Glen Eira City Choir (red) and Bendigo Chorale (blue) at St Andrew’s Brighton June 2022
About Glen Eira City Choir
Glen Eira City Choir was established in 1946 and is a voluntary, non-profit organisation run by a committee of management elected each year. Our SATB choir comprises 50 male and female voices. No audition is necessary but it is an advantage to be able to read music. We sing in 4 parts (and for some music 8 parts) so it is also an advantage to be able to hold your own part. We rehearse in Brighton but have people come from Balwyn to Bayside to sing with us. We are a member of the Australian National Choral Association (ANCA).
For many years we rehearsed in Balaclava in the City of Glen Eira. In 2020 the choir moved to a more suitable rehearsal space in Brighton but for most of 2020 the Choir was in recess due to COVID-19. COVIDSafe rehearsals (in between lockdowns) resumed in 2021 and in June 2022 we held our first concert in over two years, performing Vivaldi’s Gloria and other works with the Bendigo Chorale in Brighton and Bendigo. Further concerts followed in October 2022, A Palette of Sound at the Glen Eira Town Hall; May/June 2023, again with Bendigo Chorale, in Brighton and Bendigo featuring Haydn’s Missa Brevis de Sancti Joannis de Deo and Rheinberger’s Stabat Mater; October 2023 Birth of the Blues at the Glen Eira City Town Hall and finishing 2023 with a Christmas Concert at St Andrew’s, Brighton.
Our choir strives for excellence and engages professional soloists for major choral works. In 2024 there are two concert programs – Karl Jenkins Requiem, in conjunction with Bendigo Chorale, in June (Brighton and Bendigo) , and our Christmas Concert in Brighton on Saturday 7 December 2024 featuring Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.
New members are always welcome, especially those who enjoy learning and performing choral music. We encourage you to come along for a rehearsal and try us out. (As we are in final rehearsals for our Christmas concert, in order to minimise disruption to choristers, we are unable to have observers or visitors for the remainder of the year. We do welcome your enquiry and will be in touch closer to resumption of rehearsals in February 2025… and of course we would love to see you at our Christmas Concert!)
Elena Varshavskaya
In 2020 we welcomed Elena Varshavskaya as our conductor. Elena graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Honours in Choral Conducting in 2002 and has much experience in singing and directing choral groups in Europe and Australia. Her repertoire includes classical music, contemporary music, jazz, gospel and folk music.
Berta Brozgul
Berta joined us in 2019 as pianist/accompanist. She is a piano recitalist, accompanist, collaborative artist, chamber musician, South African born and based in Melbourne.
Donations and sponsorship
Members pay a small fee to cover weekly rehearsal costs. We are sponsored by the City of Glen Eira and the Caulfield Park branch of the Bendigo Bank for some of our concerts but we also welcome donations and sponsorship of the choir or soloists from individuals.
Glen Eira City Choir in concert Brighton June 2022.
