Twenty Years, and We're Pumped!

Oriana Choir
8 hours ago
2 min read

In three days’ time, Oriana will stage one of the biggest concert performances of its career to date. It’s been a long time coming – twenty years, in fact. But here at Planet Oriana, everyone feels that it’s been well worth the wait. There has been as much of a sense of anticipation ahead of this concert as there has been for just about any other Oriana venture.

When the Choir was established back in 2005, with Daniel Calder as its founder and original conductor/artistic director, nobody could have foreseen the excitement, the exhilaration, the achievements and the sheer sense of adventure that the future held. Daniel’s vision was to create a vocal ensemble that aspired to musical excellence, while fostering an enduring spirit of family and comradeship. He achieved both, and then some; and they continue to this day.

What a journey it’s been!

major classical works, performed both independently and in collaboration with other acclaimed choirs, and superb orchestras, including the QSO;
five times Champion Choir at The Queensland Eisteddfod;
three (so far) unforgettable European tours to England, Wales, Belgium, France, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic and Italy
placing second in the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales
concerts that encompass a great range of genres, all performed with passion and devotion
countless performances on the Sunshine Coast, in Gympie and Brisbane to our loyal and ever-growing supporter-base
and never losing sight of the reality that we are a part of our local community, and remain, at heart, a community choir.

In the process of encountering and performing so much wonderful music over the years – the number of individual pieces performed runs into the hundreds – it’s inevitable that a number of works come to stand out as choir favourites. These are songs that are so exciting, melodic, harmonically rich, emotionally powerful, ineffably beautiful, or simply just great fun to sing, that it’s always a joy to revisit them.

That can honestly be said about every single piece in this coming Sunday’s concert. We have loved performing all of these pieces at various times over the years, and it’s just thrilling beyond words to be able to revisit them all at one special occasion.

Are we excited? Is the sky blue?

Hosted by our Patron, Mayor Rosanna Natoli, and featuring guest spots from many of the conductors we’ve worked with through the years, this will be a wonderful celebration of Oriana’s first two decades.

See you there!