Wow! what a busy 5 months  Glen Eira City Choir has had, culminating in performing our Winter Concert –  Karl Jenkins Requiem at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Brighton on 22 June and then the following week at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral,  Bendigo. Rehearsals were held every week from February, with only a break for Easter Monday.  For this concert  Glen Eira City Choir again collaborated with Bendigo Chorale. We came together for a combined rehearsal with  Bendigo Chorale and the musicians early in June. (Listen to the choir in rehearsal here and  here)

In Requiem, a mass for the dead, Jenkins has inserted in between the traditional Latin texts movements with Japanese haiku ”death” poems,  and used both traditional and modern musical styles. We were thrilled to perform and share this work with such large audiences in Brighton and Bendigo. Thank you to all those attended!  You can listen to excerpts from the concert in Bendigo here – Dies Irae and the final movement In Paradisum

Monday following the concert we enjoyed  our usual post-concert dinner in a new venue. It was great being able to move freely around the room to catch up with people.

Many thanks to Lisa Robinson, our soloist for the Karl Jenkins Requiem, for offering us a  Voice Production & Vocal Exercise Class during our mid-winter break. Choristers and friends enjoyed learning about the anatomy of voice production  and putting into practice various techniques. It was good to catch up  again with choristers over tea/coffee afterwards.

During the break our conductor, Elena Varshavskaya, attended the Interkultur World Choir Games in Auckland NZ with Choral Studio Harmony, a children’s choir she also conducts. Congratulations to them on attaining Silver in the Young Children’s Choir section.

What’s next? Rehearsals for our Christmas Concert at St Andrew’s Brighton on Saturday 7 December commence on Monday 29 July.  We will be performing Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, along with well known Christmas Carols.

***CANCELLED due to unforseen circumstances***And finally our joint annual Silent Movie Night fundraiser with Holy Trinity Balaclava & Elwood is on Saturday 10 August 7.00pm. Enjoy watching Silent Movie Comedies, including an original Buster Keaton and first Disney cartoons, accompanied by David Johnston OAM on on the Fincham Pipe Organ of Holy Trinity (175 Chapel Street – Cnr Brighton Rd – St Kilda 3182). Admission $25 U15 free