Carols in the Cathedral (Review)
Clive O’connell

BECOMING as inevitable a part of Christmas as performances of Handel’s Messiah, the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic’s carols evenings in St Paul’s continue to be packed-to-the-doors events, a welcome balance to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl carols evening being lost to advertising and personality-centric flummery. Reinforced by the Melbourne University Choral Society and The Australian Children’s Choir, the Philharmonic under Andrew Wailes awakened the spirit of the season, invigorated further with some welcome novelties.
Enough of the customary material remained, such as audience-involving numbers. Also, soprano Greta Bradman and tenor Roy Best shared the non-seasonal favourites such as Panis Angelicus, The Holy City, O Holy Night, and Ave Maria in the Bach/Gounod format.
The adult choirs outlined a character-rich version of In dulci jubilo while the young voices and Bradman performed three parts of Southern Star
Yet the night’s highlights came from unexpected quarters, including non-musical ones such as speaker Roland Rocchiccioli’s all-too-relevant comparison of the flight into Egypt with today’s refugee situation, and his colleague Julie Houghton’s remembrances of W. G. James’ Australian Christmas Carols.
For choral achievements, it was hard to go past the children’s choir’s Lute Book Lullaby and the adult choirs’ resonant Rejoice, O Virgin by Rachmaninov – an ideal companion to the dean’s exposition of the rhapsodic certainty that infuses the opening to St John’s gospel: the core of Christmas.
The Age, December 21, 2011

Youngsters on song in Europe

by: Sally Bennett
From:Herald Sun, August 02, 201111:33AM

THE Australian Children’s Choir will make its triumphant return home this week after a major concert tour of Europe.
Fifty young singers from the Melbourne choir have had the time of their lives performing across Germany, Austria and England.
Among the highlights was performing with the celebrated Virtuoisi Orchestra in London’s Canterbury Cathedral.
“It’s quite an honour,” the choir’s artistic director and conductor Andrew Wailes says.
“The kids have taken the place of the English Cathedral Choir who have been singing Edensong at the cathedral for the best part of 1000 years.
“There’s an awe-inspiring sense of history when you walk into a building like that and sing that service.”
After a two-week concert tour of Germany and Austria, the choristers, aged 10-18, have spent a week in England performing in the International Festival of Children’s Choirs.
For many of the children it was their first trip overseas.
“They were jumping out of their skins,” Wailes says. “As a teacher, it’s one of the most rewarding things to do. Being able to take the kids around Salzburg and show them where Mozart lived, to share all of this with them, is amazing. And hopefully it ignites a spark in the kids.”
Herald Sun, August 02, 2011

Choir hits a high note in Europe
Michael Green
July 12, 2011 – 12:00AM

CALEB Foster-McLachlan could barely contain his excitement yesterday, the eve of his departure for the ancient cathedrals of Europe where he will perform with the Australian Children’s Choir.
”I’m so excited I can’t get to sleep at night any more. I just want to go,” the 17-year-old said.
Foster-McLachlan, who has high-functioning autism, said he tends to worry too much: ”I get stressed about expectations and results a lot of the time. Sometimes I think I’m going from one stressful thing to another.”
That made his first night in the choir after his successful audition particularly nerve-racking. ”It was very scary at first,” he says. ”I was so nervous my voice wobbled and the conductor commented that I sounded like a pregnant turkey being strangled.
”But I learnt quickly and the last comment I had from him was a few months ago – he said I had too much of a cheeky grin, which was off-putting from a distance!”
The choir’s tour of Europe has been two years in the planning. For just over three weeks, 50 children – aged from 10 to 18 – will sing in several cities across Germany, Austria and England.
The schedule culminates with a performance at Canterbury Cathedral, where the group will take part in the International Children’s Choir Festival, singing with young choristers from six countries.
Choir director and conductor Andrew Wailes says he has been able to organise for the ensemble to perform in some remarkable venues – places far removed, and not just geographically, from the children’s normal base in Mitcham.
”It’s mind-blowing just to walk into some of the glorious Gothic cathedrals in Europe and know they are between 500 and 1000 years old,” he says. ”And when you go in there to sing, it’s the most inspirational setting. These spaces were designed all those years ago to make the human voice sound its best.”
Wailes says the tour party is excited and nervous – and that goes for the accompanying adults, too. Last week, he held the final briefing for parents.
”Suddenly one of the kids looked up to me with these forlorn eyes and said, ‘We’ve only got one rehearsal left!’ And I said, ‘Yes, you betcha. I’m acutely aware of that, young man’.”
The choir’s repertoire for the trip comprises 43 songs, including a Latin Mass and a few pieces in German, all learnt since the beginning of the year at twice-weekly rehearsals.
”It’s a huge amount of music for the kids to have prepared in six months, but they’ve got there. We’re ready and raring to go,” Wailes says.
”They’re going to come back different people, with a whole lot of experiences and wonderful memories to inspire them.”
Foster-McLachlan has felt restless for the past two weeks, but this time it’s out of anticipation, not anxiety. He has been daydreaming about walking in German forests, descending upon mediaeval castles and singing in thousand-year-old chapels with gilded walls.
”I could have spent my sleeplessness productively, packing my bag,” he admits, ”but instead I sit there imagining being inside the Canterbury Cathedral or how I’m going to talk with the American choirs we’ll meet.”
The year 11 student’s mother, Brenda McLachlan, says being in the choir has helped him understand the subtleties of communication and socialising in a group – scenarios that can be challenging for autistic people.
”Singing in the choir is calming and therapeutic because at times he can get quite wound up,” she says.
Wailes said the benefits of singing are clear for the young and the old.
”It’s the basic human form of relaxing that doesn’t require gym fees or expensive equipment,” he said. ”When you’re singing, that’s all you think about, you don’t worry about anything else. It’s good for the soul.”
The Age, July 12, 2011

