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Past

ORIGAMI

ORIGAMI

Fold, turn, unfold, flip, fold, fold, unfurl.

Songs unfold and paper sings as choir and origami unite in a real-time dialogue between the narratives, rhythms, colours and textures found in each artform.

With nods to origami’s Japanese heritage through traditional songs, as well as excursions through contemporary Australian, Asian, and American music, ORIGAMI explores the diverse worlds of choral music and origami practice in a playful and illuminating collaboration. Choral Edge’s expressive and boundary-pushing approach to choral music comes alive with real-time projections, time-lapses, and artefacts made by artists Sukanya Deshmukh and Stephanie Lai, culminating in a joyful collision of song and paper.

Compassion: Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra + Choral Edge

Compassion: Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra + Choral Edge

Compassion: Symphony of Songs was originally composed by Nigel Westlake and Lior for tenor soloist and orchestra, and has only ever been sung in concert by Lior. VYSO and Choral Edge are now bringing this powerful work to Melbourne audiences, to be heard for the first time with choir and youth orchestra.

The lyrics of each of the seven movements come from traditional Arabic and Hebrew texts exploring themes of peace, love, wisdom, and the common ground to be found across the world’s peoples. In performing this work, both the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra and Choral Edge hope to take our audience on a journey through these ancient texts to a greater understanding of the philosophy and art of Jewish and Islamic cultures, which are united here in one musical work.

This project was originally conceived before October 7 and the ensuing conflict in the Middle East. In this moment, both ensembles feel that the message of Compassion is more important than ever. Compassion reflects on the beauty and artistry in both Jewish and Islamic poetry and writings, their shared history, and ultimately the common thread of a desire for respect which runs through all the texts. Just as these two cultures share a common ancestor, we hope that the performance of this work reminds us all of our shared humanity and every individual’s desire to live in peace.

Shrewd Awakenings: Choral Edge x WHACKollective

Shrewd Awakenings: Choral Edge x WHACKollective

Innovative chamber ensembles Choral Edge and WHACKollective combine forces in a dazzling interplay of voice and percussion.

Shrewd Awakenings dances around themes of enlightenment, consciousness, life and death, and the eruption of dormant ideas. Working with a vast palette of vocal and instrumental tone colours, the two ensembles conjure up a technicolour world and mind-state that screams AWAKE!

The Garden of Earthly Delights

The Garden of Earthly Delights

A duck feeds a man a strawberry. A winged nude flies through the air with a fish. Men fall. Cities burn.

A choir sings.

Step inside the world of Hieronymus Bosch’s 16th century triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights and experience its fantasy, ecstasy and chaos through a selection of brilliantly paired choral music. Choral Edge combines their signature blend of theatre and choral performance to bring Bosch’s iconic painting to life and navigate the boundaries between heaven and hell.

Private Parts

Private Parts

Pink Flappy Bits, self-confessed diva cup divas and very grown-up ladies, were considering their triumphant return to the stage. It had been six years since their self-titled debut show struck gold at Melbourne festivals, but the world had changed, and so had their metabolisms. The feminist zeitgeist was an altogther different beast in 2022. Would they still resonate?

After serious consideration they had one condition before signing on the dotted line this Fringe season: that they would be supported (and protected) by a full a capella choir. Choral Edge was the obvious choice for this task, with their robust harmonies and versatile range. They also look great in suits. They were sworn to uphold the creed of The Flaps and guard them from, well, themselves, and quite possibly each other.

Mass for Tiny Voices

Mass for Tiny Voices

Presented by The Yarra Voices with guest artists Choral Edge

Mass for Tiny Voices elevates the words, voices and wisdom of children in a playful take on the traditional Latin mass. Quotes from anonymous children, contrasting and complementary ways with the five movements of the traditional mass text. From the repentance of the Kyrie (Lord have mercy/”I have ten friends but I hate one of them”) to the message of peace in the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God/”Hold my hand. Much better”), Mass for Tiny Voices highlights the elements of human emotional experience that transcend time, age and creed.

Scribbles

Scribbles

What does music look like? Where does your mind wander when you are sitting in the audience?

Perfect for fidgeters and daydreamers, Scribbles invites the audience to draw, doodle and decorate their way through a concert of choral music rich in imagery and colourful timbres.

Bring out your inner artist and be part of the music-making in the beautiful atmosphere of Abbotsford Convent.

The Human Voice

The Human Voice

A sextuple bill of new works from six of Australia’s most exciting young playwrights and a choir! A showcase of humanity’s strangest phone-based quirks: connection to strangers when a wrong number is dialed, the awkwardness of phone-sex, and the imperfect possibilities of true connection via the phone. From the ritual of the family phone call to the uncertain menace of surveillance and privacy, The Human Voice is a unique theatrical collaboration that will change the way you think about your phone.

1+1=3

1+1=3

1+1=3 is a concert experience that is more than the sum of its parts. Combining the talents of pianist Tim Mallis and innovative chamber choir Choral Edge, 1+1=3 brings piano and choir together as equals in a dynamic mix of the old and the new.

Hear Debussy and Rachmaninoff alongside Whitwell and Shank, and find out what happens when worlds collide and music becomes more than just music.

#Millennials

#Millennials

#Millennials is a choral music concert, with a program consisting entirely of pieces by Millennials composers (born between 1980 and 2000), local and global.

This concert is not only a performance of beautiful music, but also a celebration of young and living artists. Performed over brunch, #Millennials immerses audiences in an atmosphere that captures (with a touch of irony) the spirit of being a Millennials.

Stories from the Choir

Stories from the Choir

What does it mean to be in choir? Why is it so hard to find a good tenor? What really goes on in the back row?

What happens when you let a choir loose in a theatre?

Part theatre, part journalism, part concert, Stories from the Choir presents the human narratives behind one of the world’s oldest forms of music-making. Interviews collected from choristers around Australia are staged and set to a live choral soundtrack in a touching production that speaks larger truths about community and connection in the modern world.

Nominated for Best Music at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2018.

Play Me A Poem

Play Me a Poem

World-renowned Australian songwriters including Deborah Conway, Paul Grabowsky and Lior spearhead the world premiere of Play Me a Poem—an absolutely unmissable show of traditional and modern Yiddish verse, transformed as new songs penned in contemporary music styles such as rock, funk, pop, reggae, electronica, and more.

The songwriters, who also include Willy Zygier, Josh Abrahams, Simon Starr, Adam Starr, Tomi Kalinski, Jess Cornish and Juliana Kay bring the whimsical, lilting and often heartbreaking lyrics of decades and centuries-old Yiddish poetry to life with their original creations.

Each artist was invited to write a tune for a selected piece of poetry and create a new and original song. Poems were drawn from the rich anthology of Yiddish verse from before and after WWII, and the musicians were invited to perform their poem in whichever musical style they chose.