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Bel a cappella

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25.01.2022 If you can see your new choral work being premiered in Riga or St Petersburg by this wonderful bunch of singers, you have just a few more hours to submit your Score to the Bel a cappella Choral Composition Prize. 3 winners will share in $4500 of prize money! CLOSES MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (June 30) https://belacappella.org.au/composition-prize

25.01.2022 Bel a cappella Choral Composition Competition Winners We are delighted to announce that three Australian composers have been awarded $1500 for their choral works. Donald Hollier - Crossing the Bar... Andrew Howes - Moss Stone Cantic Kevin Barker - Now Fades the Last Long Streak of Snow The choir now eagerly await the time that they can return to singing together so they can begin preparing the works for their premiere performance. Congratulations to everyone who entered, we had over 50 compositions and all the judging panel agreed that the quality and diversity was 'superb'. We have also invited some other compositions to be workshopped (hopefully with composers present) by the choir as we believe that it is really important to bring as many home grown compositions to the concert stage and to allow composers the opportunity to hear their works live. Panel: Anthony Pasquill (Artistic Director of Bel a cappella) Joanna Forbes L'Estrange (Singer, Composer, Conductor) Owain Park (Singers, Composer, Conductor)

25.01.2022 #MeetBelSingers Margaret Grove - Soprano 1) What do you typically do outside of rehearsals with Bel?...Continue reading

24.01.2022 Kevin Barker is one of three winners of the Bel a cappella Choral Composition Prize. Barker, a Sydney-born composer, has a love of art song, and finds especial joy exploring the simple intricacies of the English language. He works closely with ensembles such as the The Song Company, Moorambilla Voices, the SOQ, and the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus. His winning composition... Now Fade the Last Long Streak of Snow (from In Memorium, Alfred Lord Tennyson) 'describes the blossomin...g of springtime, and is full of nostalgic images of lifes burgeoning loveliness, yet laced with a soft sadness.. [there is] a sense of the underlying wistfulness, and evince the beauty found in unexpected places the sweetness in melancholy, the warmth in sorrow, the joy of memory within the pain of loss.' Congratulations Kevin and our other 2 winners Andrew Howes and Donald Hollier. See more

24.01.2022 Bel 7 Bridges walk #3 - getting together - still walking, not singing - via Fig Tree bridge and Sydney bushland reserves

24.01.2022 All of the submitted choral compositions have been collated and will shortly be sent out to our overseas judging panel. Details of who will be viewing YOUR music will be announced shortly. It's very exciting!

23.01.2022 Only a few days left before our Choral Composition Competition deadline. Please get your scores submitted via our website by the end of the month.

22.01.2022 #ListenWithBel Boy do we have a heavy one for you tomorrow! ... (We've started with a more suitable piece for 7am!)

22.01.2022 We’ve been incredibly busy over the last few weeks and we were happy to get together as a choir via Zoom to discuss potential plans for the remainder of 2020. Stay safe and keep singing

21.01.2022 #ListenWithBel A most worthy choice from one of our altos.

21.01.2022 This would have been tonight. We're incredibly sad not to have performed these two amazing works in the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel but we hope that everyone is staying safe.

21.01.2022 #ListenWithBel A new instalment from our Bass section.

21.01.2022 Just over 2 weeks before the Bel a cappella Choral Composition Prize closes. Its so exciting to see the vast range of scores coming into our mailbox. It will be SO hard to choose our 3 winners!

20.01.2022 Donald Hollier is one of three winners of the Bel a cappella Choral Composition Prize. Hollier (b.1934) has written 15 operas, seven choral symphonies, concerti, choral and instrumental music. He is currently working on his 16th opera and a commission from Musica Viva Australia. His winning composition...... Crossing the Bar (Alfred Lord Tennyson) "The setting for double choir is the third setting I have made of this famous poem. All are vastly different. The first is included in a group of poems for solo soprano, violin solo and orchestra, known as Sonnets Book 2. The second is from my 14th Opera David and Giovanni, a story of love deceit and death. The current setting is the third setting, in which I hope I have explored my personal views about the end of days." Congratulations Donald, and our other 2 winners Kevin Barker and Andrew Howes.

19.01.2022 Setting up for our latest Path of Miracles conference rehearsal. Were in Burgos this evening.

17.01.2022 Andrew Howes is one of three winners of the Bel a cappella Choral Composition Prize. Howes (b.1992) is a Sydney-based composer, building an international reputation for orchestral and choral music. His compositions and orchestrations have been heard in film and TV, as well as on main-stages across Australia, Europe, the UK and the USA. His winning composition, Moss Stone Cantic, was composed in the Turon River, in the Blue Mountains, this work imagines the journey of a stone..., making its way far down river to the sea. The music unfolds along expanding tonal pathways and rippling rhythmic motifs, in an attempt to make an evocative journey for this stone, and to explore the composers own feelings about journeys and change. Congratulations Andrew, and our other 2 winners Kevin Barker and Donald Hollier.

