Handel Messiah – Sydney Philharmonia Choirs 2022

HANDEL MESSIAH

CONTENTS Tap an item in the list to jump to that section Tap lower right corner to return to this page

The Program Acknowledgement of Country Welcome About the Music About the Composer The Words About the Artists The Christmas Choirs

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Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra Our Supporters and Partners About Us

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IMAGE: THE FINAL PAGE FROM HANDEL’ S AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT FOR MESSIAH (1741)

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS PRESENTS

HANDEL MESSIAH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

DEBORAH CHEETHAM and MATTHEW DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here† GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Messiah – A Sacred Oratorio Libretto compiled from Holy Scripture by Charles Jennens Part the First.

Prophecy of Christ’s appearance on earth. The Nativity.

INTERVAL Part the Second.

The death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

The spreading of the Gospel.

PAUSE Part the Third.

Victory over Death.

Brett Weymark conductor Lorina Gore soprano | Ashlyn Tymms mezzo-soprano Nicholas Jones tenor | Morgan Pearse baritone Chamber Singers | Symphony Chorus | VOX Christmas Choir River City Voices | Wollongong Messiah Choir Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra Thursday 8 December 2022 at 8pm Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 December 2022 at 1pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall † Commissioned for 100 Minutes of New Australian Music 2020 The performance will run for approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute interval and 10-minute pause.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY We acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country we rehearse, sing and work, and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. Our voices bring to life the songs of many cultures and countries, from across the ages, in a spirit of sharing, learning and understanding. The ancient customs and cultures of this land inspire us to create harmony – in music and our society.

PHOTO: KRISTINA KINGSTON

TARIMI NULAY – LONG TIME LIVING HERE Deborah Cheetham and Matthew Doyle Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here was commissioned for our centenary year (2020) as a choral Acknowledgement of Country to commence our concerts.

With Tarimi Nulay, Deborah Cheetham (music and words) and Matthew Doyle (the translation into Gadigal) have created a work that explores a profound cultural and spiritual reflection of the land on which we sing.

Tarimi Nulay was premiered in the Dawn Chorus performance on the steps of the Sydney Opera House at the beginning of 2020 and has been heard in performances we have given since then. It has been programmed to begin each concert in our 2022 season and we hope this special piece will be part of Sydney Philharmonia performances for many years to come.

Deborah Cheetham AO – Yorta Yorta, soprano, composer and educator – has been a leader in the Australian arts landscape for more than 25 years. In 2009 she established Short Black Opera, devoted to the development of Indigenous singers.

In 2010 she produced Pecan Summer, Australia’s first Indigenous opera. In 2014 she was named an Officer of the Order of Australia, for ‘distinguished service to the performing arts as an opera singer, composer and artistic director, to the development of Indigenous artists, and to innovation in performance’. Her commissions include the major choral-orchestral work Eumeralla – A War Requiem for Peace (2019).

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WELCOME PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS

I call it the Messiah effect!

A few months ago, I sat down at the piano with my tattered Messiah score and its 30 years of markings, and began the process of getting the work back into my head with the help of my trusty metronome. To my surprise, I just couldn’t stop smiling.

I experienced this palpable sense of coming home.

And after such a big year, returning to the concert stage, many of our singers have found a similar sense of relief – and joy – in coming back to this well-known work that we’ve performed so many times before. It’s as if the music is saying to us “we’re very close to being back to normal”. We’re back home in the Sydney Opera House, singing music we love with the most important people in the room, you – our audience.

Looking at it in the greater context of how this work became tied to the fate of the Foundling Hospital in London – a place I always walk past in Bloomsbury as a kind of cultural homage whenever I’m there – you realise this work is about more than the notes on the page. It was a catalyst for so much of the great choral repertoire we now perform, but it was also a work that helped people.

A work like Messiah demonstrates the power of music to bring people together from all walks of life and all belief systems to sing as one. As I write this, tears are welling up in my eyes at the thought of how much this work means to me, and to our singers and instrumentalists.

This year’s Messiah is a milestone for us in our long journey back from the pandemic.

It’s a work that helps us heal and move on, rather than dwelling on what we’ve all been through.

A sense of possibility. Of renewal.

Sit back and be moved by the awesome sound of the human voice and this most remarkable music.

And if you love Handel’s Messiah, come and hear us sing his Samson next Easter.

You might just find another gem of the choral repertoire to love!

Brett Weymark OAM Artistic and Music Director

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THE RITUAL OF MESSIAH SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 6

THOMAS HUDSON’S 1747 PORTRAIT OF HANDEL

Gordon Kerry explores

THE COMPOSER RICHARD WAGNER ONCE observed that at a performance of a Handel oratorio in England, everyone held their vocal score “as one holds a prayerbook in church”. Certainly by the mid-19th century, performances of Messiah had assumed the character of a de facto religious ritual, and in keeping with the general ethos of the Victorian era, such performances also assumed gargantuan proportions: on the centenary of the composer’s death in 1859, the work was performed by a chorus of over 2000 and an orchestra of 460 to an audience which numbered in the tens of thousands. [Our own chorus of 680 singers seems modest by comparison!] None would have been more surprised than the composer at the revered status that Messiah would attain.

While there was never any doubt about its musical quality, Messiah’s early history was by no means a story of easy triumph.

The 1730s had been a time of professional turbulence for Handel. His status as the pre-eminent composer of opera for the London stage had been challenged by a cabal of noblemen associated with the Prince of Wales – as much for party political as aesthetic reasons, and while the details are unclear it seems there may have been a boycott of his work in the last years of the decade. There was certainly some kind of fall from grace – whether the result of this politics or what Handel referred to enigmatically as “a faux pas made but not meant”. In the event, the stress also affected the composer’s health.

He suffered what was probably a mild stroke, leading to paralysis in his right arm.

Handel fortunately made a full recovery, though his energies from now on went into the oratorio rather than the opera. In 1741 he wisely took the advice of an acquaintance who suggested that “he wou’d do very well to ly quiet for a year or two”. Handel didn’t

exactly “ly quiet” but he did accept the invitation of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to present concerts in Dublin beginning in November of that year.

