Over 170 choristers representing 7 choirs from across the State will converge on the Adelaide Hills on Saturday and Sunday, August 8 and 9, for the biennial 2009 SA Country Choral Festival.
The Festival, held every 2 years, is fiercely bid for by community choral organisations and for 2009 the Adelaide Hills based choir, Mount Lofty Singers, was the successful bidder and will host this year’s event.
Visiting choirs for 2009 include Adelaide Plains Male Voice Choir, Alexandrina Singers, Millicent Choral Society, Riverland Choral Group, South Coast Choral & Arts Society, Tanunda Liedertafel and the Mt Lofty Singers.
The 2 day event will feature a public concert by all of the choirs on the Saturday afternoon in Mt Barker, an Official Dinner on the Saturday evening at the Old Mill in Hahndorf and on Sunday a Farewell BBQ lunch at Heysen-The Cedars. The choirs will also sing at a number of local churches on the Sunday morning.
The main concert on Saturday afternoon at 2pm will be held at Cornerstone College, Mt Barker and is open to the public. The concert will feature performances by the 7 individual choirs and the Massed Choirs will open and close the program with a number of selections accompanied by the Mt Barker District Occasional Orchestra conducted by the Festival’s Music Director Barry Wilkins OAM.
Guest compere will be Thomas Edmonds AM and there will be special performances by the Mt Lofty Singers, conductor and entertainer, Nikki Aitken, and a performance of the famous Bizet ‘Pearl Fishers’ Duet, “In the depths of the Temple”, featuring Philip Griffin (tenor) and Lachlan Scott (bass). Tickets are available at Macrocarpa Whole Foods in Mt Barker and at Matilda’s Book Shop in Stirling or will be available at the door from 1pm on concert day.
Mayor Ann Ferguson will officially open the Festival at the opening concert, and Mrs Ferguson said that the District Council of Mount Barker was delighted that the SACCA Choral Festival was being held in the District and that her Council was pleased to support Mt Lofty Singers in their efforts to attract the event to the District and also in staging the event.
Mt Lofty Singers President, Natalija Apponi, also expressed the delight of the Mt Lofty Singers in being able to host the event and extends an invitation to the public at large to attend the main concert, during which will be a rare opportunity to hear the visiting individual choirs, but also to experience the exciting and stirring massed choir performance with orchestra.
Pictured above: Rosalind Keynes (left) has been the official accompanist for the Mt Lofty Singers for more than 25 years; and Nikki Aitken (right) was appointed Conductor of the Mount Lofty Singers in February this year and took over from Barry Wilkins. As well as conducting the Mt Lofty Singers at the SACCA Festival concert, Nikki is also the guest vocalist for the concert and will perform one of her own compositions, “If I had Dreamed”.
