Learning how to deal with what life throws at you...
ELIJAH UPDATE – 4TH APRIL 2019
Elijah rehearsals are pressing on, and we’re now only 2 choruses away from having covered the entire programme! So, another couple of weeks, and we’ll be polishing, polishing, polishing! My love and respect for this wonderful work just keeps growing. It is so beautifully crafted and constructed, it is no wonder that it is considered one of the ‘Big Three’ of oratorio.
Oriana is nothing if not resilient. Since the last update, we’ve endured what could very well have spelt disaster for the whole Elijah project, and come out the other side. Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond anyone’s control, or ability to foresee, our Music Director, Jonathan, had to very regretfully withdraw from his position. This, of course, left us in a considerable quandary. Where, and how, could Oriana find someone of Jonathan’s standing to step in at such short notice, and enable us to continue on to the end of the course?
Thanks to the tireless efforts of our beloved President and Artistic Director, and to a little-short-of-miraculous stroke of good luck – serendipity to the max here, people! – we’ve been able to secure the services of Mr. Andrew Wailes. Andrew is the Musical Director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, and Principal Conductor of the Melbourne University Choral Society, to mention just two of the many prestigious musical organisations with which he is or has been associated. He comes to Oriana with a huge wealth of experience and expertise. He has conducted Elijah several times before, and he is very excited, as (needless to say) we are, to be able to ‘do it all again’ with us. How lucky are we?!?!?!
Andrew joins us for rehearsals for the first time on the Anzac Day weekend, and are we looking forward to that? Does Spring follow Winter?
Stay tuned.
