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
A singing member of Auckland Choral for 12 years, Beverley has enjoyed a lifetime of involvement in the performing arts and has sung with many choirs throughout New Zealand. She has the choir’s best interests at heart, and as Chair of the Management Committee is committed to its success to offer performances of excellence and to bringing choral music to the wider community of the Auckland region both now and in the future.
Jim Allardyce here from Whangarei. Commuting to Auckland for work, down on a Tuesday and back on a Friday, has opened up a new side to my social calendar. Rehearsals at the choir have become my weekly highlight forming a natural part of my week. Joining only this year, I remember going for my first visit to "check it all out" - I sat at the back amazed at the choir sight-reading Mendelssohn in German (as it was their first reading and performance of the piece). Very soon I was in the thick of it - rolling my r's in Mendelssohn's tongue with the other singers in my bass one section. My inaugural concert in the Auckland Town Hall was unforgettable as the choir was stupendous.
My earliest memories of singing were car songs, where my sisters and I were squashed in the back of the car while my mother lead the chorus from the front. I started singing in small groups and choirs at age 12 for church events and friends' weddings. I've been a member of some form of choir ever since and now count myself very lucky to be a member of Auckland Choral. I joined in January 2017, with my first concert being the huge St John Passion by Bach. We performed it at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, in German! Singing out that first loud "Herr" gave me goose bumps and was an unforgettable experience. In December that year I got to perform in the Messiah for the first time and hope to do the same every Christmas for a long time to come.
