Young choral singers to St Paul’s

AN ensemble comprising some of Australia’s best young choral singers will perform in Bendigo.

The National Youth Choir of Australia’s local concert is set for Friday 5 July, at the end of an intensive week of choral workshops for the cohort in Melbourne.

Artistic director Noel Ancell said 28 singers and two conducting scholars will be in residence at the University of Melbourne’s University College from Saturday 29 June until the following Sunday.

“They’ll probably sing for six hours a day and there are other peripheral things – some of them will be pursuing conducting skills and we’ll talk a lot about language and music history and all the background stuff,” he said.

At the conclusion of the week, the choir will perform early afternoon at Castlemaine Art Museum and in the evening at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Bendigo on the Friday, with a final show at St John’s Southgate, Melbourne on Saturday 6 July.

“There’ll be a range of music,” said Ancell. “It’ll all be what you’d call classical music, so there will be some church music, sacred music, particularly from the 16th century, and then all the way up to music that’s been written recently.

“A significant proportion of it will be by Australian composers.”

He expects the performance will produce some of the best choral singing ever heard in Bendigo.

“This is basically professional level choral singing,” he said. “These are young singers who really care very deeply about what they do and they’re determined to do it at the highest possible level.”

Tickets to the Bendigo show can be purchased via Trybooking.