Dublin was, in the early 18th century, one of the grandest cities in Great Britain and Ireland; it boasted a vibrant intellectual life, some of the most beautiful architecture and town planning in the kingdom, and one of the earliest purpose-built music halls in Europe. In fact, music was not one of the principal entertainments of the city’s exclusively Protestant gentry and aristocracy, but there was at this time a move to effect social improvement through advocacy groups such as the Dublin Society and through the establishment of charitable organisations. Handel had raised money for various charities in London (and would continue to do so – most famously for the Foundling Hospital) and part of his mission was to do likewise in Dublin. His new oratorio raised the considerable sum of £400 for Dublin hospitals. And, as his noted contemporary Charles Burney later put it, Messiah “has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan, and enriched succeeding managers of the oratorios, more than any single production in this or any other country”.

Messiah, written with Handel’s characteristic haste during the previous summer in London, formed the climax of Handel’s concert series at the New Music Hall in April 1742. The Dublin audiences had enjoyed numerous works including his Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Acis and Galatea and the oratorio Esther, and when Messiah was performed at an open rehearsal on 9 April the response was overwhelming – so much so that ladies of the audience for the official premiere were asked not to wear hoop skirts, and gentlemen to leave their swords at home to make enough room in the auditorium.

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Messiah “has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan, and enriched succeeding managers of the oratorios, more than any single production in this or any other country.”

But it wasn’t all plain the Old and New sailing. One prominent Testaments to Irish churchman was dramatise the outraged. He rather prophecies of Christ’s humourlessly threatincarnation and ened to ban the choatoning death, his Charles Burney risters from St Patrick’s resurrection and Cathedral (of which he ascent into glory and was Dean) from taking part in a secular final redemption of creation. The following entertainment based on scripture, but was is a summary by David Vickers of Jennens’ fortunately convinced otherwise. His name own division of the work into three ‘acts’: was Jonathan Swift. But another clergyman, ACT I (i) Isaiah’s prophecy of Salvation; Patrick Delany (whose wife’s diaries are an (ii) the prophecy of the coming of Messiah invaluable document of Georgian life) was and the question, despite Isaiah, of what overwhelmed. Handel had insisted on this may portend for the World; (iii) the using the singer Susannah Cibber (then in prophecy of the Virgin Birth; (iv) the disgrace over an adultery scandal); Delany, appearance of the Angels to the Shepherds; on hearing her sing “He was despised”, (v) Christ’s redemptive miracles on earth. famously cried out, “Woman, for this be all ACT II (i) The redemptive sacrifice, the thy sins forgiven thee!” scourging and the agony on the cross; (ii) Handel had faced ecclesiastical opposition His sacrificial death, His passage through before, notably when the Bishop of London Hell and Resurrection; (iii) His Ascension; had denounced his Israel in Egypt in 1738 (iv) God discloses his identity in Heaven; (v) for similar reasons. In fact when it came Whitsun, the gift of tongues, the beginning time for the London premiere of Messiah, of evangelism; (vi) the world and its rulers Handel nowhere used the title in the reject the Gospel; (vii) God’s triumph. advance publicity, preferring the term “A ACT III (i) The promise of bodily resurrection Sacred Oratorio”. It didn’t help: Messiah and redemption from Adam’s fall; (ii) the was roundly denounced as sacrilegious Day of Judgement and general Resurrection; and heretical by the hierarchy, many of (iii) the victory over death and sin; (iv) the whom were offended by the sight and glorification of the Messianic victim. sound of scripture outside ‘proper’ places of worship. One asked if such a work was “an Act of Religion…; if it is, I ask if the Playhouse is a fit Temple to perform it in?”

Handel was a man of the theatre but he was also a devout Christian – as was his librettist for Messiah, Charles Jennens.

Jennens had been denied his degree at Oxford for refusing to acknowledge George II’s Hanoverian family as the legitimate kings of England, but the theology of his libretto is nonetheless that of an orthodox Protestant. Jennens takes judiciously selected passages from both

Such a structure is, of course, operatic – one contemporary description of Handel’s oratorios noted how “the Solemnity of Church-Musick is agreeably united with the most pleasing Airs of the Stage”. This was, as we have seen, part of the reason for the Church’s initial mistrust of the work; we might add that, while Handel gave up writing operas, he continued using opera singers for his oratorios and these were performed in theatres and even taverns rather than chapels or churches. Handel’s music is certainly unapologetic in its

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operatic tone – some sections, like “For unto us a child is born”, are of course recycled from decidedly non-sacred moments in his operas. And yet Jennens’ libretto solves the sacred/secular problem brilliantly: Jesus himself never speaks (unlike in, say, Bach’s Passions) and the prophecies, descriptions and commentaries are all in the third person. The solo singers represent as it were disembodied prophetic voices; the chorus takes on the roles of prophet, angelic host, angry mob or the voices of various apostles. But these incarnations are only temporary. No actor is identified with any single character, and the work thus maintains a level of abstraction which allows us to concentrate on the unfolding of the drama through text and music. By focussing not, like Bach, on the suffering and death of Jesus so much as the cosmic plan for salvation, Jennens displays what Ruth Smith calls a “generous faith” with its initial promise of comfort.

The work itself went through several incarnations – in fact there is no definitive version as Handel was obliged to revise, re-score and occasionally recompose depending on the performers at his disposal. After his death there were various ‘improvements’ made by, among others Mozart, who added parts for a classical orchestra including clarinets and brass, and of course the cast of thousands at the 1859 performance were not even pretending to give an ‘authentic’ reading. But by then Messiah was firmly established in Anglophone culture, having acquired its status as a quasi-liturgical work. Wagner, who tried to create a national consciousness through Germanic myth in his operas, only scoffed because Handel held a position that he coveted himself.

