Sydney Chamber Choir
Widely recognised as one of Australia's finest choirs, the Sydney Chamber Choir marked its 25th anniversary in 2000. The Choir continues to inspire and enchant Sydney audiences with its versatility and brilliant performances.
Sydney Chamber Choir performs a wide range of choral music from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Its repertoire takes in Renaissance and Baroque music, well-known masterpieces of later centuries, and contemporary Australian works – the latter often commissioned and premiered by the Choir.
The Choir has been a pioneer in Sydney performances of Bach and Handel on 18th-century instruments, using historically informed techniques.
It has been recorded and broadcast many times by 2MBS-FM and the ABC, and has released discs for several labels including 2MBS, ABC and EMI. The Choir has performed with Opera Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, contributed soundtracks for feature films, appeared at many festivals, and toured widely in the eastern states of Australia.
Sydney Chamber Choir is featured on the following titles
Osanna
A second Tall Poppies disc of Clare Maclean’s a cappella choral music. Few Australian composers have built so sustained a body of unaccompanied sacred and poetic works, shaped by her faith and her years singing with the Sydney Chamber Choir.
Landscape's Creatures
A collection of recent Australian choral music, mostly by younger composers. It is good to see that choral writing is alive and well in Australia. Each work makes a strong statement, with a variety of choral techniques and styles.
The Ockeghem Legacy
A celebration of Ockeghem’s life and work. His death prompted many elegies, the most famous being Josquin’s Nimphes des bois. Every composer on this disc is said to have been present at his funeral in 1497.
Clare Maclean: Complete Choral Music
Maclean began her choral life as a singer in this choir, and her writing shows an intimate grasp of its style. The result is gorgeous listening: music inspired by the spiritual, and a distinctive voice amid the noise of contemporary composition.
Josquin
Nicholas Routley has made a speciality of this Renaissance repertoire, and the Sydney Chamber Choir sings it magnificently. Recorded in a small chapel with a perfect acoustic, Josquin's music has rarely sounded so alive.
Sydney Chamber Choir also appears on
Crossing a Bridge of Dreams
This CD gathers some of Anne Boyd's most enduring works, mostly from the 1980s. Many pieces reflect her passion for Asian music, heard especially in the flute writing. Premiere performers return for the recording, among them John Harding on viola in My Name Is Tian.
Raft Song at Sunrise: Chamber Music, Vol. 2
Following the best-selling first volume of Ross Edwards’s chamber music (TP051), this disc gathers some of his most enduring works, recorded here for the first time.
An Australian Collection
Nineteen tracks drawn from the Tall Poppies catalogue, chosen to show the range and depth of Australian composition and performance across the label’s first decade.