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Choir Updates

2005 - our 150th Anniversary    

We started in 1855, and we've been making glorious music ever since! The year 2005 marks 150 years of Auckland Choral. To celebrate, we are planning a range of events and special projects. Here are some of them.

Celebration 150. The weekend of Friday 15th to Sunday 17th April 2005 was a festival weekend packed with concerts and special events to celebrate our history. Under the banner "Celebration 150", we held an open rehearsal, a Celebration Dinner with guest celebrity speakers, an historical project display, a Gala Concert performance of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, and a Massed Choir Concert where guests and past members all joined in to perform the Berlioz Te Deum and selected massed choruses.

Choral Compostion Competition. We are running a New Zealand wide competition to find an exciting new choral composition for our 150th year. Entries for the competition closed on 1st August 2005, and the entries are now being judged. We will announce the winner at our Messiah performances in December 2005, and will perform the winning composition during our 2006 season. We are grateful for the generous assistance of CCH New Zealand Ltd who have donated the prize money.

South Island Tour. In late September 2005, we will be taking our choir on the road for a tour of the South Island. The tour starts with a joint performance of Missa Gaia with Christchurch City Choir on 22nd September, and continues with concerts in Greymouth, Wanaka and Oamaru, concluding with a performance of the Mozart Requiem in Dunedin on 1st October.

Historic Book Project. In May 2003 Peter Watts mooted the idea of a musical and social history of the Society being written as part of the celebration of its 150th anniversary. The idea is fast becoming a reality. A small and dedicated group have been meeting and working on this project. A scope for the book has been established, funding secured to enable the project to become a reality, an author secured, possible publishers contacted, photographs sourced, historical data researched, questionnaires and interviews completed and transcribed, cover artwork agreed and most recently, a title has been agreed.

The author of the book is Adrienne Simpson, with nine titles to her credit to date, the most recent New Zealand title being Capital Opera (2000). Adrienne comes to us with an impressive CV including a BA in Music, English and History (Victoria), MA in Music History (Victoria) and MMus from London University. She has achieved several awards for her work in music research, contributed articles to many recognised music periodicals in NZ and Australia, also scholarly writings for The Dictionary of NZ Biography and the latest edition of Grove's Dictionary, to name but a few of many reference publications both here and overseas. To say that we are fortunate to have Adrienne on board is an understatement and it is a pleasure working with her. She has a real enthusiasm for the project for which we are immensely grateful.

In an effort to find a title for such a book, the choir was invited to submit their ideas and we are delighted that Lisa Er (a current chorister) has produced the winner! The title of the book will be "Hallelujahs and History: the Auckland Choral Society 1855-2005". Watch this space for more information as the project unfolds.

Missa Pacifica. As a special 150th anniversary project, Auckland Choral has commissioned renowned New Zealand composer David Hamilton to compose a major new choral work for us. The work, "Missa Pacifica", is scored for full choir, children's choir and orchestra, and blends Pacific influences in with the traditional Latin Mass text to create a work with a distinctly fresh, New Zealand sound.

David Hamilton is New Zealand's most respected and prolific composer of choral music. By happy coincidence he is also a regular singing member of Auckland Choral, and our Deputy Musical Director. We will be giving the work its world premiere performance in November 2005, and recording the performance for commercial release. We are grateful for the generous assistance of our sponsors Pipers Patents and Creative New Zealand, for helping to bring a new large-scale musical work from concept to reality.

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