Doncaster East lad touring Europe with choir
23 Jul 11 @ 07:00am by Shaun Turton

PERFORMING in the 1400-year-old Canterbury Cathedral is an experience Doncaster East chorister Luke Wilcockson will relish.
Luke, 14, was among 50 youngsters who flew to Europe last week for an Australian Children’s Choir tour which will take in some of the world’s most famous cathedrals.
Luke said he was most looking forward to singing in the world heritage listed Canterbury Cathedral which was founded in Kent in 602 by Roman missionary St Augustine.
Its history and architecture were “awe inspiring”, Luke, who joined the choir six years ago, said.
“I’ve performed at St Paul’s in Melbourne before and when I was told Canterbury Cathedral was four times the size my jaw just dropped,” he said.
“Performing there and seeing its architecture will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Before arriving in the UK – where they will represent Australia at the International Festival of Children’s Choirs – the choir will perform in Germany and Austria.
Manningham Leader, 23 July, 2011

Choir gives a voice to Bendigo’s Black Saturday fires
The Bendigo Advertiser

THE Bendigo Youth Choir joined the Australian Children’s Choir in the Sacred Heart Cathedral on Saturday night for an “#absolutely beautiful”# performance. The Children’s Choir was in Bendigo as part of a regional tour to commemorate the Black Saturday bushfires.

Bendigo Youth Choir founder and artistic director Valerie Broad said local choir 36 members joined the Children’s Choir for a workshop day on Saturday before the performance. “#We’ve had a very long-standing close association with the Australian Children’s Choir and they invited us to perform with them,”# Ms Broad said.

Together the choirs premiered a song written by Bendigo songwriter Gail Godber. Called One foot after the other, the song was written about Bendigo’s Black Saturday experiences. Gail accompanied the choirs on piano during the performance, while her daughter Eve played flute during the evening. Ms Broad said the performance had been a great opportunity for both choirs, in particular the Bendigo members.

The Australian Children’s Choir also performed in Castlemaine on Friday night and Ballarat yesterday as part of its tour of regional Victoria.

The Bendigo Advertiser

Tenor By Trade
The Age
Thursday August 30, 2007
Liz Cincotta

Former motor mechanic Roy Best swapped his tools for tails, realising his dream to be a professional opera singer. By Liz Cincotta.

