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).

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