C o n c e r t s 2 0 1 7
Click here to see details of the concert in Ballarat.
Mario Dobernig - Conductor
Mario is the Artistic Director and Conductor for Victoria Chorale and the Art of Sound Orchestra.
Engagements for the 2017/2018 season include performances with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in Doha for the Qatar Festival, Hobart’s MONA FOMA, Brahms’s Requiem and Alto Rhapsody, Schubert’s Masses No. 5 and 6, Mozart Vespers K. 339, Mozart’ Piano Concerto K. 449, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Eroica, Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, festival appearances with Electronic Dance Music Producers, cultural exchange programs between Austria and Australia and returns to Europe in 2017 and 2018
Victoria Chorale and Ballarat Choral Society sing Haydn’s jubilant Nelson Mass, joined by 4 internationally renowned soloists - Amy Moore, Sally-Anne Russell, Robert Macfarlane and Christopher Tonkin. Sally-Anne will also perform Brahms dramatic and moving Alto Rhapsody with a Male Chorus. Barry Conyingham’s Dawning conveys an Australian landscape which magically reflects the movement from darkness to light. Mario Dobernig conducts the two wonderful choirs and leads the vibrant Art of Sound Orchestra.
Amy Moore - Soprano
Lyric Soprano Amy has recently moved to Australia following a successful career in the UK and Europe in a wide variety of repertoire particularly in the early and contemporary music arenas.
Since moving to Australia, performances include Bach’s Jauchzett, Gott BWV 51 with Australian Baroque Brass, Handel's Messiah with the choir of Trinity College, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem, Handel's Gloria, Bach's St John Passion with The Choir of St James King Street and Brahms' Requiem with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra a number of which were broadcast by ABC Classic FM.
Sally-Anne Russell - Mezzo-soprano
One of Australia’s finest mezzo sopranos, Sally-Anne has over 70 operatic roles in her repertoire, has sung in fifteen countries, performs with all the major symphony orchestras and opera companies and she has over 40 recordings on ABC Classics, Chandos, Move and Decca labels.
Reviewers comment that she is “known as much for her Baroque virtuosity as for her Bel Canto interpretations.” “ Sally-Anne Russell is one of Australia’s current operatic and oratorio stars.” A previous performance of the Alto Rhapsody was applauded as a “deeply moving performance in which she injected long legato lines with expressive intensity and lovely dramatic colour.
Robert Macfarlane - Tenor
Praised for his 'blissful, clarion top' and 'remarkable capacity for mastering works that would daunt most singers', tenor Robert Macfarlane has has performed as a soloist with, among others, the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Gewandhaus Orchestra (Leipzig), is an active performer on the Opera stage, and was a pupil of the great German tenor Peter Schreier.
2017 sees Robert sing the Evangelist in Bach's Matthew Passion at the Sydney Opera House, Monteverdi/Kats-Chernin Orfeo with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Elgars Apostles and Tippett's Child of our Time in Germany, Messiah with both the Auckland Choral and the New Zealand Symphony, as well as touring Australia extensively with the Song Company.
Christopher Tonkin - Baritone
Australian baritone Christopher Tonkin was, until recently, resident principal baritone with Hannover Staatsoper. In 2017 he returns to Opera Australia as Marcello (La bohème), Duruflé Requiem (Auckland Choral Society), Trouble in Tahiti (Lost and Found Opera, in Perth), and Chou En-Lai in The Nixon Tapes (Sydney Opera House for the Vivid Festival).
His reviews refer to his ‘gloriously rich baritone’ and to him being ‘the stand out performer’.