“From Tallis to Rutter”—the phrase describes the vast scope of the Great British Choral Tradition. Thomas Tallis was an Elizabethan musical star in the 16th century, while five centuries later, in the same tradition, John Rutter writes some of the most imaginative choral music to be found anywhere today.
The motet Spem in Alium is in forty, yes forty— parts, and moves through myriad combinations to form a stunning vocal kaleidoscope.
Composed in 1985 as a tribute to his father, Rutter’s smooth but modern Requiem often nods fondly towards some of the composer’s own musical “fathers”, including Fauré, Mahler, and Gershwin.
Separating Tallis from Rutter, Vaughan Williams appears through his ravishing instrumental work based on everyone’s favourite English folksong Greensleeves.
Morag Atchison, Soprano
Auckland Choral
Pipers Sinfonia
Uwe Grodd, Conductor
Tickets are available at eventfinda.co.nz or phone 0800 BUYTIXS (0800 289 8497).
Price $45, concessions available.
Please note that some seats have obstructed views.
Tom Bishop was born in Australia, but has spent more than half of the time since out of it. He started choral singing at the age of nine in the fourth grade, where his teacher, a tall, elegant “confirmed bachelor” embraced new methods of education, which mostly consisted of allowing the class to run wild, but managed somehow to hold onto the idea of discipline enough to conduct the School Choir. In addition to singing, he also mangled the clarinet. Since then he has sung in high school, at University, at work, for work, in his spare time, and in less likely venues such as showers, streets and supermarkets, sometimes to the amazement and annoyance of partners, his children, and random passers-by. More formally, he has sung with the Yale Glee Club, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, and the Cleveland Early Music Singers, and has been fortunate to work with conductors such as Fenno Heath, Robert Shaw, Pierre Boulez, Richard Hickox, Simon Rattle, and Christoph von Dohnanyi, as well as Uwe Grodd. In his non-singing time, he teaches at the University of Auckland, where he lectures principally on Shakespeare and Drama. He is pleased to be a Tenor 1 because it means he gets a break at auditions.
Nigel grew up choral singing with the choirs of Kings School and Kings College in Auckland, but then took a break for the next 30 years while focusing on his career as a Consulting Engineer in Ottawa Canada where he moved with his wife in 1981. Later he joined a choir in Ottawa as a way of relieving the stresses of the daily grind, and found that he really enjoyed the challenge, stimulation, and therapy that choral singing provides. He sang with Coro Vivo Ottawa and the Ottawa Festival Chorus for many years, and part time with Auckland Choral since 2006 on his many visits back to New Zealand, before moving back to Auckland with his wife Ming, last year. He sings as a Tenor 2.
I think I’ve been singing my entire life and life without singing is a little empty. I’ve sung in choirs since Primary School and with churches. I’ve sung in bands, concerts and on stage. Nowadays I sing in operas, concerts, and for the last few years with Auckland Choral. I have sung in the US, Canada, with Symphony orchestras in Australia and New Zealand, with opera companies in Australia and New Zealand. There is nothing more magical, inspiring, uplifting and energising than when you are making absolutely beautiful music with the entire team of musicians and giving enjoyment to many, to transport the listeners into their own world of music and fantasy. For those times where I resonate with the words, the composer or story – then words cannot express that amazingness, but music can! I have chills by the time I am finished Handel’s Messiah and that is my icing on the cake every year thanks to Auckland Choral.
