2024 in review… and looking forward to 2025
Dear friends and choir members
We said our thank you’s, congratulations and farewells at our Christmas dinner last week. I would like to extend these messages to our larger group which includes our loyal audience also.
This year ‘s music was a challenge for the choir and we are proud of our performances of Karl Jenkins Requiem, with Bendigo Chorale and Benjamin Brittens A Ceremony of Carols at our Christmas concert. We thank our conductor Elena Varshavskaya, together with Berta Brozgul our accompanist Denise Grocke our Concert Manager together with Elena plan our program. Denise sources our outside musicians and the quality of these I have no doubt add to the high standard of our concerts,along with the St Andrews Anglican church as our venue.
We look forward to returning next year. Our committee work hard through the year, alongside our choir members who are always willing to assist. I list the committee now in recognition.
Vice president: Stuart Allen
Secretary Rosemary Hamer
Treasurer: John Dunham
Concert Manager: Denise Grocke
IT & so much more: Angela Alomes
We are singing ‘British music’ from the Renaissance to present day in our first concert in 2025. You are welcome to come and try us out. Reading music is an advantage. Thank you to those people who may have sung with us in the past but are no longer able. We love catching up with you after concerts. We look forward to the return of choristers unable to sing in 2025. And thank you again to our audience.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Glen Eira City Choir next meets on Monday 3 February at 7.30pm for 7.45pm start at St Andrews Church, New Street, Brighton.
Yours,
Penny Paton
President
January 2024
Welcome 2024 – we are getting ready to sing again!
Concerts
In 2024 we will be singing Karl Jenkin’s Requiem for our first concert, combining again with the Bendigo Chorale. (You can listen to the choir singing with Bendigo Chorale in June 2023 here.)
After discussion at our first committee meeting for 2024 last Tuesday, we can confirm:
- concert dates for Karl Jenkins Requiem will be June 22 at Brighton & June 29 in Bendigo
- our second concert will be in December at St Andrew’s Church Brighton on Saturday, December 7, with the programme yet to be confirmed
Rehearsals
Our first rehearsal is Monday, February 5th in the Pioneer Chapel of St Andrew’s Church, Brighton at 7.30pm for a 7.45pm warm up. We will have a “cuppa” at the end of our first rehearsal but no Trading Table in February. The Trading Table has been very successful in injecting funds for the choir in the last half of 2023. Thank you to our people manning this stall. From March we will resume the Trading Table, along with the “cuppa”, on the first Monday of the month.
Fees
There was discussion throughout 2023 re the choir’s finances. After much discussion at the January Committee Meeting it was decided that fees would need to be raised. Each chorister will now be asked to pay $12.50 per rehearsal. This will go towards covering fixed fees (administrative fees of church rental, fees for our conductor and accompanist) and the monthly cuppa. Music costs will still be additional. The score of the Karl Jenkins Requiem will be available for purchase at first rehearsals for $40.This year!
The schedule this year will give us more time for each concert and enable us to do new bigger works. We sang so well at our concerts last year and are looking forward to our program this year. New members are always welcome!
Looking forward to seeing everyone for rehearsal on Monday February 5, 7.30pm at the Pioneer Chapel, St Andrew’s Anglican Church, 228 New Street, Brighton.
December 2023
What a year! We farewelled choristers and welcomed new ones; performed three concerts – Haydn’s Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo and Rheinberger’s Stabat (Brighton and Bendigo), Birth of the Blues (Glen Eira Town Hall) and our Christmas Concert (St Andrew’s Brighton); enjoyed collaborating with Bendigo Chorale and Choral Studio Harmony Children’s Choir; and most importantly had fun! We look forward to resuming rehearsals in February 2024. We welcome new members. Please get in touch
October 2023
Come and hear us at 2:30PM this Saturday 28 October at the Glen Eira City Auditorium, Caulfield MAP.
The program will included classics such as the Birth of the Blues, Sweet and Low, Rock’a my Soul, Home on the Range, Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, Porgy and Bess medley, and I Got Rhythm.
Tickets: $25 for adults / children 15 and under free – available at the door or www.trybooking.com/CIMXO
June 2023
What a wonderful first concert for 2023 was had at both St Andrew’s, Brighton and St Paul’s, Bendigo. With the coming together of two very compatible choirs whom blend so well vocally, conducted by Elena Varshavskaya supported beautifully by the soloists and organist, we put on a great concert … again! Thank you to all who attended and supported both choirs.
Monday 19 June starts our next rehearsal season, leading up to our Spring Concert on Saturday 28 October 2023 at the Glen Eira City Town Hall Auditorium . The music for this concert will feature excerpts from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and songs from around the world. The new rehearsal schedule has been distributed to choristers and is also available on the Choir Information page.
All are welcome to our annual fundraising Silent Movie Comedy Night to be held at 7 pm on Saturday 15 July 2023. This year the feature is Buster Keaton in The General. Ranked among the greatest American films ever made, The General was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true story of an event that occurred during the American Civil War. The silent movie will be accompanied by renowned theatre organist David Johnston OAM on the Fincham pipe organ of Holy Trinity Balaclava and Elwood Anglican Church, 175 Chapel Street, St Kilda. Tickets are only $20 and are available now from www.trybooking.com/CINVH
May 2023
Our May 27 concert is fast approaching – join us on Saturday 27 May at St Andrew’s Brighton where we will be joined by Bendgio Chorale. The program includes Haydn’s Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo; Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, No 2; Rutter’s Gaelic Blessing and Rheinberger’s Stabat Mater. Conductor: Elena Varsharvskaya – Organist: Hugh Fullarton – Soprano: Kate Amos.
Tickets are only $30 and are available from www.trybookingcom/1037440 OR at the door
And in other news… two of our choristers, Michael and Irene, have recently enjoyed rehearsing and performing Mozart’s Requiem in Carnegie Hall, New York with DCINY, a company that organises concerts with singers coming together from choirs around the world. Two more of our choristers, John and Kathy, will be travelling to New York later in the year to perform with DCINY in Handel’s Messiah.