At the midpoint of a three date tour, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri country-based vocal sextet Luminescence Chamber Singers brings its Glass Heart to Sydney – an eclectic program of unaccompanied music dating from the 12th to the 21st centuries.

On stage are soprano Rachel Mink, mezzo-soprano AJ America, tenor Dan Walker, baritone Lucien Fischer, bass Alasdair Stretch and guest soprano Brianna Louwen (replacing an unavailable Veronica Milroy).

I was already primed for my heart to be broken several times over before the evening was out. Described as half a millennium of “love songs and break-up anthems,” the repertoire weighs on the two extremes of this timeline, exploring different forms of verse (the sestina and the villanelle), and compositional ideas spanning from the 12th century (composer Beatriz, Contessa di Dia) to America’s 2024 arrangement of Fragile by Sting.

Luminescence Chamber Singers at The Neilson, Sydney. Photo © Shamistha de Soysa

Despite the absence of a core member and Louwen stepping in at short notice, Luminescence performs with sophisticated ensemble coherence across diverse styles, creating a rich blend of tonal colours, translucent softness, well-defined part singing, synchronised articulation and dynamics, and unerring pitch. The...