A ‘hit’ from its first performance in Dublin in 1742, Handel’s Messiah is performed by choral groups large and small around the globe every year and remains the most popular oratorio of all time. Whether you are hearing it for the first time or for the fiftieth time, the work never fails to move its audience as it retells the most famous story of all time.
Christmas isn’t Christmas without Auckland Choral’s Messiah under the baton of the effervescent Uwe Grodd.
Marlena Devoe, Soprano
Wendy Dawn Thompson, Mezzo-Soprano
David Hamilton, Tenor
Martin Snell, Bass
Auckland Choral
Pipers Sinfonia
Uwe Grodd, Conductor
Our Messiah Soprano just got a super award: Marlena Devoe: Bel Canto prizewinners
Monday 14 December & Tuesday 15 December, 7.30pm
Auckland Town Hall
Warwick brings over thirty years involvement in choral singing and over twenty years in management of choral organisations including Royal Christchurch Musical Society, Christchurch City Choir and over the last 23 years with Auckland Choral. He is a current singing member and past Chairman of nine years for the group.
Like so many contraltos, I first got put in the alto section as a school girl because I could read music and manage to sing a line of harmony. I joined Auckland Choral when I was in high school and now I’ve been a member for 40 years! I started singing with my mum as a toddler, sitting on her knee while she played the piano and sang soprano and tenor Messiah arias. I used to come to Auckland Choral’s Saturday dress rehearsals in the Town Hall and follow the score in my early teenage years, and it was a natural step to join Mum in the choir when I was 15. I remember Choral Hall in Airedale Street where we used to meet (before Mayoral Drive was built). It was a dusty old building and freezing in winter, but the ladies in the alto section were very kind to me and welcomed me into the back row. Nothing really changes in that respect; the Auckland Choral altos today are a great bunch of people as well!
David Hamilton has been singing with the choir since 1982, and is currently President of Auckland Choral. He is a music educator, composition tutor, choral conductor and adjudicator. He has been Deputy Music Director of Auckland Choral (1996-2011) and Composer-in-Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (1999). In 2013 he was guest composer at the national choral event Sing Aotearoa, and in 2015 composer-in-residence at the NZ Singing School. He has won a number of international composer competitions (Italy, USA, UK, and Israel) and in 2014 “Wairua” for solo harp took 1st place in the NZ Harp Society’s competition. In 2016 “American Triptych” took 1st place in a competition for the Stockton Chorale (USA). In 2017 “Are We There Yet?” took 1st place in the Australia and NZ Viola Society composer’s competition, and “Cling to Me” was placed third in the 4th Komos Choral Composition Competition (Bologna, Italy). The choir has commissioned a number of works from him, most recently “
