The Redfern Oratorio - Premier Performance

What you'll learn

The premier performance of - The Redfern Oratorio

The Music Director of the Sydney Community College Choir and the Sydney University Graduate Choir (SUGC), Christopher Bowen OAM, has composed a major new choral work, inspired by the nationally significant Redfern speech of December 1992 given by then Prime Minister, Paul Keating.

The Redfern speech was an important event in the development of Australia's relationship with its Indigenous people and in Australian History. The Albanese Government's intention to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart has given a renewed salience to the issues touched on in Paul Keating's Redfern speech.

Christopher Bowen's new work, entitled The Redfern Oratorio, with a libretto by Pamela Traynor was commissioned by Robyn Williams AO. Sydney University Graduate Choir plans to perform it in its Sydney Sings® concert for 2022 along with Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’. The Sydney Sings® series of concerts is held in the Sydney Town Hall. This performance space permits SUGC to program major works involving a guest choir and orchestra that are too large for the Great Hall at Sydney University. In recent years, Sydney Sings® performances have included: Brahms' A German Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Handel's Messiah and, in August 2014 and November 2018, to considerable acclaim, Christopher Bowen's An Australian War Requiem.

Two options for the Redfern Oratorio are available through Sydney Community College. To join the guest choir and sing The Redfern Oratorio and Ode to Joy at the performance ($175) or to attend the performance as an audience member ($60, $45, $25)

Amy Morre, Soprano

Adrian Tamburini, Baritone.

The performance will take place in the Sydney Town Hall on Sunday November 13 at 3pm. In addition to the augmented choir and orchestra there will be two soloists. The soloists will be Amy Moore (soprano) and Adrian Tamburini (baritone).

The performance will be introduced by Ray Davison, the renowned Aboriginal spokesperson.

Uncle Ray Davidson.

The 2022 SydneySings® is supported by the City of Sydney.

Course tutors

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