BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Dr Robert Braham knows a thing or two about choral music. After all, he’s been in the Western Australian music scene for more than 20 years – many of which saw him take the role of musical director and conductor of the Perth Oratorio Choir, work with the WASO Chorus, and lead the University of Western Australia Choral Society and Perth Undergraduate Choral Society.
Robert is also the musical director of Voyces – a choir specialising in contemporary classical music. And not only is he sharing his knowledge with young musicians, but he’s also providing opportunities for the commission and presentation of contemporary Australian compositions.
This week, he’ll direct works by Caroline Shaw, David John Lang, Matthew Orlovich and Eric Whitacre in Voyces’ show Sorry I Missed You.
Tell us how you came to be involved with Voyces, and your vision for the group.
A lot of the original members of Voyces were in the Western Australian Youth Chorale some years back. When it folded, there was a bit of a vacuum for a while before a fledgling choir which evolved into Voyces got started. I was the musical director of the WAYC and knew them well, so got on board at the outset for Voyces.
The vision for Voyces is to sing contemporary classical music at a high level. We perform a lot of [music by] Australian composers and have done some commissions as well.
What do you love about working with young singers?
There is always a vibrancy, an energy, and a willingness to give all sorts of music a go. They thrive on a challenge and are willing to take a few risks, and they can still remember things a lot easier than older singers!
Why does new music interest you?
It is important to sing today’s choral music, to represent today’s composers; and there is a lot of really clever, interesting, and simply good-to-listen-to music in this area. People need to hear it. It is partly about educating the public and keeping a tradition alive. And it is fun to perform!
What do you feel is the responsibility of an ensemble presenting new music?
In Western Australia, we are really the only choir doing predominantly new choral music. I think it has become a good part of what we do, and the choral public are coming to like what we do as well, which is very encouraging. It is nice to think that it has become part of our responsibility to Western Australian audiences.
Tell us a little about the repertoire you’ll be presenting, and what the pieces mean to you.
Sorry I Missed You is our first concert of the 2018 season, and involves music from the cutting edge of the contemporary choral world.
The piece which gave this concert its name is by David John Lang, and was commissioned by the Adelaide Chamber Singers in 2016. The text is based on anonymous posts on the internet of ‘communication fails’, sent via text. The work itself is inspired by the soundscape provided by mobile phones; keypad noises, signal interference, message tones et al. Sorry I Missed You is complex in that the many movements are fragmented, and we are incorporating staging elements that are quite novel vocally and dramatically. It is a dramatic and comic work, which requires a large amount of energy from the choir, and even takes us into the audience for a bit. We hope that the audience enjoys these text messages far more than their original recipients did!
In 2016, The Crossing Choir out of the United States commissioned a work by Caroline Shaw as part of the seven responses project. Out of this came To The Hands – a work based on Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri of 1680, specifically movement three, Ad Manus. This explores humanity’s innate capacity to understand another’s suffering. Taking the metaphor of Jesus’ crucifixion from Membra Jesu Nostri, Shaw reframes this as an exploration of the suffering that exists within modern society.
Programming the Buxtehude back-to-back with the Shaw involves the choristers having to navigate a challenging stylistic contrast, but the melodic motifs that carry across the two works helps form a framework for this to occur.
Additionally, we will present the Western Australian premiere of Sonnet, to the Comet of 1825 by Matthew Orlovich, which last year won the inaugural Willgoss Choral Composition Prize UNSW.
Each piece of the program shows the choir in a different light. I would encourage people to come and experience a modern choral concert, a concert with great pieces of music – one of which is a Western Australian premiere – that will leave the audience with a wow-factor about choir and new music. Don’t miss it!
See Robert Braham present Sorry I Missed You with Voyces at the Trinity Uniting Church, Perth, 7.30pm May 19. Buy your tickets online.
This event is part of CutCommon’s Roving Launch! Be sure to grab a FREE copy of our print magazine when you see Voyces. CutCommon subscribers can also score discounted tickets to Voyces events!
This story has been edited. Extracts were first published in June, 2016 as ‘Voyces will take new choral music for a spin’.
Images supplied.
