Returning to Australia, and to UKARIA, for the first time since 2019, VOCES8 will be Ensemble-in-Residence for our 2024 A Cappella Academy. Festival Statesmen Chorus (directed by Jonathan Bligh) will appear in the second half of this concert, which will culminate in a special collaborative performance with VOCES8. Directed by Timothy Wayne-Wright (a former member of The King’s Singers), the A Cappella Academy launched globally at UKARIA in 2022.

Join us for a program celebrating the anniversaries of both VOCES8 and Festival Statesmen Chorus. VOCES8’s twentieth birthday set features music from composers they are proud to call friends, including choral superstars Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre. The Festival Statesmen Chorus continues the celebrations with some of the ensemble’s beloved and most popular contemporary repertoire spanning their fifteen-year history, including hits from Van Morrison and Simon & Garfunkel. The party concludes with a joint piece; a popular American hymn arranged by current VOCES8 tenor, Blake Morgan – Shall We Gather at the River?