Gisborne choir in full preparation mode for Mozart and Dvorak performance

Gisborne Choral Society is to perform music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at an April 6 concert.

Rehearsals are ramping up for Gisborne Choral Society’s first concert of the year.

The choir, an organist and invited soloists will perform the Mozart “Great” C Minor Mass, with Te Deum by Dvorak, on April 6.

“We have been enjoying weekend rehearsals for our different sections, altos, sopranos, tenors and basses, and then getting together for our Monday night rehearsals,” choral society president Mary-Jane Richmond said.

“The Mozart has presented quite a challenge for the choir, with two choruses featuring two choirs. But it seems that although our numbers are smaller these days, our ability to tackle these more difficult works has grown.”

Sopranos Catherine Macdonald and Serena Foster will sing the solos and ensemble pieces in the mass, which Richmond describes as “gorgeous parts of this wonderful work”.

They will be joined by tenor Jamie Young (Wellington), bass Joe Christensen (Hastings) and organist Thomas Nikora (Wellington).

Christensen, who conducts Hastings Choral Society and the New Zealand Male Choir, is a familiar face for Gisborne Choral Society concert-goers as a bass soloist and wielding the baton.

Young first came to Gisborne in November 2021 as a soloist when the choir performed the St Cecilia Mass and Faure’s Requiem.

Macdonald is also well known to Gisborne audiences as a soprano soloist over many years.

Foster is a more recent addition to the soprano ranks in the choir.

“We are very lucky to have singers of this calibre right on our doorstep,” Richmond said.

The Dvorak Te Deum is “a great shout of a work with rhythmic choruses and thumping timpani, not to mention acrobatic soprano solos”.

The concert will open with the Mozart work and conclude with the 20-minute Te Deum after a short break.

It will be at the choir’s usual venue, St Andrew’s Church in Cobden St, beloved for its good acoustics.

• Magnificent Mozart, featuring the “Great” Mass in C Minor, and Te Deum by Dvorak. St Andrew’s Church, Cobden St. April 6, 2pm. $20 waged, $10 unwaged.