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) travelled extensively as a young man, developing a distinctive and lively hybrid of Italian, German and French styles. At 25 he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, but he immediately deferred his appointment with an eight-month leave of absence in London, the hub of the 18thcentury musical world, where his opera Rinaldo was a triumph. Soon after his return to Hanover, he was again given permission to visit England, this time with the injunction to return “within reasonable time”. In the end, lured by new musical opportunities in London, Handel outstayed his leave but not his welcome. He was still in England in 1714 when his Hanover employer assumed the English throne as George I. Handel’s years in Italy had consolidated his status as a force to be reckoned with in the opera scene, and this was how he’d made his name in London. When the English taste for Italian opera began to fade he turned to a new medium: the English sacred oratorio. Treating his biblical themes with the unerring dramatic instinct he’d brought to the opera stage, he delighted audiences with oratorios such as Israel in Egypt, Samson and – the most famous but not the most typical – Messiah.

Abridged from a note by Gordon Kerry © 2006

DETAIL FROM THOMAS HUDSON’S 1756 PORTRAIT OF HANDEL WITH THE SCORE OF MESSIAH.

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PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS

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THE WORDS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

CHEETHAM & DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here Tarimi nulay ngalawa yura garrabarra baraya yagu barrabugu ngyiningi ngara ngyiningi berong

Long time here live the people dancing and singing today and tomorrow, your way of knowing your way of belonging Translated into Gadigal by Matthew Doyle

HANDEL Messiah PART THE FIRST Prophecy of Christ’s appearance on earth. The Nativity.

Sinfony OVERTURE (ORCHESTRA) Comfort ye – Ev’ry valley ACCOMPAGNATO AND SONG (TENOR) Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplish’d, that her iniquity is pardon’d. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

(Isaiah 40:1-4)

Thus saith the Lord – But who may abide ACCOMPAGNATO AND RECITATIVE (BASS) Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts; Yet once a little while, and I will shake the heav’ns and the earth; the sea and the dry land; And I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come. The Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.

But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?

For He is like a refiner’s fire.

(Haggai 2:6-7, Malachi 3:1-2)

And He shall purify CHORUS And He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

(Malachi 3:3)

And the glory of the Lord CHORUS And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

(Isaiah 40:5)

Messiah features two kinds of recitative or “sung speech”: an Accompagnato includes written-out accompanying parts for the strings and is more rhythmical than the freer Recitative, which is accompanied by basso continuo instruments (organ or harpsichord) improvising above a bass line.

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Behold, a virgin shall conceive – O thou that tellest

For unto us a child is born

RECITATIVE AND SONG WITH CHORUS (ALTO)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel, ‘God with us.’

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

(Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 40:9, 60:1)

For behold, darkness – The people that walked in darkness ACCOMPAGNATO AND SONG (BASS) For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

(Isaiah 60:2-3; Isaiah 9:2)

CHORUS

(Isaiah 9:6)

Pifa PASTORAL SYMPHONY (ORCHESTRA) There were shepherds abiding in the field – Glory to God RECITATIVES (SOPRANO) AND CHORUS And there were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heav’nly host, praising God, and saying...

“Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill towards men.”

(Luke 2:8–14)

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Rejoice greatly SONG (SOPRANO) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee.

He is the righteous Saviour; And He shall speak peace unto the heathen.

(Zechariah 9:9-10)

PART THE SECOND The death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. The spreading of the Gospel.

Behold the Lamb of God CHORUS Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.

(John 1:29)

Then shall the eyes of the blind – He shall feed his flock RECITATIVE (ALTO) AND DUET (SOPRANO AND ALTO) Then shall the eyes of the blind be open’d, And the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

Come unto Him all ye that labour, come unto Him, that are heavy laden, and He will give you rest.

Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him; for He is meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

(Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 40:11, Matthew 11:28-29)

His yoke is easy CHORUS His yoke is easy, His burthen is light.

(Matthew 11:30)

He was despised SONG (ALTO) He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting.

He was despised…

(Isaiah 53:3, 50:6)

Surely He hath borne our griefs – And with his stripes we are healed – All we, like sheep CHORUSES Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed.

INTERVAL (20 minutes)

All we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned ev’ry one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

(Isaiah 53:4-6)

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All they that see Him – He trusted in God

Lift up your heads

ACCOMPAGNATO (TENOR) AND CHORUS

CHORUS

All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying:

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.

Who is this King of Glory?

The Lord strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle, The Lord of Hosts: He is the King of Glory.

He trusted in God that He would deliver him: let Him deliver Him, if He delight in Him. (Psalm 22:7-8 – Book of Common Prayer)

Thy rebuke hath broken His heart – Behold and see – ACCOMPAGNATO AND SONG (TENOR) Thy rebuke hath broken His heart; He is full of heaviness.

He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort Him.

(Psalm 24:7-10)

Unto which of the angels – Let all the angels of God RECITATIVE (TENOR) AND CHORUS Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?

Let all the angels of God worship Him.

Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow!

(Hebrews 1:5-6)

(Psalm 69:20 – BCP; Lamentations 1:12)

SONG (SOPRANO)

Thou art gone up on high

He was cut off – But Thou didst not leave ACCOMPAGNATO AND SONG (TENOR) He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of Thy people was He stricken.

But Thou didst not leave His soul in Hell, nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.

(Isaiah 53:8; Psalm 16:10)

Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men, yea, even for Thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them.

(Psalm 68:18)

The Lord gave the word CHORUS The Lord gave the word: great was the company of the preachers.

(Psalm 68:11 – BCP)

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How beautiful are the feet

Hallelujah

SONG (ALTO WITH SOLO VIOLIN)

CHORUS

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.

Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world.

Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, Hallelujah!

The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, Hallelujah!

(Romans 10:18)

(Revelations 19:6, 11:15, 19:16)

Why do the nations – Let us break their bonds

PAUSE (10 minutes)

SONG (BASS) AND CHORUS

Please remain in the auditorium.

(Romans 10:15)

Their sound is gone out CHORUS

Why do the nations so furiously rage together: why do the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsels together against the Lord and against His anointed.

Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us.

(Psalm 2:1-3 – BCP)

He that dwelleth in heaven – Thou shalt break them RECITATIVE AND SONG (TENOR)

PART THE THIRD Victory over Death.

I know that my Redeemer liveth SONG (SOPRANO) I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

And tho’ worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.

He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision.

