Jonathan Little

A chorister during the 1970’s, Dr Jonathan Little, BMus, ThA, PhD, FRSA is a composer, academic and writer based in the UK, working mainly in the “contemporary classical” genre.

He studied Composition and Performance at the University of Melbourne, where he won the Lady Turner Exhibition for overall excellence. He holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in music for his research into “exotic” 19th and 20th-century orchestration. In 2011, the City of London’s ancient Musicians’ Company (est.1500) bestowed upon him one of their highest honours – the prestigious Collard Fellowship – awarded to “a professional musician of outstanding ability” for “undoubted excellence in composition, research or performance”.

With a proposed tour to UK in 2014, Jonathan has offered to write a little something to celebrate the Choir’s 50th Anniversary year.
We always enjoy hearing news of retired choristers – if you know of anyone or have a story of your own to share, please get in touch.

Nicholas Carter 1994 – 2000

Life after NBCA for Nicholas Carter has landed him a job conducting orchestras in Germany. Sadly many musicians head overseas to gain experience – Nicholas is currently assistant to Simone Young at the Hamburg State Opera. There are about 36 operas a year in the Hamburg State Opera – far more than Nicholas could possibly hope to have access to here in Australia. We look forward to when he will return and share his talents on home turf.

Benjamin Britten 1913 – 1976

Benjamin Britten, an English composer, conductor, and pianist, was a central figure of twentieth-century British classical music, and wrote music in many genres, from film scores to opera.

He also took a great interest in writing music for children.

NBCA will celebrate the centenary of Britten this year at their July concert with the performance of The Golden Vanity. The Vienna Boys Choir gave the first performance of The Golden Vanity in 1967 in response to a request for a work suitable for trebles and altos without performing roles intended for women.

Fully staged, choreographed and costumed, NBCA choristers will enjoy the challenge to create and bring to life the story of the titular ship and its run-in with the pirates of the Turkish Galilee.

Tickets for the performance at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre will go on sale early May.

On the Horizon

The boys will welcome Nurses to a National Conference in May. Australia will host the British Lions Rugby Tour in June and the International Congress of Paediatrics will be held in August; the boys will be there to welcome guests and supporters on both occasions.

NBCA Biennial Auction Dinner – Saturday 1 June, Ringwood Federation Estate. We look forward to lots of faces – past and present – contact the office for further details office@nationalboyschoir.com.au.

Earth Sea and Sky

The busy schedule of the previous few years has made it difficult to find time to get into the recording studio, but we are pleased to announce the release of Earth, Sea and Sky, a collection of Bowman & McNeal songs.

NBCA first performed Calvin Bowman’s Child in Nature in July 2006 and again in 2010. Bowman based his work on the poems of the Australian poet Robin Muir-Miller. Bowman describes his composition as seven Art Songs, where the voices, piano and poems are all equally important elements in telling the stories.

Todd McNeal gave a musical life to Walter de la Mare’s three poems Five Eyes, Tartary and Silver. McNeal claims that children get all the best books – the exciting stories with real adventure and proper poems that rhyme and are funny. Along with the Walter de la Mare poems, McNeal has also given life to a selection of children’s rhymes depicting life around the sea and sky.

You can view full details on the web site and purchases can be made by contacting the office.

A group of boys also managed a quick trip into the recording studio last year with local violinist Patrick Roberts – former chorister – to sing the backing for Gounod’s Ave Maria. Patrick’s latest CD Vision is also available for sale here.

Patrick has invited NBCA to join him on stage at The Palms, at Crown on Saturday 4 May 2013. Patrick’s music covers a variety of styles, fusing classical through to contemporary, appealing to music lovers young and old. Patrick will play well known pieces including Exodus, You Raise Me Up, My Way, and for the more musically minded, titles including Toccata, Czardas and Concierto De Aranjuez.

While on the subject of former choristers … and staff, we must congratulate the 2012 Sun Aria winner, Brenton Spiteri and his singing teacher Dermot Tutty. Brenton was the first male to win the aria since 2009 and only the fourth in twenty years. Well done Brenton and Dermot!

Australian Open Tennis

The boys were invited to be part of the Australia Day Celebrations at the Australian Tennis Open – the Women’s final also fell on the 26th and the pre-match entertainment included I Am Australian and of course the National Anthem.

Sadly there were no Australian players left in the draw to benefit from the colloquial support of the Choir; however the boys received rousing applause from the Rod Laver audience as the magic of television beamed live pictures of the performance to the wider national and international viewers.

Carols by Candlelight

Another wonderful evening of entertainment – the annual Carols by Candlelight.   NBCA have been sharing the stage at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl each Christmas Eve for the past 25 years.   Hi 5 has been a more recent addition with boys each year vying for one of the coveted 20 positions on offer to sing and dance with the popular children’s group.   Another 40 boys joined Anthony Callea for the Carols opening, met up with girls from the Australian Girls’ Choir as they led the audience to light their candles to  Pachelbel’s Canon and finally with Silvie Paladino as she sang O Holy Night.

2012 Christmas Concert

Take a choir of 120 or so lads, two training choirs, a Men’s choir of some 60 voices, an orchestra, soloists, various staff and lots of hard work and preparation – and you have yourself a Choir Christmas Concert.

It was great to be back in the refurbished Hamer Hall in December, and the programme featuring Vivaldi’s Magnificat was extremely well received. It’s always terrific to see our former choristers give of their time and energy to join us, and their efforts (and the efforts of all the choristers) were superb once again.

Retiring Choristers 2012

It happened – like day follows night – we farewelled another 31 outstanding choristers in December last year. We have no control over the biological changes that move soprano to tenor, so we celebrate the few short years we have together before the boys join us again with the Men’s choir. Each year the retiring choristers are formally acknowledged on the stage at the Christmas concert. On a separate occasion staff and boys meet for an informal dinner – an opportunity for a little light-hearted frivolity away from the disciplines of the Choir.

Last year’s list of retiring choristers includes Nicholas Bredhauer, Jonathan Brisbane, Tim Caldwell, Derek Cheung, Edmund Chow, Luke Connell, Bob Davis, Daniel Deakin, Ethan Flora, Zach Foster-Zuluaga, Tomas Kalejs, Bill Keating, Tiger Lin, Nicholas Lloyd, Timothy McGrath, Blakely McLean Davies, Stewart McMillan, Liam Orman, Anathan Pham, Ed Phillips, Julian Pirotta, Corey Robinson, Ariya Saffar, Sujanthan Satkunarajah, James Smith, Henry Toussaint, Astyn Trecate, Nicholas Van Kerkhoven, Leo Wang, Trent Winter and Brendan Yeo.

10th Anniversary Federation Square

Melbourne’s Federation Square is 10 years old! (Where did that decade go?) The history behind Fed Square goes back to Melbourne’s foundation in the 1830s – the land has played host to a variety of buildings and activities including the Coroner’s Office, Registry Office, a fish market, rail yards and believe it or not – a Morgue. Something less tasteful, but no less attractive, was the old Gas and Fuel buildings that stood on the site for the latter part of the 20th century before being demolished and redeveloped as the city’s new civic square.
The Choir was there in October 2002 when the Square was officially opened.

Declan Edwards, who joined the Choir in 2010 and also turned 10 in 2012 was invited to help Fed Square celebrate their anniversary – Declan joined Men in Suits to sing Happy Birthday before lending a hand to cut the cake.