2018 Concert Season

The 2018 Concert Season

Grief to Joy: Music for Easter

Saturday 7 April 7:30 pm
Knox Church

CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN
DAVID BURCHELL, conductor
SOLOISTS: Claire Barton (mezzo-soprano), Benjamin Madden (tenor), Malcolm Leitch (bass)
DUNEDIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ensemble
DOUGLAS MEWS, organist

Bach: Cantata 66 Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen
Verdi: Stabat Mater
Finzi: Lo, the full, final sacrifice

MAIN STREET SINGERS
MARK SHAULL, conductor
DIANE KELLER PRATT, organist
The Main Street Singers from Los Altos, California, contributed to the programme of music, as follows:

David Conte: Ave Maria
Z. Randall Stroope: Caritas et Amor
Randall Thompson: Felices Ter
John Bennett: Weep, O Mine Eyes
Hall Johnson: Honor, Honor
Józef Świder: Cantus Gloriosus
Peter Phillips: Surgens Jesu
Flor Peeters: Jubilate Deo, Omnis Terra
Larry Fleming: Ride On, King Jesus!
Alice Parker / Robert Shaw: I Got A Key

Orff: Carmina Burana

Saturday 1 September 7:30 pm
Dunedin Town Hall

CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN

DUNEDIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

This concert is presented by the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Marc Taddei.

Jazz Café
Big choir! Big band! Big night out!

Saturday 6 October 7 for 7:30 pm
Dunedin Town Hall

City Choir Dunedin, conductor: David Burchell
Sophie Morris
Dunedin City Jazz Orchestra, conductor: Calder Prescott
Café Operana
Southern Youth Choir
Dunedin Youth Jazz Orchestra
Swing Riot Dunedin

Enjoy a relaxing evening of fabulously fizzy and swinging jazz at our café. Watch out for bicycles!

City Choir is letting its hair down with an evening of jazz! Experience the Town Hall decked out as a café with lots of atmosphere and cash bars for coffee, wine and snacks. There will even be room to dance for those who get so moved. You may sit or stand, chat to your neighbour, as you please. Come early to get a good seat and enjoy the pre-show entertainment, from 7 pm, by the Dunedin Youth Jazz Orchestra.

City Choir will perform a selection of jazz standards, as well as Alexander L’Estrange’s quirky Song Cycle: vive la vélorution: songs on the subject of cycling and the great outdoors. It is an exuberant celebration in music of this most environmentally friendly mode of transport. L’Estrange has perfectly captured the euphoria of two-wheel travel for this joyous, uplifting song cycle which includes an amusing take on the invention of the bicycle, as well as stunning new settings of poetry and arrangements of much-loved songs.

City Choir will be accompanied by a jazz quintet and orchestra, while the Swing Riot Dunedin dance group will sizzle on the dance floor and invite you to swing along with them.

This is a general admission, child-friendly, free concert in the Dunedin Town Hall. Suggested koha/donation $10 per person. Seating in the stalls is arranged café style at tables and the usual theatre seating in the gallery will be open.

City Choir Sings Jazz

Saturday 20 October 2:45 pm
Josephine Foyer
Toitu Otago Settlers Museum

DAVID BURCHELL, conductor and pianist
MARK ANDERSON, assistant conductor
CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN

Hear popular songs like I got rhythm, 'S Wonderful, Moonlight serenade, Tea for two, Smoke gets in your eyes and Let's do it. Also on the programme is three songs from Alexander L'Estrange's Song Cycle: A true love of mine, Buying a cycle and My wheel and I.

Christmas @ Otago Museum

Saturday 22 December 1:00 pm
Otago Museum

DAVID BURCHELL, conductor
MARK ANDERSON, assistant conductor
SOLOISTS: Caroline Burchell, Ben France-Hudson
CITY CHOIR DUNEDIN

City Choir Dunedin will present an hour-long programme of Christmas music at the Otago Museum.
Accompanists: Roland Storm and David Burchell

Vibrant, dedicated and enthusiastic musical triumph

Standing ovation for Messiah 2017. Photo credit Ian Thomson

Handel's Messiah
Tuesday 12 December 2017
Dunedin Town Hall

Although originally written as pre-Easter music, it has become traditional for the approach of Christmas to be heralded worldwide by performances of Handel’s majestic oratorio Messiah, writes Elizabeth Bouman. City Choir Dunedin, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra and their guest soloists with musical direction from David Burchell, thrilled last evening with a full performance of the English-language Baroque oratorio which was first performed in Dublin in 1742 and has now become one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Dunedin’s performance last evening was a triumph, vibrant and well-paced, full of enthusiasm and dedication to delivering text and score.