(Job 19:25-26; 1 Corinthians 15:20)

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

CHORUS

(Psalm 2:4, 9 – BCP)

Since by man came death Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

(1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

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Behold, I tell you a mystery – The trumpet shall sound

If God be for us

ACCOMPAGNATO AND SONG (BASS)

If God be for us, who can be against us?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?

It is God that justifieth: Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again; who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be chang’d, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be rais’d incorruptible, and we shall be chang’d.

(1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

Then shall be brought to pass – O Death, where is thy sting? – But thanks be to God RECITATIVE (ALTO), DUET (ALTO AND TENOR) AND CHORUS Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; Death is swallow’d up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

SONG (SOPRANO)

(Romans 18:31, 33-34)

Worthy is the Lamb – Amen CHORUS WITH SOLOISTS Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God

by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Blessing and honour, glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.

Amen.

(Revelation 5:12-13)

Libretto compiled from Holy Scripture

by Charles Jennens (1700–1773)

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS

Brett Weymark conductor Brett Weymark OAM is one of Australia’s foremost choral conductors. Appointed Artistic and Music Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in 2003, he has conducted the Choirs throughout Australia as well as internationally. He has also conducted the Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland, West Australian and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Sydney Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as productions for WAAPA, Pacific Opera and OzOpera, and he has performed with Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Song Company and Musica Viva.

He studied singing and conducting at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, continuing his conducting studies with Simon Halsey, Vance George, Daniel Barenboim and John Eliot Gardiner, amongst others.

His repertoire at SPC has included Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, the Mozart, Verdi, Duruflé and Fauré requiems, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He champions Australian composers, and has premiered works by Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin, John Peterson, Daniel Walker, Rosalind Page, Peter Sculthorpe, Andrew Schultz and Ross Edwards. In 2011 he premiered his own work Brighton to Bondi with the Festival Chorus. He

has also conducted musical theatre programs including Bernstein’s Candide, which won multiple BroadwayWorld Sydney awards.

Under his direction, SPC received a Helpmann Award for Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms, directed by Peter Sellars, and was nominated for a Limelight Award for Purcell’s King Arthur.

He was chorus master for the Adelaide Festival productions of Saul (2017), Hamlet (2018) and Requiem (2020), and he has prepared choirs for Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Simon Rattle. He has recorded for the ABC and conducted film scores for Happy Feet, Mad Max Fury Road and Australia.

Recent conducting highlights include Sweeney Todd (West Australian Opera), Jandamarra by Paul Stanhope and Steve Hawke (SSO), Michael Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time (Adelaide Festival) and Carousel (State Opera South Australia).

In 2001 he was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal and in 2021 the Medal of the Order of Australia. In 2023 he celebrates his 20th season with SPC. Brett Weymark is passionate about singing and the role music plays in both the wellbeing of individuals and the health and vitality of a community’s culture. He believes music can transform lives and should be accessible to all.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 17

PHOTO: DAVE FOWLER

Lorina Gore soprano

Ashlyn Tymms mezzo-soprano

Australian soprano Lorina Gore completed postgraduate voice studies at the Australian National University in Canberra and the National Opera Studio in London. She has won numerous prestigious opera awards, including two Helpmann awards, a Green Room Award, the Dame Joan Sutherland/ AOAC Scholarship, prizes and scholarships in the 2010 Opera Awards, the Covent Garden National Opera Studio Scholarship, HeraldSun Aria (2nd place in 2002 and 2004), and the Australian National Aria Competition.

She joined Opera Australia as a principal artist in 2008 and has since performed many roles, including Violetta (La Traviata), Marie (Wozzeck), Leïla (The Pearlfishers), Amina (La sonnambula), Musetta (La Bohème) and Roxana in King Roger, for which she won a Helpmann Award and a Green Room Award.

She subsequently received her second Helpmann Award for the role of Ophelia in Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Adelaide Festival (2018). Earlier this year she sang Violetta for Opera Queensland.

Her recordings include A Toast to Melba and Johann Strauss: Waltzes and Arias with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Marko Letonja, highlights from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with Yvonne Kenny, Bliss with Opera Australia, and Handel’s Rodelinda, conducted by Richard Bonynge.

Perth-born Ashlyn Tymms is a graduate of the Melbourne Conservatorium and the Royal College of Music. While in London she sang Rosimonda in Faramondo (London Handel Festival) and created the role of Judith in the premiere of The Two Sisters (Tête à Tête).

Other roles include the Newspaper Vendor in Les Mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc, Euridice in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld and Berenice in Rossini’s comic intermezzo L’occasione fa il ladro (Opportunity Makes the Thief).

She made her West Australian Opera debut as Lapák and Mrs Pásková in The Cunning Little Vixen (2018), and since then has sung Flora in La Traviata and the Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth, as well as appearing in Opera in the Quarry and singing regionally with the company in The Pinnacles and the Valley of the Giants. Her most recent West Australian Opera appearances include Dorabella in the Glyndebourne Festival production of Così fan tutte, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel and Santuzza in Cavelleria rusticana; in February she will sing Carmen with the company.

Recent and future concert engagements include the Melbourne and West Australian symphony orchestras, Flinders Quartet and the Vienna Pops Orchestra.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 18

PHOTO: OLEG SINGAREEV

Nicholas Jones tenor

Morgan Pearse baritone

Brilliant young tenor Nicholas Jones won a Green Room Award and a Helpmann Award nomination for his portrayal of David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Opera Australia. Other appearances for OA have included principal roles in Carmen, Il turco in Italia, The Nose and Two Weddings, One Bride, as well as Tamino and Almaviva in the touring productions of The Magic Flute and The Barber of Seville. More recently, he sang Michael Driscoll in the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Whiteley and Tony in the OA touring production of West Side Story.

For State Opera South Australia he created the role of Fish Lamb in the premiere of George Palmer’s Cloudstreet, and has also performed Tom (Christina’s World) and Harry (Voss). He sang Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia (Victorian Opera) and was an original cast member of Deborah Cheetham’s indigenous opera Pecan Summer. His most recent appearance with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs was in Haydn’s Creation (2018).

