CORRALLING THE MASSES A MAMMOTH MUSICAL JOURNEY
As one of the most popular composers of our time, Eric Whitacre is solely responsible for the worldwide hit of his Virtual Choir, a phenomenon receiving millions of views on YouTube. In the Opera House, not only will the choir sing his Lux Aurumque, Five Hebrew Love Songs, The Seal Lullaby and Cloudburst, Whitacre will personally be here to conduct the concert in the Opera House. “Eric has a small choir (VOX) and a large choir, the big full-throated choir of the Symphony Chorus to work with in the Opera House.”
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Barry Walmsley interviews the Sydney Philharmonia’s Brett Weymark and finds a deep thinker who is willing to take risks.
is often more of an escape, a solitary activity – almost a withdrawal. And this is where live performance is so crucial; it brings us together.”
After 10 years at the helm of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Music Director Brett Weymark is looking forward to another full year of exciting and challenging choral music for Sydney audiences.
Every one of Weymark’s concerts has something to impact its audiences, from the modernity of Eric Whitacre in Light and Gold, to Opera’s Triple Threat (a birthday party for Verdi, Wagner and Britten).
With fifteen concerts scheduled for 2013, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs will take audiences on a mammoth journey of musical styles, ranging from the late Baroque through to Cole Porter and modern pop.
In Whitacre’s music, audiences are brought together by his haunting sounds, and the wondrous relationship between text and music. In the words of a London critic, “Whitacre is that rare thing, a modern composer, who is both popular and original.” (The Daily Telegraph)
..music reunites us..with our society and ourselves.
Sitting down with Brett Weymark immediately following his last concert for 2012, he spoke about his philosophy in directing the choirs (Symphony Chorus, Chamber Singers, Festival Chorus and VOX). Revealing himself as a deep thinker, Weymark’s musical intent is to reach out to people right across the spectrum. “In a growing age of disconnection, music reunites us, in a way that no other activity does – with our society and ourselves,” said Weymark. “The unprecedented availability of music of all kinds is one of the privileges of our time. But this has changed music for us: listening to music 6
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“We’re incredibly thrilled to be bringing out Eric Whitacre. Choirs seem to love singing his music. He’s also a very good conductor. He is one of the few composers who’s looking at choral music in this new electronic age with the virtual choir. We’re really lucky to be bringing him out. It’s a real coup for our company,” said Weymark.
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..Whitacre is one of the most popular composers of our time..
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Of course, such coups don’t just happen, and this is where the imagination and planning skills of Weymark and his team come to the fore. “It came about over coffee in a Los Angeles café some three years ago. We’ve kept in contact ever since and the planets have aligned.”
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Brett Weymark.
...risky stuff is what the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs does so well…
Another engaging concert idea in Weymark’s plans will be Tracing Time, the program that will present choral transcriptions of orchestral and chamber pieces, along with classic pop songs from the last four decades. It might sound like risky stuff, but this is what the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs does so well – bringing together great repertoire, sometimes in new settings (both musical and spacial) to give audiences a really memorable event in which they feel totally immersed. It’s about what Weymark refers to as the Performance Triangle: the powerful relationship between composer, performers and audience. Knowing whether the right combinations are achieved is always a risk, but Weymark takes his lead from two of the finest musicians. “Anthony Rowley (from The Consort of Musicke) has said ‘Music exists in the universe, you are just acting as a conduit.’” So for Weymark it is about removing himself from the equation. “Music happens best when it’s not about you. It’s a wonderfully liberating force to remove yourself from the music – this came to me from Simon Rattle on his recent tour of Tokyo, when he said that if it suddenly becomes about you, you’re then in crisis,” said Weymark.