CELEBRITY hasn’t come quickly for tenor Roy Best.
At a smidgin over 40, one could say it has been a slow burn.
Best is the first to admit his childhood fantasy was not to become a celebrated opera singer. “I’d be lying if I saidmy childhood dreamwas to be this.
My childhood dreamwas probably to be famous for something.
To become, dare I say, a celebrity one day-for doing something well,” he says.
Many will recognise Best’s face-and striking voice -from the 2006 ABC reality series Operatunity Oz , where amateur singers from around Australia stepped out of their shower cubicles to compete for the chance to performwith professional opera singers at the Sydney OperaHouse.
David Parkin took the final award but finalists Emily Burke and Best impressed the judges enough to be offered places in the prized OperaHouse performance.
In the 10 months since then, the chatty former motor mechanic and carpenter has swapped his tools for tails, having realised a career as a professional tenor.
Best didn’t realise that his constant singing as a young boy was anything out of the ordinary.”
Imust have been singing all the time as a kid but I wasn’t aware of it. You didn’t think about these things, it was just part of breathing,” he says.
His family moved from a small farm in Macclesfield to Sherbrooke where Best attended Kallista Primary School. It was there that his grade 2 teacher signed him up for the school choir.”
I remember singingMy Bonnie Lies over the Ocean at the age of five,” he laughs.
It is perhaps no surprise that Best boastsmusical talent.
His father’s mother was also a singer who received encouragement from a friend of the family, NellieMitchell-better known as Dame NellieMelba-and joined theMelbourne ConservatoriumofMusic to become a soprano.
Best kept singing and four years later received an invitation to audition for theMetropolitan Boys Choir. He flinches at the memory of singing God Save the Queen but his face softens when he recounts the moment he sangWhite Cliffs of Dover . His mother, a piano player, helped him rehearse for the audition.
Best was later part of the AustralianChildren’s Choir when he was noticed by The AustralianOpera, as it was then called, who were looking for a children’s chorus. He was offered the role of analtar boy in Tosca and performed at the Princess Theatre at the age of 10.”
The Australian Children’s Choir started things off in a more formal way. It taught me very good technique in diction, verbrato and singing properly.
When you’re that age you’re like a sponge and you don’t lose things like that. Equally, if there are bad habits you pick up at that stage, that are very hard to shake,” he says.
At high school, Best’s passion for singing waned after relentless teasing about his singing voice. Many years passed before he grewinto a new tenor voice.”
At the age of 15 or 16 you are growing and going through puberty and you have issues about your own standing in the world. I rejected the singing thing and pretendedmy voice had broken. It killedmy singing for a long time,” he says with a hint of sadness.
Perhaps as a result of that hurt, Best’s singing voice stayed silent for a while. He has spent most of his professional life so far as a carpenter and motor mechanic. He also spent 17 years involved with historic cars, restoring and racing them alongside his father. “That was a pivotal part ofmy life, developmentally, because until then I hadn’t really achieved anything.
I didn’t feel like I could do anything special above anyone else,” he says.
Best worked his way up through the field and eventually started winning races. He believes it taught him a lot about life.
During the 1990s Best remembers listening to a concert performed by The Three Tenors (Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti).”
I’d heard of Pavarotti but I hadn’t heard of the other two-that’s howmuch of a philistine I was,” he jokes. He listened, sang along and realised he was hitting the top notes. He was working as a carpenter at the time.
In 1999 Best joined a choir that rekindled his interest in singing. He started taking singing lessons and a new voice evolved. He credits amateur musical theatre for giving him “great grounding” in the theatre world andmakes the point that opera is not so different.
It has been a monumental year for Best since Operatunity Oz . After performing Act III as the Duke in Rigoletto at the Sydney OperaHouse, Best has enjoyed a legion of stage appearances including our own Hamer Hall, working alongside the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra and artists including Marina Prior and JamesMorrison.
Best has hung up his mechanic’s overalls for now and like visitingWelsh salesman- turned-tenor Paul Potts is making a living from his voice.
This weekend Best will star in aMelbourne Opera double-bill, making his debut as Turiddu in Mascagni’s dramatic tale of revenge andmurder in rural Sicily, Cavalleria Rusticana .
The opera is sung in English and he will performalongside fellowprincipal singers Suzanne Donald (as Santuzza) and Gary Rowley (as the embittered Alfio).
He is “seriously excited” about the role and embraces the idea of connecting with his audience.”
If you stood there just thinking … and performing inwardly … youwon’tmake any mistakes.
But that’s not what people want to see and that’s not what you want to do. Youwant to release what you’re doing and use your imagination and create things while you’re on stage. Performance is about connecting.”

Call’s out for choristers
17 Nov 09 @ 06:13pm by allens
Luke Severn, 16, a member for four years, says the choir is a great place to be.MITCH BEAR N21WH502
THE Australian Children’s Choir is calling for talented young singers to join its ranks.
Children aged seven to 18 have the chance to showcase skills honed through hours of singing into hairbrushes or playing SingStar at an audition.
Choir administrator Melanie Dooley said the auditions took place in a “low-stress environment” and would not require preparation.
Ms Dooley said the choir was a non-profit organisation that had been providing quality choral and musical education since 1976. T
he choir has performed at many events in Australia and overseas. It will tour regional Victoria next year, aided by an $18,000 grant from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation.
Ringwood North singer Luke Severn, 16, has been a member of the choir for the past four years and said he enjoyed practising and performing.
“It’s a great place to hone your musical skills and it’s just a great place to be,” he said.
“Even if you’re not particularly musical that’s what the choir’s about, bringing that education to children.”
Luke said the choir had given him the opportunity to perform at the Sound Relief bushfire appeal concert in March and take part in a tour of China in 2007-2008.
Auditions are from 2-4pm this Sunday, November 22, at the Mountview Uniting Church, corner of Whitehorse and Doncaster East roads, Mitcham.
Details: 9873 0277 or email admin@theacc.com.au
Maroondah Leader, 17 Nov 2009