This year’s engagements have included Tsarevich Gvidon (The Golden Cockerel) for the Adelaide Festival, Jaquino (Fidelio) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Almaviva with Opera Australia. Next week he will sing Handel’s Messiah with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Nicholas Jones is the current recipient of the Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award.

Morgan Pearse studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School and was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio (2014–15). He made his debut with English National Opera singing Figaro in The Barber of Seville, a role he’s since sung for NZ Opera and State Opera South Australia. His journey with the character of Figaro also includes The Marriage of Figaro (Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Opernhaus Zurich) and Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles (Wolf Trap Opera).

Other opera highlights include Papageno (The Magic Flute) and Araspe (Tolomeo) in Karlsruhe, Sid (Albert Herring) for the Buxton Festival, Belcore (The Elixir of Love) for NZ Opera, Ned Keene (Peter Grimes) with the Auckland Philharmonia, Papageno with the Russian National Orchestra and Farasmene (Radamisto) with Philharmonia Baroque.

Since his landmark performance in 2011 of Schubert’s Winterreise (the first in Sydney in 20 years), appearances in his native Australia have included Apollo in L’Orfeo (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra), Dioclesian (Pinchgut Opera), as well as Notes from Underground and the title role in Owen Wingrave (Sydney Chamber Opera). He has sung Messiah with the West Australian, Tasmanian and Adelaide symphony orchestras, and previously with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in 2013.

Morgan Pearse won the audience prize at the 2020 London Handel Festival and has since appeared regularly at the Innsbruck Festival for Early Music.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 19

PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS

CHORUSOZ RETURNS IN 2023!

MAHLER 8 ChorusOz is returning to the Sydney Opera House over the June long weekend in 2023. And it returns in monumental fashion with Mahler’s Symphony No.8 – ‘Symphony of a Thousand’.

We need 1,000 voices! Registrations are now open and singers of all levels are welcome.

ChorusOz is your chance to join other passionate singers from across Australia and immerse yourself in a major choral work over a full weekend, culminating in a performance with the Sydney Youth Orchestra led by Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark.

Register now for a life-changing experience – making great music and new friendships.

Scan the QR code for more information and to register for the ChorusOz 2023 choir. sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/chorusoz2023rego SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 20

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS Brett Weymark Artistic and Music Director Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master and Principal Rehearsal Pianist Claire Howard Race Rehearsal Pianist SOPRANOS Veronica Alfano Lucy Andrews Shelley Andrews Julie Bangura Eva Berger Noelle Betterley Georgina Bitcon Nikki Bogard Catherine Bryant Anita Burkart Anne Cooke Alexandra Coulton Courtney Cousins Pam Cunningham Rouna Daley Melanie David Rachel Evans Karina Falland Susan Farrell Rebecca Fitzpatrick Jehane Ghabrial Josephine Giles Natalie Gooneratne Judith Gorry Caroline Gude Amanda Hamilton Leila Harris Jasmin Jungo Sue Justice Lindy McMahon Clare Macpherson Charlotte Moore Georgia Moore Jane Nieminska Nathalie O’Toole Jayne Oishi Ruth Jessica Ongkowijoyo Dympna Paterson Alexandra Peacock Karen Pearce Isabella Rahme

Elsa Rapon Allison Rowlands Jacqueline Rowlands Maya Schwenke Odilia Sugita Eva Tarbox Katherine Thompson Sarah Thompson Lily Tindale Joanna Warren Dorothy Wu Fiona Young ALTOS Meaghan Backhouse Debra Baker Gillian Behrens Katie Blake Jennifer Bradford Kate Clowes Gillian DownesMorgan Claire Duffy Alison Feng Penny Gay Mariam Luban Harb Jenny Harry Margaret Hofman Madi Holness Charlotte Humphrys Janina Key Georgia Luikens Donna McIntosh Janice McKeand Maggie McKelvey Atalya Masi Hannah Mason Clara Mazzone Alyson Moore Jess Moore Madi Moore Penelope Morris Catherine O’Grady

Ines Obermair Anna Peter Hannah Roberts Lara Rogerson-Wood Virginia Rowlands Debbie Scholem Johanna Segall Jan Shaw Meg Shaw Megan Solomon Robyn Tupman Annabel Watts Marianna Wong TENORS Matthew Allchurch Josh Borja Langzi Chiu Daniel Comarmond Malcolm Day Robert Elliott Blake Garner Bryce Gonlin Bennett Haskew Nick Hazell Tom Hazell Michael Kertesz Matthew Koh Vincent Lo Frank Maio Dimitry Moraitis Ryan Queenin Martin Stebbings Mitchell Sutton Robert Thomson Ben Thurley Nicholas Tong Andy Wang George Watkins Christopher Whitfeld Will Willitts Isaac Wong Mark Wong

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 21

BASSES Jock Baird Peter Callaghan Julian Coghlan Paul Couvret Philip Crenigan Phillip Cullen Robert Cunningham Nicholas Davison James Devenish Roderick Enriquez David Fisher Tom Forrester-Paton Scott Hekking David Jacobs Matthew Lubowicz Samuel MorrellFeitelberg Finnian Murphy Eric Nelson Brendan Nicholson Michael Nolan Peter Poole Daniel Rae Allan Redpath Michael Ryan Robert Sherrington Peter Templeton Ben Waters David Wood Lachlan Wrenford

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHRISTMAS CHOIR Brett Weymark Artistic and Music Director Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master and Principal Rehearsal Pianist Subin Park, Estella Roche and Estelle Shircore Barker Rehearsal Pianists SOPRANOS Sally Aitken Helen Alajajian Rosemary Atkinson Ines BenaventeMolina Claire Bennett Helen Black Belinda Blekemore Sue Bowring Lynette Boyce Alison Bradley Nola Brooke Susan Budic Sibylle Burkart Alison Butt Lesley Cady Janelle Campbell Karen Chisholm Rosemary Cooper Annie Corbett Anne-Catherine Cosentino Michelle Crook Narelle Ctercteko Sancia De Jersey Silvia de Poe-Diestel Lisa Deecke Nathalie Deeson Mona Deghaim Sarah Descher Sharon Dickson Janet Donaldson Sarah Downey Evie Driver Elaine Ebsary Glenda Emslie Amber Esposito Jennifer Fildes

