Full voices across the ages

THE vocal harmonies of different generations will resound through the Cathedral Church of Christ the King later this month as part of a collaborative show between two Ballarat choirs.

Next Sunday, members of the Ballarat Choral Society and Ballarat Voices will come together to sing songs as part of their From Dawn to Dusk concert.

BCS musical director Helen Duggan said the program’s theme is all about the relationship between music and the daytime through a primarily Australian lens.

“We’ll start with a morning canticle and evening canticle, which is the dawn to dusk thing,” she said.

“The remainder of the program is music that has some sort of relationship with what goes on in the daytime.

“It’s turned into being almost an entire program from living Australian composers. There’s a lot of lovely music in that field being written right now.”

The program’s roughly eight pieces will be bookended with Mozart’s Te Deum in C and Pachelbel’s Magnificat in D from the BCS choir, with the songs in-between performed by BV members.

The majority of the works will be from Australian composers like Matthew Orlovich, Iain Grandage, Stephen Leek, and Lyn Williams, with a focus on the country’s landscape.

Both groups will come together at the end for a short prayer by New Zealand composer David Hamilton.

Duggan said the collaboration brings unique opportunities for both groups.

“It’s a chance for us to hear the children singing and for them to hear us and to hear what’s going on,” she said.

“It gives the program variety and it’s an opportunity for the children to sing for an audience that might not have had otherwise and same for us.

“Because we’re a much older group and they’re a group of children it gives everyone a wider range of enjoyable music.”

BCS performers will be accompanied by soloist Beverley Phillips while BV’s members will be backed by Wendy Rechenberg.

Tickets range from free entry for children under 12, to $50 for families of two adults and two kids, and can be booked at bit.ly/47iuRyB.