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40 Years of Sydney Chamber Choir

Ahead of their anniversary concert, Nicholas Routley shares the choir’s history. In July 1975, four students from the Music Department at the University of Sydney asked me if I would like to form a small, specialist choir. I had only just arrived in Australia to take up a lecturing position in that Department, and although I’d trained as an orchestral conductor I couldn’t refuse them. Our early progress was coloured by my memories of the Choir of St John’s, Cambridge, which I used to hear regularly as a student (which then wasn’t all that long ago). So I auditioned more students, and in November 1975 the Sydney University Chamber Choir gave its first concert. It included Mille Regretz, a short piece by Josquin des Prés. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that both I and the choir fell in love with Josquin. This began our journey into 15th-century music, including many masses and motets by Josquin, his teacher Ockeghem, and their predecessor Dufay, which brought the attention of Sydney listeners to these composers for the first time. We will be performing a work by each of these composers in our 40th anniversary concert this weekend. In…

June 12, 2015