St Mary’s Cathedral lead Cantor Joshua Adams will sing with the world-class chamber choir, The Giovanni Consort, this Christmas season on the evening of 11 December.
“The concert is a celebration of Christmas, heralding the end to a tough year for many – we’re so blessed to be one of the only cities in the world where we can both perform and listen to live concerts,” Mr Adams told The eRecord.
“This is a beautiful, unique opportunity to hear the glorious, sacred music of Christmas performed by a world-class chamber choir in the stunning acoustics of St Mary’s Cathedral. All the music we will be performing speaks of the Christian symbolism of Christmas – most importantly of Christ and the true message of Christmas.
“The works by myself and the other composers offer new reflections, with arrangements of both well and lesser-known carols, and also majestic new works to cast the mind towards this message. I’m very excited to be sharing these – it’s not to be missed!” he added.
The Giovanni Consort is giving away four tickets to the Christmas concert. To win the tickets: 1. Follow @therecordperth and @giovanniconsort on Facebook and Instagram. 2. Answer the following question: what year was St Mary’s Cathedral was built? Send your answer to giovanniconsort@gmail.com.
Presenting an evening of glorious Christmas music, Mr Adams, joined by 11 other singers, will reimagine and give new life to pieces by WA composers Perry Joyce, Lydia Gardiner, and Mr Adams himself, who will have his three musical works performed at the concert.
Ms Gardiner will present one of her composed pieces, with Mr Joyce offering five. The choristers will be joined by conductor Hugh Lydon and Juilliard-trained organist Alessandro Pittorino.
Mr Adams said the composed pieces would make up for half of the programme with the performance, which will go for roughly one hour and a half including the interval.
“My three new works are distinct, stylistically-varied pieces reflecting upon the message of Christmas. The first piece I wrote is an arrangement of a Manx [Celtic] traditional carol,” he mentioned.
“The second piece I wrote is a collaboration with local children’s writer and poet Rebecca Newman. Rebecca has written the lyrics for a wonderful new traditional-style carol, and I’ve written a tune, harmony for the choir, and workshopped an organ part with our fantastic organist for the concert, Alessandro.
“The final piece is one for the choir alone – a brilliant, new, unaccompanied choral work. The new poem I have set is by UWA student poet, Caitlyn Stone, and the piece is titled ‘Behold, the star’,” he continued.
“The Star of Bethlehem frequently features in our Christmas music, so this final work is a special request of mine to Caitlyn for a poem that paints a vivid picture of the star as it would have appeared over Bethlehem at Christ’s birth.”
To purchase tickets to the concert, click here