Nancy Flitcroft Jane Fry Wendy Gavin Justyna Gizowska Ruth Golden Valerie Gomm Julie Gordon Susan Gordon Mary Grieve Dallas Griffin Qirong Guo Hrefna Gylfadottir Barbara Hall Renee Hamers Rosalie Harrington Emesini Hazelden Clare Hinchey Margaret Hinchey Hannah How Vanessa Jacob Diana Jefferies Marian Jones Anna Joseph Rachel Kelly Valerie KingsleyStrack Ichiko Kitano Stefanie Kokal Lilly Krienbuhl Margaret Lackenby Merle Lamb Ruolan Lan Anne Lane Elizabeth Lee Judy Lee Christine Lindsay Joanna Mccullagh Colleen McDonald Norma McDonald

Doreen Macfarlane Jennifer Mcphee Cathy Maher Tiyana Maksimovichbinno Rosalie Mangraviti Yvonne Martin Cecilia May Jane Mezzina Jacqueline Milne Jennifer MorganNicholson Mary Mortimer Susan Mozell Sarah Muetterlein Mary O’Connell Monica O’Connell Robyn O’Keefe Kathleen Oakley Laia Oliveras Lesley Owen Janice Peak Fiona Peare Anna Pender Victoria Pirolo Jenny Platt Marisa Pongan Celine Pozzo Maria Priestley Elizabeth Purvis Xin Yuan Quek Michele Reid Laurel Reynolds Caroline Rhind Sylvia Romanik Elizabeth Rosa Coralee Rose Sian Rudge Lourdes Sanchez

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 22

Zoe Shacklady Judy Snowdon Emi So Aileen Soh Jenny St Quintin Victoria Stableforth Helen Stead Vivienne Strong Abigail Studdert Margaret Symes Suzie Taylor Susan Thomas Barbara Thompson Margaret Titterton Chiquit TorrenteBrammall Margaret Vaccari Sarah van Treel Daniela Vazille Daniella Verde Elizabeth Wallace Connie Wan Susan Webster Faye Welborn Jodie Whitbread Suzie Woodhouse Olivia Wroth Angeline Zaghloul Andrea Zocco

ALTOS Meredith Ash Nicola Atmore Suzanne Avis Margaret Baker Nadja Balemans Laima Barkus Penelope Becchio Marsha Beck Jackie Benson Karen Biden Liz Blackford Robyn Blainey Rosana Blowes Nora Bodkin Charlotte Bonser Pam Bray Cindy Broadbent Marilyn Broadbridge Emily Brodie Angela Brothers Lynda Cabeldu Jane Cameron Gabrielle Cannon Simone Carson Averill Chase Fiona Clark Meredith Cohen Jane Connolly Sian Cook Patricia Corey Patricia Cotter Jenny Cotterill Fran Cunneen Marie Daniels Katrina Darnbrough Collette Davies Jewel Davies Virginia Davies Julie Dawson Alteouise Devaughn Elizabeth Dooley

Ursula Dubosarsky Judy Dunstan Gail Edinborough Karen Edwards Julia Elmes Sue-Ellen Fairall Vanessa Fone Catherine Fox Katie French Jessica Fryer Sally Garth Robyn Gilbert Diana Gray Jane Greaves Chris Hall Karen Hartas Lucy Hatcher Anke HelmkeHenken Cecilia Hannah Hibbert Katie Hislop Marijke Hol Alison Horan Stacy Host Marie Hotschilt Andrea Howard Patricia Hoyle Marianne Hulsbosch Louise Imray Elaine Jackson Jane James Naomi Jones Fiona Joneshart Beverley Jordan Susan Kaim Kate Kaszonyi Alice Killen Anastasia Klose Sara Klug Claudia KochMcQuillan

Anne Kricker Tatjana Kroll Doreen Laforest Veronica Lambert Sari Lamsa Susan Lasker Judith Lawry Penny Le Couteur Heaven Lee Penelope Lee Heather Lees-Smith Iris Leung Janet Leung Kathy Leviton Edda Lewis Sara Lewis Leola Liu Anne Lucas Madi Maclean Wendy McLeod Valerie Marteau Barbara Mckinnel Angela Miller Ruth Mitchell Liz Moore Gabriele Munro Sari Munro Kerry Murphy Jayamala Naidoo Rebecca Nash Sylvie Nolf Tomoha Ogawa Nadezda Okumushoglu Nicole Oldfield Fabienne Ovadia Nicole Panetta Joanne Perry Sally Pierce Marilyn Piras Rachel Podger Wendy Pritchard

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 23

Marilyn Ramage Pauline Ramsay Jo Rhodes Stefanie Rizel Penelope Rodger Jenny Rodway Esther Roorda Natalia Roorda Judith Rosonakis Catherine Rugg Leanne Ruggero Kirsteen Runcie Sarah Sandstad Joan Scott Heidi Seemann Maite Serra Liana Spucys Julie Anne Stevens Tamira Stevensen Joanna Sutherland Lani Sutherland Elizabeth Talbert Birgit Tauber Susan Tavener Jean Taylor Kathy Taylor Bronwyn Thomas Susan Tooker Susan Twiney Carin Van Heumen Sheila van Holst Pellekaan Cornelia Vanderbent Bronwyn Vost Georgina Waite Julie Walker Kylie Watt Bronwyn Wells Wendy White Anne Wilcox Christina Wilcox Carys Williams

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHRISTMAS CHOIR

Amanda Wilson Claudia Winters Susan Wittenoom Isabel Wong Gillian Wood Annie Woods Louisa Wright Susan Wright Roswitha Wulff Chari Xuereb Olivia Yan Joanne Yang Bridget Yasukawa Ruth Young TENORS Ted Avery Sally-Ann Barbera Marius Barnsley Christopher Barrett James Blomfield Colin Bodkin Hoa-an Bratland John Carey Olivier Chretien Maxwell Connery Ian Connolly Erwin D’Souza Kevin De Souza Sylviane Diaz Diana Dunlop Nicki Elkin Sonja Grgurevic Sarah Hamilton Angela Hart Alistair Johnston Ayse Kiran Mary Lafferty Daniel Larratt Simone Launt-Peters Peter Laverick Shashi Laverick

