Chillingham Voices pays tribute to late conductor and founder

A SPECIAL concert will honour the legacy of late choir founder Harlie Axford when Chillingham Voices performs in Murwillumbah later this month.

The Chillingham Voices will present Past, Present and Future: A Tribute to Harlie Axford, which will feature several songs that the conductor was preparing before he tragically passed last year.

Unsure whether he was going to be around to join them for their next show, Harlie prepared a collection of songs that he hoped would serve his choir going forward.

“He thought that these were songs that could lead us into the future, and that’s why this concert is so poignant,” long-time choir member Neville Jennings said.

Originally a music lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, Harlie Axford and his wife Sue moved down to the Northern Rivers in the early 2000s.

It was not long after this that Harlie established the Chillingham Voices choir, bringing together what Jennings calls a “tight family” of local musical enthusiasts who would go on to perform and travel together across several states.

“Harlie encouraged us to travel, and those trips really drew us together,” Jennings said.

“Immediately upon meeting Harlie for the first time, I could see the qualities of this leader, not just for his musical ability but his ability to draw people together, and to give people the necessary confidence to sing.

“He also was good at attracting other great musicians from the local community to assist him.”

Harlie’s wife and fellow choir member Sue Axford said there could be no doubt about how much the choir meant to him.

“When he took over the choir and did the pieces he wanted to do, it was like an adrenaline rush and he would just come to life,” she said.

The pair shared the passion of the Chillingham Voices from the beginning and right up until the event of Harlie’s passing.

Sue said that it was a testament to his love for the choir that he persisted with conducting shows, even when he was in the later stages of his illness.

“Even though he was not well, he always wanted to go to rehearsals,” she said.

“His courage and his commitment were really inspiring,” Jennings added.

The concert on March 29 will feature a diverse mix of music spanning classical, musical theatre and popular favourites that promise to deliver a resounding tribute to the beloved conductor’s legacy.

Under the direction of conductors Barbara Crellin, Mary Wiseman, Lynne Turpie, Ben Axford and Barry Firth, the choir will perform works by composers such as Handel, Bernstein, Gibbons and Schönberg, alongside songs by the Beatles, the Beach Boys and David Bowie.

“Thankfully a number of conductors, including our son Ben, have stepped up to keep the tradition of this community choir alive,” Sue said.

Jennings expects the choir’s rendition of Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo, Whitacre’s The Seal Lullaby, and a couple of rousing songs from the musical Les Miserables will be particularly powerful.

“Those numbers were especially favoured by Harlie,” he said.

The tribute concert will be held on March 29 at 2.30pm at All Saints Anglican Church, Murwillumbah.

Tickets will be available at the door from 1.30pm or online through www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1547948