Festival of Summer Voices

Next week, Gondwana Choirs proudly presents the 2020 Festival of Summer Voices, featuring Australia's best young choral singers live in concert across four nights at UNSW.

More than 300 young singers from around Australia will converge on UNSW, Kensington on 16 – 19 January 2020, alongside Australia's leading choral music educators and conductors to perform four public concerts and take part in the much-loved National Choral School, Composer School, Conductors Academy, and Choral Skills Lab.

Australia's leading choral music event, the Festival of Summer Voices opens with the Overture concert on Thursday, 16 January at 7pm, showcasing all six Gondwana National Choirs ensembles: Junior Gondwana, Gondwana Novus, Gondwana Voices, Gondwana Singers, Gondwana Chorale, and a specially formed Gondwana Choirs ensemble, which will represent Australia at the 2020 World Choral Symposium in Auckland.

Under the direction of Australia's finest choral conductors, these performances set the standard for choral performance nationally with repertoire from around the world.

Nights two and three present the Explorations concert on Friday, 17 January at 5.30pm and Kaleidoscope concert on Saturday, 18 January at 5.30pm, featuring diverse musical terrain, including classic and avant-garde choral repertoire, and music of the Middle East and Indonesia. Opera fans will enjoy Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and a creative development presentation of a new children's opera, Peter Pan by Australian composer Andrew Ford, in collaboration with Sydney Chamber Opera.

The festival culminates with The Grand Finale on Sunday, 19 January at 5.30pm, featuring all six Gondwana National Choirs ensembles in an evening of song, including an exciting world premiere of a new work for the combined ensembles by Australian composer Lisa Young.

Led by Gondwana Choirs founder and Artistic Director Lyn Williams AM, the Festival of Summer Voices is one of the most anticipated events on the national choral music calendar.

"The Festival of Summer Voices concert series is a stunning showcase of Australia's best young choral singers, performing a variety of unique and uplifting repertoire, including exciting new music by some of the nation's leading composers," said Williams.

"Children and artistic talent come from every state in Australia to take part in National Choral School and the Festival of Summer Voices. This year we have hundreds of passionate young people coming from everywhere from Hobart to Humpty Doo to share their love of music and perform on stage each night," she said.

"We can't think of a better way to begin the new decade then bringing the next generation of singers together to foster their talent and join in song."

Festival of Summer Voices is presented with support from the NSW State Government through Create NSW and in partnership with UNSW Australia.

Tickets are now on sale ($35-55 + booking fees). For tickets and more information, please visit www.gondwana.org.au/festival-of-summer-voices.

Event: Festival of Summer Voices
Date: 16 – 19 January 2020
Time: Various
Venue: UNSW, Sir John Clancy Auditorium, 9 High St, Kensington NSW
Tickets: $35-55 + booking fees