Music

New England Sings

On the 26th and 27th October, members of the MCC Choir travelled to Armidale to participate in New England Sings. Students joined with choristers from schools across the region to create a choir of over 600 students. 

The choir presented two concerts, which included many outstanding Australian choral works, many newly commissioned especially for the event. The first item, This is Our Home, was composed for this year’s New England Sings concert by Armidale composer, Warwick Dunham. It featured the New England Conservatorium’s Side by Side choir, a choir for singers with a disability, and contained video messages from those choristers. Our singers then enjoyed performances from the Primary Choir, New England Singers and the Armidale Youth Orchestra.

The second half of the concert saw our singers perform with the Secondary Choir under the baton of the talented Luke Byrne. They performed three works commencing with Where? from Kate Miller-Heidke’s opera, The Rabbits. This highly complex choral setting was followed by an energetic performance of A Canvas of Electricity by Dan Walker. Finally, the Secondary Choir treated the audience to the world premiere of Carry Me Again, a stunning new commission from Kate Miller-Heidke. The concert then concluded with all of the musicians combining once again to perform John Farnham’s You’re the Voice, complete with bagpipes!

Congratulations to all involved, and a huge thanks to Corinne Arter and her team at the New England Conservatorium of Music for providing such a wonderful opportunity for our students.

Robert Thompson

Music Teacher