“50th Anniversary Gala” Reviews, July 2025
This performance was recorded for broadcast on ABC Classic. Enjoy it live on Wednesday, 6 August 2025 at 1.00pm or on demand for a limited period.
© Robert Catto
Reviews
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Sydney Chamber Choir – Five Composers, Fifty Years, One Word: Love
Pepe Newton | 6 July 2025
“… At Sydney Chamber Choir’s 50th Anniversary Gala, the audience didn’t merely attend a concert, we were wrapped in a choral love letter, penned by five diverse and compelling Australian composers and delivered with finesse and joy.
The program, of works that were all commissioned by or for the choir, promised love in all its forms – not just the romantic kind, but love of place, of community, of memory, of the artform itself. It was a generous, ambitious undertaking: five world premieres in the first half, followed by Paul Stanhope’s Requiem (2021), a landmark work that deserves recognition as one of Australia’s most significant choral compositions of recent time.”
“This wasn’t just a gala concert, it was a portrait of the choir as an artistic force: an Australian icon deeply connected to its time and place. What a milestone! Here’s to another 50 years of bold and colourful music-making.”
Faith in Theatres
Sydney Chamber Choir: 50th Anniversary Gala - From Love to Remembrance: A Journey That Illuminates the Soul in an Unforgettable Evening
Faith Jessel | 7 July 2025
“Celebrating 50 years of choral excellence at their gala in the City Recital Hall, Sydney Chamber Choir, under the masterful direction of Sam Allchurch, continues to soar to ever greater heights, honouring a rich past, embracing contemporary voices, and boldly shaping the future. Their performances open all ears to the transformative power of music, creating space for reflection, connection, and a sense of something greater than ourselves. Love and connection lit the way before the evening transitioned to illuminate the resilience and quiet radiance found in remembrance.”
“The Sydney Chamber Choir doesn’t just sing. They transcend technique, soul to soul, heart to heart, embodying the human voice at its most powerful and divine. Every note cuts straight to the core of what it means to be human. The evening was a brilliant tribute to their artistry, offering rare moments of calm and clarity in a chaotic world. Music not just heard, but deeply felt.
This world-class chamber choir, renowned for its exquisite precision and heartfelt expression, reminds us why live vocal music matters: it connects us, heals us, and lifts us beyond the everyday. Congratulations, Sydney Chamber Choir, on 50 remarkable years.”
Limelight
Review: 50th Anniversary Gala (Sydney Chamber Choir)
Steve Moffat | 4.5 stars | 7 July 2025
“Five world premieres of pieces by home-grown composers and a performance of one of this century’s most significant new Australian choral works marked Sydney Chamber Choir’s half century in a gala concert.
The second half of this wide-ranging two-hour recital was given over to a Requiem by the group’s former Music Director Paul Stanhope, conducted by Artistic Director Sam Allchurch and featuring SA soprano Brooke Window and English tenor and SCC regular Richard Butler, alongside a quintet of instrumentalists.”
“The concert started with works by composers Nardi Simpson, Anne Cawrse, Stanhope, Luke Byrne and Meta Cohen who were commissioned to write a short piece about love.”
“This was a splendid, beautifully performed golden anniversary celebration, capped off with Stanhope’s weighty but enthralling major work.”
Sydney Arts Guide
Sydney Chamber Choir: 50th Anniversary Concert at City Recital Hall
Evie Apfelbaum | 5 stars | 7 July 2025
“We are lucky to live in a city with so many opportunities to listen to great music, whatever ones preferred genre! In this rich landscape Sydney Chamber Choir is one of our great treasures.
… The Sydney Chamber Choir has delighted audiences for half a century presenting a wide range of chamber choral works from the Baroque, the Renaissance to the newly commissioned works we heard in the delightful gala concert I attended celebrating its 50th birthday (July 5th, City Recital Hall). Their mission has been to both delight with known works and to challenge and stimulate by introducing listeners to completely new music. The concert I heard yesterday was beautifully put together.
In the first half of the concert, five new works commissioned for the occasion had their world premiere, each very different and each exquisite and each dedicated to the concept of love. …
Each of these works were beautifully rendered by the choir with no instrumental accompaniment. The complex nature of most of this contemporary music demanded absolute accuracy of pitch and timing – and this amazingly talented group of people led by their director and conductor Sam Allchurch made it all look easy. “
Sydney Morning Herald
Peter McCallum | 4 stars | 8 July 2025
“Celebrating a 50th birthday with a requiem is certainly tempting fate. However, it was worth the risk for the Sydney Chamber Choir to select Paul Stanhope’s Requiem (2021), one of the finest of the many commissioned pieces from its first half-century, to be the major work in its anniversary gala.
By splicing choral settings of six poems by female writers with settings of the Latin liturgical text, Stanhope has created a rich musical meditation on loss and hope that resonates with monuments of the Western tradition while honouring the expressions of Australian Indigenous culture as expressed in the words of poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal.”
“Sydney Chamber Choir is to be congratulated on this milestone, although, from the composers and audience members it has nurtured for the past 50 years, it can expect no peace.”
Artists
Sydney Chamber Choir
Sam Allchurch
Conductor
Brooke Window
Soprano
Richard Butler
Tenor
Nicola Bell
Oboe/Cor anglais
Richard Shaw
Clarinet
Andrew Barnes
Bassoon
Euan Harvey
French horn
Emily Granger
Harp
Jess Ciampa
Percussion
Program
Luke Byrne
Song (World premiere)
Anne Cawrse
The Greatest of These (World premiere)
Meta Cohen
Meteora (World premiere)
Nardi Simpson
Dharriwaa – Narran Lakes Dreaming (World premiere)
Paul Stanhope
We might be fifty (World premiere)
Paul Stanhope
Requiem