Iwan Lesmana Paul Long Ellen McArthur Warren McHattan Sophie Mackay Lisa Macqueen Peter Macqueen Ian Marshall Ainsley Martin Jeffrey Mellefont Arnold Metcalf Andrew Morris Timothy O’Reilly Margaret Olive Christinne Patton Len Power Félicité Ross Ken Ryan Rhonda Stapleton Caralyn Taylor Ming Urwin Natalie Vaughan John Watson Terry Woronov Tachi Yasukawa Peter Young Julia Zwirko

BASSES Peter Barber Derrick Beech Phillip Belling Andrew Birley Lachlan Boeree Federico Castellucchio Anthony Cheshire John Clancy Phil Cohen Paul Collins Stefan Couani Mike Dunkley Mark England Scott Erichsen Mark Evans Andrew Falson Jim Fleming Matthew Garth Graham Georgeson Bart Gitmans John Golding Warren Gough Paul Goyen Harold Graycar Robert Groves David Hardy Alex Henry Graham Huddy Pariyawit Jatukannyaprateep Daniel Khong Fuzz Kitto Peter Mackey James Middlewood Tim Miles Richard Millard Frank Monagle Louis Monney Scot Morris Alan Morrison Kelvin Olive

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 24

Michael Pain Alexander Peters James Reynolds Andrew Rodger David Ross Daniel Schiavone Rick Sondalini Hunter Southwick Jonathan Spinks Russell Stapleton Andrew Stark Alan Taylor Nicholas Turner Alan Wallace Michael Walpole Jonathan Wassell Tony White Geoff Young Weller Zheng

RIVER CITY VOICES Sarah Penicka-Smith Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Philip Eames and Peter Ellis Chorus Masters Jane Andino, Philip Eames and Callum Tolhurst-Close Rehearsal Pianists

SOPRANOS Jennifer Baker Catriona Champion Josephine Chan Maria Costello Tamara Craig Klara De Wit Susan Forss-Clarke Hadassa Gitau Lyn Higgs Deborah Howitt Iona Mathias Nicole Senior Karla Stewart-Sykes Lynn Taye Ingrid Turner Naomi Von Senff

ALTOS Mel Bester Grace Bondoc Clare Brown Sarah El-Khansa Sally Glass Danica Gluvakov Belinda Huang Jane Jamieson Laima Karklins Roshi Melvin Nancy Nicholls Rina Pinto Helen Yiu Fiona Yue

TENORS Richard HeagrenGibbs Ian Jenson Joshua Lenehan Prony Melvin Gabriel Newman Spencer Thew

BASSES Steve Barnett Don Church Philip Gerber Ivars Karklins Geoff Kerr Kris Morgan Michael West Dominic Wong

River City Voices

Western Sydney. Choral. Excellence River City Voices is Parramatta’s flagship symphonic choir, led by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith.

Can’t get enough Messiah? RCV presents SLAM MESSIAH Friday 16th December, 7:30pm Riverside Theatres.

Slam poets take on this iconic work in a brave new interpretation!

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 25

Book Now

WOLLONGONG MESSIAH CHOIR Hayden Barrington Chorus Master David Francis Sectional Leader Jack Mao and David Vance Rehearsal Pianists SOPRANOS Clare Ballard Joan Bourne Allison Cook Wendy Cook Suzanne de Vive Matilda Dickson Amanda Floyd Leisa Floyd Jennifer Harris Evelyn Harrison Alexandra Ilievski Catherine MacPhail Gillian Meers Penelope Murphy Rowena Russell Louise Saint-John

Margaret Shaw Birgitta Smith Tianyao Sun Julie Watts Kate Wilmot ALTOS Anna Baxter-Rose Judith Burns Nancie Clisby Elizabeth Farrar Sue Geenty Despina Haise Alison Haynes Christine Higgins Yumiko Horiguchi Susannah Hutchings

Melinda James Sarah Kinstead Emma Medwell Rhiannon Morgan Annika Oakley Anna Smith Tamara Vincent Sonia Westwood Nuala Williams Sue Woodland Karina Woodward Marguerite Zind TENORS Allison Edwards Jane McCammon Connie Nielsen

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 26

Edward Prescott Ian Rienits Geoff Riethmuller Edward Wiech BASSES Luis Garcia Mark Gearon Lindsay Hodda Martin Lander Katrina Love Paul Spencer Ray Vincent Hamilton Wearing

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Fiona Ziegler Concertmaster Michele O’Young Samantha Boston Bridget Crouch Mariana Green Anthea Hetherington Rebecca Irwin Mateja Primorac Julia Russoniello Vanessa Tammetta SECOND VIOLINS Emma Hayes Angela Cassar Evelyn Cirevski Anthony Donovan Elizabeth Greenhalgh Karina Hollands Denisa Smeu Kirileanu Narine Melconian Esmerelda Tintner Joanne Waples VIOLAS Andrew Jezek Rachel Dyker Charlotte Fetherston Nicole Forsyth Robert Harris Darius Kaperonis Suzie Kim Georgina Price

CELLOS Anthony Albrecht James Beck Christopher Bennett Anita Gluyas Margie Iddison Rosemary Quinn

HARPSICHORD Nathan Cox ORGAN David Drury

Bold = Principal

DOUBLE BASSES Dorit Herskovits David Cooper Mark Harris Theo Small OBOES Matthew Bubb Frank Giraldo BASSOONS Victoria Grant Brighdie Chambers TRUMPETS Rainer Saville Dan Henderson TIMPANI Chiron Meller Continuo organ by Henk Klop, Garderen, The Netherlands, 2003 Flemish double harpsichord by Carey Beebe, Sydney, 1989 Early keyboards prepared for performance by Carey Beebe and Joanna Butler

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 27

OUR SUPPORTERS Sydney Philharmonia Choirs gratefully acknowledge the vision, commitment and generosity of our supporters. $40,000+

