Welcome.
Welcome to the Jubilate Singers, a Christchurch (New Zealand) SATB chamber choir of around 30 singers conducted by Music Director Philip Norman. The 'Jubes' present 3-4 public concerts a year featuring a wide range of international and New Zealand choral music, and we are well-known for our innovative programming and consistently high standard.
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Join us at our next concert: Songs of Love and War
History shows there are really only three topics that motivate composers to put pen to paper, and this concert features two of them – love and war. In this case though, the war is not that of military manoeuvring but in the battlefield of emotions brought about by love, in which feelings are shredded and hearts given, stolen lost or broken, seemingly at will.
Join us at 7:30pm on Saturday, November 23rd at All Souls Church, Merivale, for this musical exploration of love, lust, rifts, and tiffs.
- $30 for adults
- $25 for Gold Card holders
- $10 for students
Book your tickets online or cash at the door.
More about this concert
Claudio Monteverdi has given us our concert title, from his Eighth Book of Madrigals, published in 1638, the much admired ‘Songs of Love and War’. We present two of his operatic appetizers from this, both ending sadly in the slough of unrequited love.
Johannes Brahms was another composer who explored love and war in his engaging sets of choral waltzes, written as the aural equivalent of after-dinner mints for post-prandial sharing with friends. Brahms never found true love, and in his choice of poems for the Neue Liebeslieder set of 1878 one can perhaps understand why. Eric Whitacre by contrast did find love, capturing it in exquisite settings of five Hebrew love poems, selected in 1996 by his then girl friend, now ex-wife.
Stephen Sondheim seemed not to seek love, but rather made a specialty of exposing its foibles. His 1970 Broadway Musical 'Company' is a masterclass in this regard, wit and cynicism at the fore, though peppered with hope in his poignant ‘Being Alive’ anthem. Film composer Michel Legrande dreamily enquires ‘how do you keep the music playing?’ as a relationship progresses, but the question proves rhetorical.
Songstress Imogen Heap in her a cappella folktronica (yes there is such a word) ballad ‘Hide and Seek’ wrings out the pain of her parents’ separation, while Richard Oswin’s arrangement of ‘Sweet Sleep, ’a ‘traditional’ Māori lullaby, affirms a mother’s love for her child.
NZCT Sponsorship
We are very grateful for the support of NZCT for venue hire for our recent Not Tonight Josephine concert.
St Andrews win Jubilate Award at Big Sing
St Andrew’s College’s Staccoro choir won the inaugural award for Outstanding Performance by a Mixed Voice Choir at the Canterbury-West Coast Big Sing in June, 2024. Christchurch chamber choir, the Jubilate Singers, had donated the trophy for the regional competition in an effort to support local choral music and young voices in particular.
A large audience filled the Christchurch Town Hall to hear 22 choirs sing a song each in an evening gala concert which was staged at the conclusion of a of a long day of competition. At the end of the concert many awards were presented, including the Jubilate Singers trophy. Senior St Andrew’s College student and Head of Music, Jack Flanagan, said that Staccoro were honoured to receive the inaugural award. Conductor, Jared Corbett, also thanked the Jubilate Singers for their support of the event.
The New Zealand Choral Federation organises the Big Sing Choral Festival every year and the best secondary school choirs from throughout the country are then invited to attend the national finals.
Read our Music Director's Report for the year ending 31 January 2023 for a summary of our recent activities.
Want to sing with us? Now is an excellent time to apply! We are about to begin rehearsals for 'Not Tonight Josephine' – a slice of musical life in the time of Napoleon – and we have vacancies in all sections. Make our day: See our 'Join' page for more information.
