PRESENTED BY MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA

Every year on Christmas Eve listeners around the world tune in to hear The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge celebrate the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in a glorious display of the British choral tradition. Now this unique and precious sound returns to Australia. 

The Choir will perform soaring anthems and sacred works alongside two touchstones of the choral repertoire: Stravinsky’s Mass for choir and double wind quintet (ten of Australia’s best instrumentalists); and Maurice Duruflé’s magnificent Requiem, a radiant meditation on life and death for choir and organ. 

It’s not all top hats and heavenly voices: just as boys grow up and voices change, the Choir’s work evolves across the generations. Which is why Daniel Hyde, Director since 2019, asked us what The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge might learn from us. Integral to their performance is a new work commissioned from Australian composer Damian Barbeler, working with a text by Judith Nangala Crispin (a descendant of the Bpangerang people), which weaves a new tapestry from the threads of history.

Program 1: Sydney (Sydney Opera House), Perth (Perth Concert Hall), Brisbane (QPAC), Adelaide (Adelaide Town Hall)

HANDEL Zadok the Priest 
BAINTON And I saw a new Heaven 
DURUFLÉ Requiem, Op. 9 
Damian BARBELER (music) & Judith Nangala CRISPIN (poem) Charlotte (2023)* 

OR 

Program 2: Sydney (City Recital Hall), Melbourne (Hamer Hall & Melbourne Recital Centre) Canberra (Llewellyn Hall)

GABRIELI O magnum mysterium 
BULL Almighty God, which by the leading of a star 
TALLIS Videte miraculum 
WEIR Vertue 
STRAVINSKY Mass 
Damian BARBELER (music) & Judith Nangala CRISPIN (poem) Charlotte (2023)* 

*World premiere performances. Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Richard Wilkins. 

Concert Duration: The concert has an approximate duration of 105 minutes (including interval).