CENTENARY CIRCLE

$1,000 – $2,499

Anonymous (1)

Robert Albert AO and Libby Albert Prof. the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO Ian and Claire Bennett Christine Bishop Katie Blake and Michael Jackson David and Halina Brett Olivier Chretien Nathalie Deeson Ruth Edenborough Prof. Jenny Edwards David and Sue Ellyard Kate Foot Dr Carolyn Lowry OAM and Peter Lowry OAM Peter and Lisa Macqueen Dr John O’Brien Rosalind Strong AM and Antony Strong Kay Vernon Sara Watts Anthony and Annie Whealy Jacqui Wilkins Cathy and Jon Williamson Anonymous (1)

Tel Asiado Jock Baird – in memory of Annette McClure Katie Blake Sue Bowring Patricia Bradley James Cox Rouna Daley Julie and Bill Dowsley Vesna Hatezic Fiona Joneshart Iphygenia Kallinikos Lilly Krienbuhl Dr Veronica Lambert M and D Langford Rachel Maiden – in memory of Tony Maiden Jolanta Masojada Helen Meddings Jeffrey Mellefont In memory of Helen Pedersen Beverley Price Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Supper Club Félicité Ross Judge Robyn Tupman Kay Vernon Sara Watts Marianna Wong Anonymous (1)

$10,000 – $39,000 Robert Albert AO and Libby Albert Justice François Kunc and Felicity Rourke Anonymous (1)

$5,000 – $9,999 Stephen and Jennifer Cook Ruth Edenborough Dr David and Sarah Howell John Lamble AO Jacqueline Rowlands Anonymous (1)

$2,500 – $4,999 Lyn Baker Susan Barrett Christine Bishop Nathalie Deeson – in memory of Brian Deeson Prof. Jenny Edwards Warren Green R&J Perry Family Foundation Jean Taylor Anonymous (1)

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

Your gift, of any size, would make a vital contribution to ensuring our future. sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/donate

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 28

THANK YOU We applaud the generous involvement of our partners in supporting Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. $500 – $999 Carole Bailey C A Bessemer Julian Coghlan and Andrea Beattie Ian Connolly Patricia Curotta Jane Diamond Robert Green Shirley Hofman David Jacobs Maggie McKelvey Bernadette Mitchell Robert Mitchell Chris Moore Dimitry Moraitis and Peter Morgan Mary Mortimer and Donald Denoon William Napier Anna Pender Valerie Rendle Georgia Rivers Paul Roper Meg Shaw Ernestine de Vries Anonymous (1) We also thank our donors who contribute up to $500. Every gift makes a difference to what we are able to achieve.

Donations to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs are recognised for 12 months from the date of donation.

Supporters listed here are current as at November 2022. Donations of $500 and above are listed on our website and in our concert program books.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 29

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS Sydney Philharmonia Choirs presents the art of choral singing at the highest standard, and develops the talents of those with a passion for singing, in Sydney and beyond. Founded in 1920, it has become Australia’s finest choral organisation and is a Resident Company of the Sydney Opera House.

Led by Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark OAM since 2003, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs comprises three auditioned and three community choirs that perform repertoire from choral classics to musical theatre and commissions by Australian composers. SPC presents its own annual concert season and collaborates with leading conductors, soloists and orchestras in Australia and overseas. In 2002, SPC was the first Australian choir to sing at the BBC Proms (Mahler’s Symphony No.8 under Simon Rattle), returning again in 2010 to celebrate its 90th anniversary. The choirs VICE-REGAL PATRONS The Hon. Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales and Mr Dennis Wilson VICE PATRONS Prof. the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO Lauris Elms AM OBE DMus (Syd) AMBASSADOR FOR SINGING Yvonne Kenny AM BOARD Jacqui Wilkins Chair Tracey Jordan President Andrea Hoole Treasurer Ian Bennett, Katie Blake Bill Napier, Georgia Rivers, Ben Yi

perform in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s season every year as they have done for more than 80 years. SPC also presents a series of community singing events throughout the year – Chorus Oz (the annual Big Sing), PopUp Sing and singing workshops throughout Sydney and NSW. In 2020, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs celebrated its centenary. Despite restrictions on live performances that year, it pressed ahead with a commissioning project – 100 Minutes of New Australian Music – featuring new works by composers Elena Kats-Chernin and Deborah Cheetham, among others. 2021 saw a cautious but bold return to live choral performances and the launch of the 2022 season with concerts in the Sydney Town Hall, St Andrew’s Cathedral and the newly renovated Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

STAFF Fiona Hulton Executive Director Brett Weymark OAM Artistic & Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master & Principal Rehearsal Pianist Lynne Murray Vocal Coach Mark Robinson Artistic Operations Manager Meagan Fitzpatrick Choirs Manager Susan Gandy Orchestra Coordinator Simon Crossley-Meates Marketing Manager Naomi Hamer Office & Box Office Administrator Sarah Howell Philanthropy Associate John Liebmann Finance Manager PROGRAM CREDITS Yvonne Frindle Editor and Design Marita Leuver Cover Artwork Immij NSW Printer

Wharf 4/5, 15 Hickson Road, Dawes Point (02) 8274 6200 | hello@sydneyphilharmonia.com.au

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SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 30

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F I N D YO U R S I N O U R 2 0 2 3 S E A S O N Handel’s Samson | The Golden Age of Broadway | Verdi’s Requiem Mahler 8 (Chorus Oz) | Carmina Burana | MacMillan’s Stabat Mater The Little Match Girl Passion | Bach’s Christmas Oratorio | Carols at the House

Tickets from $45 | $30 for 30 & Under at most concerts | Concessions available sydneyphilharmonia.com.au Sing with us in 2023

Experience the joy and health benefits of singing in our community choirs Festival Chorus | ChorusOz | Christmas Choir sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/choirs Photo: Keith Saunders | Design: Smörgåsbord

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS · 2022 SEASON · 31

HANDEL MESSIAH 8, 10 & 11 DECEMBER 2022 Sydney Opera House Concert Hall