Feel like a pro

Feel like a pro?  Nothing to do with money.  What I loved was a program that we could get together in a week, admittedly just for one half, but we had just one fairly short orchestral rehearsal, then a rehearsal with the choir, then a playthrough warmup on the day, on the mighty and very pro Llewellyn stage, then the gig.  We were a group of 19 strings from NCO invited to play with Qwire, our local LGBTQI+ choir, unauditioned but taking on significant complexity and very varied works with considerable competence.  The first half had Qwire on stage unaccompanied, singing a range of musics from 1100CE to today, a mix of renaissance, classical and well arranged pop.  Hildegard von Bingen and Jennifer Cook and John Tavener, through Arthur Sullivan to Dylan, Enya, Jake Runestad (there were some names I didn't know), Cyndi Lauper and kd lang, with an entrance song gifted from Aboriginal supporters.  You can feel the power and insinuousness of a great pop song: I'm singing some still.  The second half had us strings up on stage.  First with an intro of Elgar Serenade for strings mvt.2, very lovely and larghetto.  Then our major work, Ola Gjeilo Sunrise Mass, a modern work in four movements with latin text by the Norwegian composer.  Not difficult for the basses despite some powerful and driving lines and much counting but some very tricky string patterns working essentially as effects for strings down to cellos and some lovely solo violin from concertmaster Laura Lay.  It reminded me of The armed man that we played with CCS in 2025, modern and seemingly fairly simple while immensely powerful in the whole.   The concert was a pleasure, the choir members were inviting and thankful for our string presence and the audience response was resounding, so a very pleasureable outing of considerable artistic value.

Canberra Qwire performed at Llewellyn with strings from the National Capital Orchestra under Callum Tolhurst-Close (musical director).  Concertmaster was Laura Lay (violin 1) and the bottom end was Lizzy Collier, Mel Fung and Eric Pozza (basses).