April 2017: Handel’s Messiah
Phoenix Choir staged a full performance of Handel’s Messiah on Palm Sunday 9 April. In the tradition of Messiah we assembled a large choir and performed with chamber orchestra and professional soloists. Messiah Program click here
Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub, Springwood
December 2016: For unto us a child is born
This year we welcomed back special guests Blackheath Public School senior choir, led by Jenny Lanyon, to join in a program featuring the Christmas music from Handel’s Messiah and a variety of other pieces to celebrate the season.
Musical DirectorRowen Fox, is preparing Phoenix Choir for a full Messiah performance on Palm Sunday 2017. As part of this preparation, our Christmas concert presented the portion of the work that focuses on the prophecy of Christ’s coming and His birth, featuring such well-known choruses as For Unto Us a Child is Born, Glory to God and His Yoke is Easy. Local mezzo-soprano Lyn Phillips and Sydney-based soprano Julie Paik performed some of Handel’s beloved arias, including He Shall Feed His Flock and Rejoice Greatly. The children’s choir will joined Phoenix in And the Glory of the Lord and, as a rousing finale, the Hallelujah chorus.
Another concert highlight was a smaller chamber choir performing contemporary Christmas music from the English choral tradition. The program also included old favourites such as O Holy Night, with a solo from Lee Louise, A Blessing, sung by the children’s choir, and some familiar Christmas carols for everyone to join in.
St Hilda’s Anglican Church, Katoomba
Uniting Church, Blackheath
The final chorus earned a standing ovation from the audience in Blackheath. Click this link below to see the finale
August 2016 : Blackheath Choir Festival
Phoenix Choir opened the Blackheath Choir Festival. As usual we provided a large portion of the volunteer force to support the Festival.
May 2016: Magnificat
Durante’s Magnificat, often attributed to his famous student Pergolesi, had an elegant simplicity which contrasted with the rich melodic and harmonic beauty of Vivaldi’s Magnificat. Canon Fodder sang the solos in these works and also performed three pieces on their own, by Palestrina, Marenzio and Pergolesi. To start the concert all joined together for the majestic Lauda Jerusalem by Vivaldi, where they captured the grandeur of the original setting fo
r two antiphonal choirs.
St Hilda’s Anglican Church, KATOOMBA
Blackheath Baptist Church
December 2015 Christmas Concert
Phoenix Choir is developing a reputation for adding a special touch to their performances. For the 2015 festive season their Christmas concerts in Leura and Lithgow continued this tradition with the return of audience-favourite guest baritone soloist, Tristan Entwistle and trumpet soloist, Emma Bolton.
Musical Director, Rowen Fox, built a program around the exquisite Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols. This popular work is a medley of English folk carols which Vaughan Williams collected from country communities, rescuing them before they died away. The melodies of each carol weave back and forth in a conversation between the Baritone soloist and choir, from his opening solo, reminiscent of a wintry English landscape, to the full-throated climax with the choir wishing you all a Happy New Year,
Trumpeter, Emma Bolton joined the choir in a performance which began with the rousing Christians, be Joyful, from J S Bach’s famous Christmas Oratorio. Emma also added magic to a selection of much-loved traditional carols, which are interspersed through the program, and the audience are invited to sing along with the most popular numbers.
Tim Kaye added the power of the organ with a dramatic opening of Bach’s Chorale Prelude In Dulci Jubilo (BWV 729) and to the traditional audience carols.
No Phoenix Choir Christmas concert would be complete without selections from Handel’s Messiah. Tristan and Emma joined to perform the stirring and virtuosic The Trumpet Shall Sound and the Halleluiah Chorus provided a rousing finale.
St Alban’s Anglican Church LEURA
Hoskins Memorial Uniting Church Lithgow
August 2015 – Schubert, Mozart, Boccherini
The concerts featured music spanning the entire Classical period from an early work of Italian composer Luigi Boccherini through a selection of works spanning Mozart’s entire career. Written in 1765, Boccherini’s Kyrie in B flat major displays the nascent Classical style and included a tuneful bass solo by Tristan Entwhistle. The glorious Laudate Dominum by Mozart shows the high point of Classicism, and was sung by local soprano Michelle Foreman. Schubert’s Mass is one of his most enduring early works and combines mature classical form with many of the hallmarks of the early Romantic period.
