No visit to the WA Museum Boola Bardip is complete without spending some time with Otto.  Having been boxed away for decades, Otto, the Museum’s 24-metre-long blue whale skeleton, is now dramatically suspended from the ceiling of Hackett Hall, a space rapidly becoming Perth’s most sought-after chamber-music venue. Taking advantage of this unique environment was the Perth-based chamber choir, Voyces, under the direction of its distinguished conductor, Robert Braham.

Voyces perform in Time Hackett Hall, WA Museum Boola Bardip. Photo © Nik Babic @ ArtShoot Media

The concert was billed as Time, and through unpacking this simple conceit – for example the way time passes, the relationship of time to numbers, the suspension of time and so on – this group of thirteen little-known choral works from around the world was cleverly curated to form a satisfying and thought-provoking concert experience.

The program was bookended by music from the Indian/American composer, Reena Esmail. Her mellifluous Even After All This Time was the perfect vehicle for the choir’s exemplary blend and tuning, and in Tuttarana the fiddly Indian rhythms were delivered with apparent ease and unbridled joy. I was transfixed by the...