40th ANNIVERSARY
CONCERT SERIES
NEXT on the Viva Voce calendar …
Looking Up
Sunday, 13 April at 4pm
St Matthew-in-the-City, 132 Hobson Street, Auckland CBD
The Easter story has inspired choral music of such richness and emotional depth that even secular choirs are often drawn to it. Viva Voce performed its first Easter concert in 1993, when we were 8, and we’ve revisited the theme three times since. In our 40th anniversary year, then, it seems appropriate to offer a fifth performance of this wonderful music.
The jewel in our programme is Domenico Scarlatti’s superb yet seldom-performed ‘Stabat Mater’ of 1715 – a virtuosic Baroque masterpiece written for 10 voice parts and distinguished by its inventiveness, dramatic sweeps, rich colours, lyrical sweetness and clarity.
Encircling this work will be several other gems, including the fine ‘O crux splendidior’ by Renaissance master Peter Philips, a stunning version of the same text by 20th century Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt, Francis Poulenc’s atmospheric ‘Tenebrae factae sunt’ and David Hamilton’s short but beautiful setting of the verse from Lamentations, ‘O vos omnes’.
Do join us for this special recital of Easter choral masterpieces in the atmospheric and resonant surrounds of St Matthew-in-the-City!
Check back soon for more details about our exciting 40th anniversary concert series! Or – better still – sign up for our mailing list using the form above and always get the latest VV updates in your inbox.
listen
We are VIVA VOCE
Founded in 1985, VIVA VOCE is an auditioned chamber choir that specialises in the innovative programming and attractive presentation of a huge variety of music, striving always for both excellence and entertainment. The choir has now given over 400 concerts throughout New Zealand and in 2018 was invited to sing in the China International Chorus Festival in Beijing. Viva Voce is often broadcast on Radio New Zealand and is regularly engaged for choral-orchestral collaborations, while its own semi-staged productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Carissimi’s Jephte, Handel’s Solomon and Messiah and Talbot’s Path of Miracles have received critical acclaim.
JOHN ROSSER is the choir’s founder and Musical Director. He was also New Zealand Opera Chorus Master for 23 years and is Immediate Past Chair of the New Zealand Choral Federation, of which he was made a life member in 2018. National Director of both The Big Sing and Sing Aotearoa, John led the NZCF Anthems Project for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He was Artistic Director of the World Symposium on Choral Music 2020 and will head up New Zealand’s hosting of the 2024 World Choir Games in Auckland.
