The Song Company’s annual presentation of music for the festive season, Hark!, is curated and directed by its celebrated bass, Andrew O’Connor. It ends an auspicious 40 years of music making for this intimate ensemble comprising just six core singers.
Joining O’Connor are soprano Susannah Lawergren, Co-Artistic Directors soprano Amy Moore and mezzo-soprano Jessica O’Donoghue, tenor Timothy Reynolds and baritone Hayden Barrington.
The nativity-themed program presents music by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries and two works of Renaissance polyphony. The 13 short pieces are gathered into brackets interwoven with verses read by O’Connor. The singers performed this a cappella program with a secure sense of ensemble, exemplary musicianship and unerring pitch.
Singing in English, Latin, Norwegian and Arabic, complicated key changes, exploratory harmonies and multi-metric rhythms are performed with aplomb, resulting in an intimate and sublime sound.

The Song Company: Hark! Photo supplied
Bob Chilcott’s The Sleeping Child for soprano and SATB choir has regular time changes and sonorous close harmonies over which floats the soprano soloist, representing a child sharing its dreams. This gentle lullaby calls for a touching naïveté from the soloist. TSC shares the solo amongst the three...
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