Well done, every single one of you. Your performance on Friday night of Mozart's Requiem lifted this listener and I’m sure many others to a place above and beyond the unsettled world we are living in. As your director, Chalium Poppy has doubtlessly drummed into you, it is more than getting notes right…
The program was certainly a celebration of praise and joy, and much appreciated by the audience, who gave a standing ovation at the conclusion of the concert. Conductor Chalium Poppy conducted the orchestra and choir with great gusto and enthusiasm…
This was the first time I had heard Handel's Messiah. I was so overwhelmed with the excellence of the production. The orchestra and the soloists were superb. However it was the choir that was the star of the show!
The conductor, skilled and incredibly precise, managed to…
NZ's first live performance of classical music since Covid reached our shores in 2020. Handel’s sacred Oratorio Israel in Egypt was first performed in 1739, some three years before his Messiah. Israel in Egypt, with its dramatic opening, with a warm full-bodied sound in the lovely acoustic of the cathedral…
When Muslims greet each other, they don’t say ‘good morning’ or ‘hello. They say as salaam alaykum – peace be upon you. When they part, they say ma’a salaama – wishing that all may go with peace. The peace of our Muslim friends, neighbours, and fellow New Zealanders was shattered on Friday 15 March. As Muslims in Christchurch gathered to pray in peace, hatred and violence were poured out against them…
If any reader should be of the opinion that church music from the late 17th to early 18th centuries should be reserved for po-faced old fogies you would almost certainly have a change of mind had you heard the Scholars Baroque Aotearoa with their Director of Music Chalium Poppy in their first concert for 2019…
When planning a season for the Scholars, I always try to consider if there are any major birthdays or anniversaries of composers upon which we might capitalise. 2019 in fact marks two major milestones for two of the giants of English baroque choral music. This year marks 260 years since the death of Handel and 360 years since the birth of Henry Purcell…
When Muslims greet each other, they don’t say ‘good morning’ or ‘hello. They say as salaam alaykum – peace be upon you. When they part, they say ma’a salaama – wishing that all may go with peace. The peace of our Muslim friends, neighbours, and fellow New Zealanders was shattered on Friday 15 March. As Muslims in Christchurch gathered to pray in peace, hatred and violence were poured out against them…
As I sit at my desk to write, I am scarcely able to find enough space to place my small laptop. My desk top is blanketed with an accumulation of scores and concert programmes from 2018 - all waiting for me to find the time early in the New Year to file them away in my music library and archive respectively. It is, a snapshot, however, of what a fantastic and exciting year 2018 has been…
For the first time this year Scholars Baroque Aoteroa hosted this free family event with the generosity of St Peter’s Anglican Church, Mount Maunganui, where the event was held on Sunday afternoon, 9th December. It was a beautiful warm and sunny summer evening in the Antipodes, the exact opposite of the biting cold and short, gloomy, foggy winter days in London where the tale was set…
Scholar Baroque Aotearoa are grateful to the following sponsors and benefactors without whose support we would not be able to present these quality performances of exceptional choral music to the Tauranga community.