The choir’s big choruses, (some performed without reading the score) such as Glory to God in the Highest, And the Glory and, of course, the Hallelujah achieved excellent balance of harmony and articulation, and the dynamic contrast in Since by Man Came Death was outstanding.

Madeleine Pierard (currently home from London) filled the hall with soprano strength and confidence for all her solo work.

Mezzo-soprano Claire Barton (Dunedin) possesses strong alto timbre, and her performance of He Was Despised, interpreted with passion and solemnity, was superb.

Tenor Ian Tetley (UK) achieved smooth almost counter-tenor-like tone in his upper register at times, especially in Comfort Ye, and his neat ornamentation also impressed.

Bass Jared Holt (Wellington) has a deep rich vibrato and like many with his voice type, had difficulty in clarity of definition in many of the melismatic passages Handel wrote for this part.

The orchestra showed precision and good articulation throughout, responding to Burchell’s command from his seat at the harpsichord.

It really was a magnificent occasion, rewarded by a very well-deserved standing ovation.

Review by Elizabeth Bouman, ODT 13 December 2017

Stamina delivers rewarding works

Photo: Pieter du Plessis

Scheherazade & Requiem
Saturday 30 September 2017
Dunedin Town Hall

Brahms' A German Requiem is an impressive work. Large in scope and demanding large orchestral and vocal forces, it is inspired by Lutheran scripture. While those who equate value with bank balance are vigorously excluded, the rest of us who toil honestly against the odds, are portrayed as earthly particles most likely to reach sweet heaven and have no more chores ever.

The music removes any ambiguity. It is serene, melodious, warm, lush and enveloping. There is no "dies ire", no fire and brimstone; the work simply fades away at its closing "Blessed are the dead". Theatrical awe is gained via the realisation of small things such as "For all flesh is like grass" and "The dead will be raised, imperishable".

The combined forces of the City Choir Dunedin and Dunedin Symphony Orchestra under the inspired direction of Simon Over made wonderful work of this challenging, stamina-taxing requiem. Though both the soprano and tenor are inevitably overtaxed on high exposed lines, and the body of the choir labours over layered lines and staggered entries, the choir as a whole is in fine form.

It gave an energetic, committed and, at times, an inspired performance. The voices of the soloists, soprano Rebecca Ryan and baritone Jarvis Dams, were both rich and warm, well suited to the work.

Solo performances by all of the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra section leaders in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade show the orchestra's overall strength. Tessa Petersen's solo performance of Scheherazade's voice was particularly spell-binding with some wonderful harmonics on high strings and the alluring dance well achieved. Answering passages from the lead cello, Heleen du Plessis, taking the Young Prince's voice were also well executed.

Both works created a long evening where perhaps the Brahms could have stood better alone.

Review for the Otago Daily Times by Marian Poole, 3 October 2017


Passion of a different kind was to the fore in Dunedin Symphony Orchestra's performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Brahms' Requiem, with City Choir Dunedin.

Conducted by DSO's principal guest conductor Simon Over, the concert's first half featured the stunning Scheherazade, transporting  the audience to the Arabian Nights and the Orient.

DSO concertmaster Tessa Petersen was superb in a leading role, announcing each "tale" with a burst of solo violin, and the orchestra was on point in every aspect of the complex work.

Brahms' Requiem, a monumental and sombre work, was a powerful showcase for City Choir Dunedin, which handled its demands with aplomb. Featuring seven movements sung in German, the Requiem moved through a range of moods, from gentle pastoral sound to triumphant praise.

The DSO and organist Simon Mace provided sterling support, while soloists Jarvis Dams (baritone) and Rebecca Ryan (soprano) were equally strong.

Another thoroughly enjoyable showcase from two Dunedin musical treasures.

Review for The Star by Brenda Harwood, 5 October 2017