Darkness & Light
Saturday 12 April 2025 7:30 pm
Knox Church, Dunedin
Join us for an unforgettable evening of mainly contemporary choral music as we present a concert that explores the profound interplay between shadow and illumination in music. The conductor is the Choir’s musical director, David Burchell, and the singers will be accompanied by Sandra Crawshaw on piano, a string quartet and the brilliant young musician, Sea-am Thompson, on the organ.
In 2022, Sea-am Thompson was invited to Christ Church Cathedral at the University of Oxford in the UK, to sing with its Cathedral Choir. Sea-am was just 16 but had already revealed his talents as a chorister, organist, pianist and violinist. Besides singing in the Cathedral Choir's rigorous programme of sung services, Sea-am took organ lessons from the cathedral sub-organist, Ben Sheen. After a rigorous audition process, Sea-am was awarded an organ scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he begins his studies in September 2025. In August 2024, at the age of 18, he revealed a further talent, that of composer. With his “Piano Trio no. 2”, Sea-am won the prize for best original composition in Chamber Music New Zealand’s prestigious national competition.
The “Darkness and Light” programme weaves together works that offer a transcendent journey through the dualities of the human experience. Whether you are drawn to the meditative depths of Gjeilo and Lauridsen, the timeless beauty of Tallis, or the stirring resonance of contemporary voices like Artley, "Darkness and Light" promises to be a moving and unforgettable experience.
Some highlights of the works on the programme are:
Ola Gjeilo - “Dark Night of the Soul” and “Luminous Night of the Soul”
Morten Lauridsen - “Lux Aeterna”
Thomas Tallis - “O Nata Lux”
James MacMillan - “O Radiant Dawn”
Chris Artley - “Matariki”
