The Australian Chamber Choir will open its 2026 concert season by revisiting one of the towering masterpieces of the choral repertoire: Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, presented in collaboration with the Melbourne Baroque Orchestra.

The performances mark a symbolic reunion between the two ensembles, almost exactly a decade after they first joined forces for the same monumental work. In early 2016, shortly after the Melbourne Baroque Orchestra was founded by a group of the city’s leading early music specialists, the ensembles presented sold-out performances of the Mass, establishing what has since become a productive artistic partnership.

The Australian Chamber Choir. Photo © Bruce Inglis

The choir’s first performance of the Bach’s Mass – at Myers Library, Dunkeld on 14 March – has already sold out (such is the enduring appeal of Bach’s final and most expansive choral composition) but there are two further concerts on sale: at Macedon’s Church of the Resurrection (21 March), and in Scots’ Church in central Melbourne (22 March).

Mid-year, ACC presents Great Romantic Voices, a program spanning Romantics such Bruckner and Brahms and 20th century composers such as Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Amy Beach and Samuel Barber – who resisted the atonality and serialism embraced by their contemporaries and continued to explore the rich extremes of lush harmony and sweeping melodies. The program will be presented in the Sterling Place Community Centre, Dunkeld on 13 June and at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park, Melbourne on 21 June.

The Australian Chamber Choir: Encores. Photo supplied

Since its inception in 2007, the ACC has given 125 concerts in Europe and many more in Australia. At the conclusion of the formal part of each concert, the choir is frequently invited to repeat the highlight of the program – or surprise the audience with something unexpected. This ACC’s spring season Encore program will brings all that music together in spine-tingling concerts at the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels, Geelong (2 October), Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park, Melbourne (11 October), and in the Sarah and Baillieu Myer Education Pavillion, McClelland Sculpture Park, Langwarrin on 18 October.

The season wraps in traditional style from late November with Baroque Christmas, with concerts presented in Terang (Thomson Memorial Presbyterian Church, 28 November); Church of the Resurrection, Macedon (5 December); Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park, Melbourne (6 December); Sterling Place Community Centre, Dunkeld (12 December) and at Geelong’s Basilica of St Mary of the Angels on 13 December.

Further details about the Australian Chamber Choir’s 2026 season and upcoming performances are available via the company’s website.