Welcome to ‘Cancel Choir’, where River City Voices, featuring Wentworth Point singer Jane Jamieson, dishes the dirt on your favourite classical musicians in a concert that blends a showcase of blockbuster classics with an exploration of cultural questions that cross from social media to the concert hall.
“It’s a short, sharp and spiky show that contemplates the artist versus the artwork and asks the big questions – how do we view old works with contemporary eyes,” she said.
“Why do we cancel some artists and not others?”
River City Voices’ Artistic Director Sarah Penicka-Smith has been enjoying the rehearsal process, including the choristers’ hot debates over some of the music.
“We feel strongly that part of our role in Western Sydney is to offer different ways into the choral repertoire and sometimes that means challenging assumptions that once a piece of art is deemed great, that’s the only lens through which we can view it,” she said.
“While I’m a fan of every composer on our program, I’m also keen to be honest about their histories which are sometimes complicated.
“Whether you’re new to classical choral music or a die-hard fan, we hope ‘Cancel Choir’ will provide food for thought for a long time to come.”
The program includes songs by Beethoven, Puccini, Wagner, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and contemporary Ukrainian composer Natalia Tsupryk.
It’s on Sunday, August 17, at 3.30pm and 7.30pm at Macarthur Girls High, Parramatta.
Tickets: $15-40 at events.humanitix.com/cancel-choir
Short, sharp and spiky show
IMAGINE you just found out your favourite composer is a murderer or the songwriter you’ve been following for years just dropped a fat-shaming track and a global conflict has suddenly made the guy who composed your wedding march really unpopular?
