Sydney Grammar School’s Preparatory campus at
Edgecliff has a delightful choir named EDGECLIFF PREP SINGERS
under the direction of Head of Music Robin Carter. This year they
travelled to Port Macquarie once again to meet and share music and fun
with Tacking Point’s prestigious Bel Canto choir. The two
schools have been regular partners in performing arts programs
either in Sydney or Port Macquarie, and these visits are eagerly
anticipated by the children and the staff.
This year the young Australian composer James
Madsen travelled with the children and worked on some of
his compositions over the weekend. The Edgecliff choir performed
a lovely program of Australian music in the Sunday concert along
with some instrumental works played by some of the best young instrumentalists.
BEL CANTO performed a selection
of their repertoire which was currently being prepared for the Festival
of Choral Music in the Sydney Opera House in early September. They
are a consistently fine choir with a rigorous rehearsal and performance
regime under the choral direction of Robyn Ryan and Dayna
Moritz.
Adding to this mix of beautiful young performers,
the SATB adult mixed voice CANTORUS choir performed the
wonderful Gloria by Francis Poulenc with Soprano soloist Rose
Wilson.
A musically difficult but joyous composition, the Gloria
presents many choral challenges with dissonant harmonies coupled
with gorgeous melodies but is much loved by all singers.
This
concert was performed by a smaller group - just a chamber choir - so it
was quite an
intimate sound; and this, augmented by Rose Wilson’s soaring melodies,
created a cathedral-like atmosphere which was heavenly indeed.
