The Australian Boys Choir will take on one of the great challenges of the choral repertoire in 2027, presenting Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental St Matthew Passion in the work’s 300th anniversary year.

Fresh from a regional tour encompassing Regional NSW, Sydney and Canberra, the choir has announced a season that also includes a return to Leipzig’s famed St Thomas Church, where Bach is buried, and a major collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

The Australian Boys Choir. Photo © Emma Phillips

Now entering its 88th consecutive year, the Australian Boys Choir is the only youth choir in the Southern Hemisphere specialising in the music of Bach. Its Good Friday performance of the St Matthew Passion in March will be presented alongside Germany’s Knabenchor Hannover, continuing the choir’s partnership with Melbourne period-instrument ensemble Genesis Baroque and completing its first multi-year Bach project.

The performance brings together an international and Australian cast, with Australian Boys Choir artistic director Nicholas Dinopoulos taking the role of Jesus and Hannover Boys Choir music director Professor Jörg Breiding conducting.

The Australian Boys Choir and Genesis Baroque. Photo © Pat Charles

Soloists include soprano Jacqueline Porter, contralto Emily Bauer-Jones and tenor Henry Choo, with basses Oliver Mann and Michael Jäckel sharing the recitative roles. Timothy Reynolds, who has made the Evangelist in Bach’s Passions a speciality, returns following his involvement in the choir’s previous Bach presentations, beginning with Robert Koolstra’s reconstruction of the St Mark Passion in 2025.

“It’s no secret that our singers have an affinity for Bach,” says Dinopoulos. “Singing his music in Germany back in 2018, in the very church in Leipzig where Bach is buried, still counts as a major highlight in the history of the ABCI.”

The choir will revisit St Thomas Church in September, taking its Bach repertoire back to the city where the composer spent the final years of his life.

Beyond Bach, the choir will join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of Trinity College for a new work by Australian composer Mary Finsterer tracing the life of Joan of Arc.

The collaboration follows the choir’s recent appearances in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the Australian Ballet and Orchestra Victoria.

The 2027 program also encompasses Australian music and regional performances, continuing the organisation’s commitment to outreach and bringing choral music to audiences beyond the major cities.

For more information on Australian Boys Choir, visit australianboyschoir.com.au