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An Autumn Odyssey – A Choral Journey through Europe
Saturday, 27 May, 2023 @ 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
The UWA Choral Society presents ‘An Autumn Odyssey – A Choral Journey through Europe’
Join the UWA Choral Society as they take a tour in their time machine, pausing in Austria, Italy, Germany and the UK to explore music across the centuries.
Enjoy music by: Mozart, Monteverdi, Lotti, Pergolesi, Bach, Rutter and Handel.
Conducted by Kristin Bowtell.
Doors open 3.30pm.
Venue
Studio TheatreTicket Prices
Adult $26 / Conc (pension/health care card holders) $23 / ArtsMR Members $22 / Child $19About Kristin Bowtell
Kristin Bowtell is a baritone and conductor based in Perth, Western Australia. He studied at UWA, and with Simon Halsey at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Kris was appointed Conductor of the University of Western Australia Choral Society in October 2019, having worked with UWACS for many years as conductor and frequently as baritone soloist. He has conducted Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and other concerts for the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
Kris was Co-Director of the Giovanni Consort in 2015 and has conducted that ensemble in performances of David Lang’s little match girl passion, Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles and Nico Muhly’s Bright Mass with Canons. Kris was an Australia Council ArtStart recipient and was part of the Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program.
Kristin sings with West Australian Opera and has performed as a soloist with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. His concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Handel Messiah, Haydn Nelson Mass, The Creation and Missa Sancti Nicolai, Mozart Requiem and Coronation Mass, Puccini Messa di Gloria, and many more.
About Lea Hayward
Lea Hayward is an accompanist and repetiteur in the WA concert, opera, chorus and musical theatre scene.
Whilst studying at the NSW Conservatorium, she was repertoire pianist with legendary Australian mezzo Lauris Elms, and repetiteur for the world premiere of The Sentimental Bloke.
Returning to Perth, she worked with WA Opera Company, the G&S Society and Perth Light Opera Company, and played viola in WA Arts Orchestra and WA Symphony Orchestra.
Lea has accompanied many of Perth’s leading recitalists and, at the Opera Studio, performed with artists such as Taryn Fiebig and Emma Pearson.
She was Musical Director for regional productions of Sentimental Bloke, Merry Widow, Fiddler on the Roof, and Pirates of Penzance, and for six years was the Musical Director of Penrhos College productions.
For over fifteen years Lea was accompanist with the WA Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and has played for several of the Wesfarmers SING workshop series.
Lea was part of the creative team behind the recent WA Opera’s innovative production of Iolanta.
About Rachael Liu
Rachael is a soprano and student at UWA, studying voice under the tutelage of Sara Macliver. She completed a Bachelor of Music in 2021 and is currently undertaking her final semester of Honours in Performance, focusing her thesis on the evocation of nostalgia by the soprano soloist in Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
Since commencing her studies at UWA, Rachael has performed in various ensembles including The Giovanni Consort, UWA Con-Cantorum, St. Cecilia Singers of the Church of the Resurrection, St. George’s Chapel Choir and The Winthrop Singers. She was a 2021 Scholar at the Wesley Uniting Church, and recipient of the 2020 Lynn Kann Memorial Prize, 2021 Edith Cowan Prize in Music, and the 2021 Lady Callaway Medal for Music. She was also a finalist in the 2021 Irwin Street Collective Instrumental and Vocal Competition and was the 2022 VOSE Prize winner.
About the UWA Choral Society
As a choral society of about 130 members dedicated to fine music, UWACS is one of the longest existing choirs in Australia.
Based in Winthrop Hall at the University of Western Australia, we are a Perth-based amateur choir that operates with a professional approach. Our mission is to study, practise and perform choral music of all styles both on the University of Western Australia campus and at other venues. Since our establishment in 1931, we have concentrated on performing significant classical works with professional conductors and musicians. We support local talent and enjoy collaborating with other musical groups.
It was on 8 December 1931, at the Assembly Rooms in Pier Street, that A.J. Leckie first raised his baton to conduct the newly formed UWA Choral Society in a performance of Stanford’s The Revenge and a selection of part-songs. There was no orchestra, the choir solely accompanied by a piano.
Since then, under a series of conductors – Percy Grainger, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Thomas Beecham, Professor Frank Callaway, Tibor Paul, John Winstanley, Roy Rimmer, Ian Westrip, Warwick Stengards, Prue Ashurst, John Beaverstock, Burhan Guner, Jangoo Chapkhana and Christopher Van Tuinen, the society has performed a diverse range of music both on its own and with other groups.
Musical highlights have included: Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Vespers and Requiem,Brahms’ German Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, Rutter’s Requiem, Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor, Haydn’s The Seasons and The Creation, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Mass in D Minor, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Israel in Egypt and The Messiah.
Our current conductor Kristin Bowtell currently rehearses the choir every Wednesday evening at the University of Western Australia. We invite anyone interested in joining the choir to come sing with us. All are welcome to visit a rehearsal and sing with the choir before committing.