Musical Director, Rowen Fox, said “What fascinates me about this program is the young age at which many of these works were written”. Boccherini was 22 and at an early stage of his stylistic development when he wrote the Kyrie. In contrast, Schubert’s Mass, produced when he was only 18, shows remarkable development and is a mature work written in one of his most prolific periods. However the prize must go to a nine-year-old Mozart for his Conservati Fedele, a delightful solo sung by acclaimed tenor, David Hamilton.
Local musicians Rebecca Daniel (violin), Sam Harding (viola) and Therese Underwood (cello) were joined by Jacqui Carias (violin) to form the Phoenix Strings for this event.
Phillips Hall, Blackheath Community Centre BLACKHEATH
St Hilda’s Anglican Church KATOOMBA
June 2015
Three Choirs and a Quiz. A fun evening of music and trivia featuring the three Blackheath choirs – Phoenix Choir, The Heathens and Vocal Edge with a special guest appearance from Canon Fodder. Phillips Hall BLACKHEATH
March 2015 
EASTER CONCERT
With Allegri Singers, Bathurst
In our first collaboration with Allegri Singers from Bathurst, we performed two concerts of Passiontide music for the week leading up to Easter. The program opened with the first chorus from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. This work, written for eight parts, is heard only on the rare occasions when a double choir is available.
For our concerts the haunting Ripieno, written for solo soprano, was sung by a carefully selected ensemble of 
local schoolchildren – senior students from Blackheath Public School for the Leura concert and the Mitchell Young Voices choir in Bathurst.
The program also included a selection of popular choruses from Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Stainer’s Crucifixion, and solos from Blackheath tenor Rob Smith and Katoomba mezzo-soprano Lyn Phillips, who sang the famous aria “He was despised” from Handel’s Messiah.
St Alban’s Anglican Church LEURA
All Saints Anglican Cathedral BATHURST
December 2014
CAROLS AT THE SHOPS
Our annual street carols to raise money for the RFS
Blackheath shopping centre,
Govetts Leap Road, Blackheath
CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2014
With Blackheath Public School Choir
A selection of Christmas songs and carols
Uniting Church BLACKHEATH
October & November 2014
Requiem – Gabriel Fauré
Cantique de Jean Racine – Gabriel Fauré
Suite Gothique – Léon Boëllman
When asked to nominate their favourite choral music, most people include Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem towards the top of their list. This work of exquisite simplicity and beauty transcends the sorrow of mourning with the hope of eternal peace, and is beloved by singers and audiences around the world. Joining the choir for the three performances were several guest choristers from the mountains and beyond. Accompanied by professional musicians, we sang a new arrangement of the work by the choir’s Musical Director, Rowen Fox, with an unusual combination of viola, cello, piano and organ to bring out the rich colours and textures of Fauré’s much-loved work.
The concert program included other masterworks of the French Romantic tradition: the hauntingly beautiful Pie Jesu, sung by well-known Blue Mountains mezzo-soprano Lyn 
Phillips; Léon Boëllmann’s spectacular Suite Gothique for organ, played by Tim Kaye, former organ scholar at Wadham College, Oxford; and what must be one of the most universally loved final-year assignments by a student of musical composition, Cantique de Jean Racine, composed by Fauré when he was just 19 years old.
All Saints Anglican Cathedral BATHURST
Hoskins Memorial Uniting Church LITHGOW
St Alban’s Anglican Church LEURA
August 2014
BLACKHEATH CHOIR FESTIVAL
Vaggvisa (Lullaby) – Hugo Alfvén
Uti vår hage där växa blå bär – Hugo Alfvén
Aftonen (Evening) – Hugo Alfvén
In Haven (Capri) (from Sea Pictures) – Edward Elgar arr. for SATB Rowen Fox
Where Corals Lie (from Sea Pictures) – Edward Elgar arr. for SATB Rowen Fox
As torrents in summer – Edward Elgar
Festival Combined Choir: selections from Rossini’s Stabat Mater, conducted by Rowen Fox
Phillips Hall, Blackheath Community Centre, BLACKHEATH
May 2014
CHAMBER AND CHORAL MUSIC
with Three Piece Suite
Purcell – Gluck – Fauré – Elgar
In this program of pastoral music, the choir performed with a string quartet featuring the members of the acclaimed Three Piece Suite.
