Sopranos and the soaring sound of massed voices offered in special Mother’s Day concert
Sopranos Dame Malvina Major and Polly Ott will be the soloists for the Christchurch City Choir’s Concert for Mothers Day
at ChristChurch Cathedral at 2 p.m., Sunday 10 May.
They will be accompanied by organist Jeremy Woodside and directed by Brian Law in a programme of songs selected for the
occasion and including items written by Johannes Brahms, Edward Elgar, Herbert Hamilton and George Shearing and pieces
from the lighter repertoire.
Brian Law said the Cathedral has a majestic vaulted acoustic which enhances the experience of hearing a massed choir in
full voice.
Dame Malvina is one of the country’s most popular and respected sopranos, and whose efforts to nurture and develop young
talent have won widespread admiration. She will be joined by young Christchurch singer Polly Ott, a member of Dame
Malvina Major’s Emerging Artists Programme and a finalist in the 2009 Lexus Song Quest.
Polly was a performance voice student with Dame Malvina at the University of Canterbury, an opera chorus member, and in
the Tower NZ Youth Choir which toured Canada and Europe in 2007. She was a member of the NZ Secondary Students’ Choir
from 2003-06, which toured Canada and the USA, and took part in the Choir of World competition in China (2006).
And as well as hearing two beautiful sopranos and the soaring sound of the City Choir in massed song, there will be the
music played by the Cathedral’s brilliant young organist Jeremy Woodside. He was a ten year old chorister at the
Cathedral when he first became interested in the pipe organ and began lessons with Russell Kent. He passed his
Licentiate with Distinction from Trinity College, London (2005) and since then Jeremy has played at Wells Cathedral,
Manchester Cathedral, Notre Dame and The American Cathedral in Paris, and various venues in Switzerland and Austria. He
has also been involved in performances with Dame Malvina, Hayley Westenra, Fiona Pears, and is studying music at
Canterbury University. He is the Sir Gil Simpson Organ Scholar at ChristChurch Cathedral and is releasing two CDs very
shortly.
This concert showcases just some of the incredibly rich range of musical talent nurtured in Canterbury, not least by
Music Director Brian Law and Dame Malvina Major.
ENDS