariki by Chris Artley, a work that Burchell admitted was unseasonal but fitted into the overall theme of the night.

Then came what for many of the audience was the highlight, Dark Night of the Soul, the first of two compositions by Norwegian-born Ola Gjeilo. The words are from a 16th century poem by St John of the Cross and the uplifting music contains two of Gjeilo’s trademarks — the use of piano, an instrument on which the composer himself is highly skilled — and the choir humming chords.

On the piano, Sandra Crawshaw gave a sterling performance, enhanced by a string quartet comprising Dunedin Symphony Orchestra players Tessa Petersen (violin), Ngaruaroha Martin (violin), Katrina Sharples (viola) and Heleen Du Plessis (cello).

In Dark Night of the Soul, the choir excelled, reflecting the many hours of rehearsal that ensured success with this very demanding composition. Briggs’ work was followed by Gjeilo’s Luminous Night of the Soul, again utilising the DSO string quartet and Crawshaw on the piano.

A cello solo — beautifully rendered by Du Plessis — led almost imperceptibly into the choir, followed by a piano solo to introduce humming chords that segued into the poetry of Charles Anthony Silvestri. It was a lovely work, again showing the choir’s skill and a fitting end to an excellent lead-in to Easter.

Review by Gillian Vine, The Star, 17 April 2025