2024 CONCERT SERIES
COMING UP ON THE VV CALENDAR…
A CAST OF
CHRISTMAS CHARACTERS
SUNDAY 8 DECember, 4PM
St Matthew-in-the-City, 132 Hobson Street, Auckland
Not having sung a Nativity-themed concert since ‘An Arctic Christmas’ way back in 2018, we have once again warmed to the idea. This time, however, we will be concentrating less on Yuletide’s chilly side and more on the characters, loving and unloved, who inhabit it.
Who are these? Mother, father and child naturally take centre stage, but their post-natal visitors – angelic, regal and sheep-herding – also feature, alongside a gallery of the saints, sinners, animals and instrumentalists who also pop up in the music of the season.
Our programme includes Lauridsen’s stunning ‘O magnum mysterium’, Burton’s catchy arrangement of ‘The Virgin Mary had a baby boy’, Allain’s poignant ‘Coventry Carol’, Mouton’s 8-part masterpiece ‘Nesciens mater’ and David Hamilton’s jazzy ‘Carol of Joseph and Mary’. To these we add ‘Good King Wenceslas’, ‘The Angel Gabriel’ and ‘We three kings’, and we may even invite the audience to join us for a couple more favourites!
Perhaps the highlight will be Jack Body’s dramatic and brilliant ‘Carol to St Stephen’, generally acknowledged as one of New Zealand’s finest choral works.
A special Christmas choral celebration, in the warm atmosphere and beautiful acoustics of St Matthew-in-the-City.
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.