16.01.2022 We had a nostalgic sing through some works that we have performed over the years and a couple of new works this evening via Zoom. A beautiful polish lullaby by Gorecki, a couple of tear jerkers by Lauridsen and Paulus, a work by Tormis and an arrangement of Queens Who wants to live forever by Sally Whitwell from a 2013 concert. To all of our colleagues out there, keep going and well be back doing what we love soon

15.01.2022 A nostalgia trip into the amazing musical world of Gershwin!

15.01.2022 The 2nd online rehearsal of Path of Miracles went well (again, we think) and now we start on the 2nd movement!

15.01.2022 Bel 7 Bridges Walk #4 - still walking, not singing - with glimpses of 5 of the 7 bridges we’ve crossed and socially distanced outdoors picnic lunches on the harbour

14.01.2022 Our Musical Director had a chat with the lovely Jo from Limelight Magazine (whilst sat on a trampoline we hear!) to talk about our choral composition prize! Have a read here and feel free to share to anyone who might be interested.

14.01.2022 Like free jazz? Then this is the gig for you! #niiiiiiiice

14.01.2022 A video from one of our tenors and a short story about his love of one of the all-time symphonic choral masterpieces.

14.01.2022 In happier news, our choral composition judges have deliberated and we have our 3 winners! Details will be given shortly but the level of entries was incredibly high! Congratulations to everyone!

13.01.2022 We're getting our groove on for International Jazz Day 2020 on April 30 with Mark Ginsburg and Vittorio Mezza. The Mezza / Ginsburg Ensemble have been selected by Sydney Improvised Music Association and Johnston Street Jazz to broadcast their 2019 performance at the Sydney Con International Jazz Festival...with a special appearance by Bel a cappella 7.30pm - 30 April - here https://www.facebook.com/SIMAJazz/... #JazzDayAtHome

13.01.2022 Bel Choral Composition Competition We are pleased to announce that we received over 50 entries for our choral competition and scores have now been sent (with composer details withheld) to our international judges. We are delighted to have both Joanna Forbes LEstrange and Owain Park as our guest judges. Both Joanna and Owain have years of experiece as singers, composers and choral directors to judge all of our entries alongside our Artistic Director, Anthony Pasquill. We will... be announcing the three winning entries at the end of the month. For more information of these fantastic musicians please feel free to head to their websites! http://www.joannaforbeslestrange.com http://www.owainpark.co.uk

09.01.2022 30 minutes to go!

09.01.2022 So excited to see this conversation with Joby Talbot, composer of Path of Miracles, which we've been preparing together online and will be performing just as soon as we possibly can!

07.01.2022 When a choir can’t sing together they can still walk together... part one of the Bel 7 Bridges tour ticked off on this stunning Sydney day!

06.01.2022 And our choral composition competition is closed! Thank you to everyone who submitted works

05.01.2022 Choral Music Composition. We are delighted to have officially launched our CHORAL COMPOSITION PRIZE. The Prize will award $1500 each to 3 outstanding Australian composers for new a cappella choral works for Bel a cappella to take on their international tour in 2021.... All the details are on the website link below. Please feel free to share with your contacts.

04.01.2022 A beautiful and timely gift dropped into Bel's inbox yesterday from Phoenix Central Park... Music to soothe troubled times

04.01.2022 When a choir cant sing together they can still walk together... part one of the Bel 7 Bridges tour ticked off on this stunning Sydney day!

03.01.2022 It's not all classical music in our playlists at Bel. #metal

03.01.2022 #PathofMiracles Tonight's rehearsal sees us take a close look at all of the different languages that are in the entire composition. We're covering Spanish, Basque, Latin, French, German, Gallegan, Mediaeval Latin and a hint of English thanks to our in-house polyglot Marjory (or just Polly in our Zoom rehearsal)

02.01.2022 Zoom rehearsal, then jump to Facebook in order to watch the fantastic Vittorio Mezza and Mark Ginsburg, Musician in a concert from 2019 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney (which we also performed at), then jumped back into our Path of Miracles zoom rehearsal. Then off to the virtual pub. This choir has all the fun!

02.01.2022 It would seem that it's not just choral music that our singers listen to! We've asked Bel members to tell us about CDs/LPs that mean something to them. Here's our first submission from the soprano section. Let us know yours in the comment section! #ListenWithBel

01.01.2022 The Bel 7 Bridges tour continues with a trusty band of walkers ticking off section 2 (ANZAC, Iron Cove and Gladesville Bridges) on this glorious day... we're not quite back singing together yet, but we can walk!