March 2015
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. With over 70 singers we certainly filled the stage in both venues.
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. They all sounded beautiful and we thank them for joining us.
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
Phoenix Choir 