Ben Apfelbaum

SYDNEY CHAMBER CHOIR @ THE GREAT HALL SYDNEY UNIVERSITY

I have just seen the most delightful concert,  THE ROYAL AFFAIR featuring the Sydney Chamber Choir, June 1st in the Great Hall Sydney University.

ROYAL AFFAIR was a most apposite title since this concert featured works by two Masters of the Queen’s/King’s music. The first was Australian, Malcolm Williamson(1931-2003) the only non Briton to fulfil this role from 1975 until his death. The second, the current Master of the Queen’s music, was Judith Weir. As well, the concert featured music by that most royal of royal composers, Handel.

The first half was entirely acapella with some beautiful poems set to music. The concert opened with Weir’s setting of the  e.e.cummings’ poem, blue true dream sky. A celestial soprano solo, masterfully delivered by, Belinda Montgomery,  set the tone for the whole concert.

The concert continued with Judith Weir’s setting of Love Bade me Welcome by George Herbert  and Malcolm Williamson ‘s , Love the Sentinel. The last was very interesting being a performance of three of the cantos from Tennyson’s In Memorium in honour of a British miner killed during a strike.

Perhaps the most challenging piece of the evening was Williamson’s Symphony For Voices, an exploration of the foreignness of Australia. Commendation must again be given to Natalie Shea who opened the piece with a strong but beautiful alto solo. These excellent singers made the piece interesting and full of spirit.

The final number before interval, The Song sung True, lifted the mood with four charming little pieces about love and singing.

After interval, the choir performed Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and Zadok the Priest. This was more traditional choral music and the choir gave full throated versions of these pieces, their glorious voices bouncing off the excellent sandstone acoustics of the Great Hall. The choir were accompanied by the Muffat Collective, a group slightly larger than traditional ensembles and they included four period instrument specialists. The Great Hall of Sydney University, was a perfect setting for Handel. The sound was awesome and clearly the choir, even though none of its member are professional musicians, had a deep pool of talent creating a dedication and professionalism which has seen them tour extensively in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UK and Spain.

The musical direction by conductor Sam Allchurch  was warm and dramatic, reflecting the confidence that comes with complete mastery of, and deep knowledge, of this form of expression. Sam Allchurch, holds a Masters in Music (choral Studies) from Cambridge and is Director of Music of Christ Church of St Laurence. I was musing during the concert that this choir must love working with such a talent.

Not surprisingly the concert was a sell out. What a wonderful asset the Sydney Chamber Choir is the classical music scene.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.