In Paradisum

Name: In Paradisum
Start: 2026-05-30T17:00:00+1000
End: 2026-05-30T18:30:00+1000
Location: St James' Church

Sat, 30 May, 5pm - 6:30pm AEST

St James' Church

Sydney NSW, Australia

Sydney Chamber Choir

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Description

Sydney Chamber Choir
Sam Allchurch | Conductor
Julian Smiles | Cello

Program

Edvard Grieg Ave Maris Stella
Galina Grigorjeva In Paradisum
Kurt Nystedt Stabat Mater
Arvo Pärt Bogoroditse Dyevo
Jan Sandstrom Det är en ros utsprungen (Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming)
Sven-David Sandstrom Four Songs of Love
Urmis Sisask Benedictio
Veljo Tormis Autumn Landscapes
Anne Cawrse The Greatest of These
Joe Twist Lament

From the stillness of Baltic and Nordic landscapes to the luminous clarity of Australian skies, In Paradisum traces a musical journey through faith, light and love.

Sacred works from Estonia, Norway and Sweden, including by Arvo Pärt and Edvard Grieg, evoke an intimate spirituality, while Veljo Tomis vivdly captures the feeling of the Estonian autumn. At the heart of the program are two deeply moving works for choir and cello — Norwegian Knut Nystedt’s meditative Stabat Mater and Australian Joe Twist’s poignant Lament — featuring cellist Julian Smiles. Reflections on love from Australian and Swedish perspectives emerge in works by Anne Cawrse and Sven-David Sandström.

This concert celebrates the meeting of northern serenity and southern warmth — choral music at its most radiant and humane.

Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity

Host information

Sydney Chamber Choir

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Sydney Chamber Choir is passionate about choral music and its unique ability to celebrate and reflect upon the stories of our past, present and future. We love to travel deep inside the music to meet the composers and bring their vision alive in sound. We reach back to explore the masterpieces of the Baroque and the Renaissance, while also championing the music of our own time and place, regularly commissioning works by established and emerging Australian composers.

In recent years, the Choir has premiered new works by Brenda Gifford, Ella Macens, Harry Sdraulig, Brooke Shelley, Paul Stanhope, Joe Twist and Elizabeth Younan. In both 2022 and 2023, the Art Music Award for Choral Work of the Year was given to works written for and premiered by us: Paul Stanhope's Requiem, and Heather Percy's Three Night Songs. In 2025, we commissioned new pieces by Luke Byrne, Anne Cawrse, Meta Cohen, Nardi Simpson and Paul Stanhope to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our founding in 1975.

Over our 50-year history, we have been honoured to work with guest conductors such as Carl Crossin, Roland Peelman, Elizabeth Scott and Brett Weymark, as well as our three previous directors, Nicholas Routley, Paul Stanhope and the late Richard Gill AO. We collaborate with leading Australian ensembles and instrumentalists, including the Australian Haydn Ensemble, the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Slava Grigoryan, Synergy Percussion, Joseph Tawadros and The Muffat Collective. We also enjoy more unconventional partnerships, including concerts with the Hilltop Hoods, The Idea of North and the Sydney Mardi Gras Community Choir.

The choir appeared at the 2023 Adelaide Chamber Music Festival, the 2022 Canberra International Music Festival and the 2021 Sydney Festival, and we tour regularly in regional NSW, most recently to Goulburn in September 2024. We have sung in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the UK, and in 2009 the choir was a prizewinner in the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain. In May 2025, we returned to Europe, giving concerts in Berlin, Hannover and Leipzig, including in the famed Gewandhaus with Ensemble Nobiles and the GewandhausChor.

Our performances have been broadcast across the country on ABC Classic and on 2MBS Fine Music Sydney, and our CD recordings are available on the ABC Classic and Tall Poppies labels, and via download and streaming services.