Durban Chamber Choir presents:
Ave Adieu
St Thomas Church, Musgrave on Sunday 16 October at 3pm
Hilton College Chapel on Sunday 30 October at 2.30pm
The ever creative and proactive Durban Chamber Choir will be presenting two glorious spring concerts over two weekends in St Thomas Church, Musgrave on Sunday 16 October at 3pm and the Hilton College Chapel Hilton at on Sunday 30 October at 2.30pm entitled Ave Adieu.
The Hilton concert was scheduled for this weekend, but unfortunately there are cases of Covid among choir members, so the concert has been postponed until 30 October.
After several months of rehearsal, the Durban Chamber Choir is ready to present their new programme, titled Ave Adieu. The musical programme looks at moments of meeting and parting, as symbolized by the greetings ‘Ave’ (Latin for ‘Hail’) and ‘Adieu’ (French for ‘Farewell’), Latin and French being the two languages which the choir will be singing in addition to English.
The programme explores the many shades of feeling evoked by various kinds of meeting (lighthearted cheerfulness, mystical joy) and parting (regretful sorrow, gentle nostalgia, grateful acceptance). It also ranges widely across time and space, from the Renaissance (music by Josquin des Pres, Thomas Weelkes and Orlando Gibbons), through the late 19th century (Bruckner) and early 20th century (Ravel), to the present (compositions by the young American composer Daniel Elder and the choir’s director, Christopher Cockburn).
American and Irish folk traditions will also be represented in choral arrangements of ‘Swing Low’, ‘Shenandoah’ and ‘Quick! We have but a second’.
This is the first series of performances for the Durban Chamber Choir since Covid lockdown in 2020. This is also the choir’s last concerts with Christopher Cockburn as their director, as he will be retiring at the end of the year.
You can hear the programme at St Thomas Church, Musgrave on Sunday 16 October at 3pm, or at the Hilton College Chapel on Sunday 30 October at 2.30pm,. Tickets will be available at the door for R100, concessions R60. Please join the choir after the performances for tea, cake and conversation.
Supplied.