The program included madrigals by Morley and Gibbons, and selections from the operas Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) and Orpheo ed Euridice (Gluck). The audience were also treated to two premier performances by of works by Musical Director Rowen Fox: choral arrangements of two of Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures, and a suite from his opera Chang’E and the Moon, which opera draws on the Chinese legend of Chang’E, Goddess of the Moon, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Presbyterian Church BLACKHEATH
April 2014
ANZAC DAY DUSK SERVICE
Advance Australia Fair
Eternal Father
Blackheath Golf Club
December 2013
CAROLS AT THE SHOPS
Our annual street carols to raise money for the RFS
Blackheath shopping centre,
Govetts Leap Road, Blackheath
CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2013
With Blackheath Public School Choir
A selection of Christmas songs and carols
Uniting Church BLACKHEATH
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
Alexander’s Feast – George Frederick Handel
Handel’s oratorio was first performed at Covent Garden in 1736.
The text is based on the poem by John Dryden, the first English Poet Laureate – Alexander’s Feast or The Power of Music, an Ode in Honour of St Cecilia’s Day: 1697. The story tells of the feast celebrating the victory by Alexander the Great over Darius, Emperor of Persia.
Phoenix Choir were joined by the Leura Singers, and accompanied by the Orpheus Strings orchestra.
St Finbar’s Catholic Church GLENBROOK
Hoskins Memorial Uniting Church LITHGOW
Katoomba Public School
August 2013
CHAMPAGNE SOIRÉE
Music Scholarships Fundraiser
With 6 choral ensembles, string ensemble, solos, duets
and featuring the 2013 scholarship winners – Georgia Evans and Emma Lindeman.
April 2013
FASHION PARADE FUNDRAISER
Women’s and men’s fashions from Ravir Boutique, champagne & canape supper, musical items from Phoenix, raffle.
March 2013
EASTER CONCERT
Bach Cantata BWV 4 (Christ lag in Todesbanden)
Choruses from Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Handel’s Messiah
Motets by Palestrina and Praetorius
December 2012
CAROLS AT THE SHOPS.
Blackheath shopping centre
Christmas Concert 2012
A selection of Christmas songs and carols
Uniting Church BLACKHEATH
November 2012
CONCERT WITH ORPHEUS STRINGS
Directed by Julie Cooney
Repertoire included Vivaldi’s Gloria, conducted by Rowen Fox
Katoomba Public School
August 2012
BLACKHEATH CHOIR FESTIVAL
Phoenix solo set: In Windsor Forest – R. Vaughan Williams
Festival Combined Choir, conducted by William Moxey:
Kyrie in D minor – Mozart
Serenade to Music – R. Vaughan Williams
Polovtsian Dances – Borodin
May 2012
AUTUMN CONCERT – MADRIGALS AND PARTSONGS
Sacred and secular madrigals and partsongs from Renaissance to Modern
Uniting Church BLACKHEATH
December 2011
SUMMER CONCERT with Leura Singers
To celebrate the end of the year and to farewell retiring MD, Walter Sutcliffe
Peasant Cantata – J.S. Bach
and seasonal short works
November 2011
CONCERT with Orpheus Strings and Leura Singers
Pergolesi’s Magnificat and three orchestral works
August 2011
BLACKHEATH CHOIR FESTIVAL
Phoenix solo set, with Leura Singers: Magnificat – Pergolesi
Festival Combined Choir, conducted by Walter Sutcliffe:
Coronation Mass in C major – Mozart
May 2011
HANDEL’S MESSIAH
Hoskins Memorial Uniting Church LITHGOW
Uniting Church LEURA
December 2010
Christmas Carols. Blackheath shops.
OCTOBER 2010
With Orpheus Strings, Leura Singers and featuring David Scheel – piano soloist.
AUGUST 2010
Choir Festival. With Leura Singers.
Closing set of the Blackheath Choir Festival, with the Festival Combined Choir
Conducted by Walter Sutcliffe, accompanied by Julie Adam
MARCH 2010
Fundraising concert for Blue Mountains Performing Arts Association.
With Leura Singers. Also Pacopezants and the Sydney Male Choir.
Fundraiser for Ibulanku Health Centre, Uganda.
Easter Cantata for Good Friday: Olivet to Calvary – J H Maunder.
phoenixchoir.org.au 