Ballarat

The Vic Welsh finished the musical year with an exhilarating evening of singing at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat on 23 December. A group of 15 of our choristers joined three mixed male and female voice Ballarat choirs in the Cathedral’s service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The Musical Director for the evening was Michael Murphy, who in 2016 had been taking the Vic Welsh Ballarat Chapter’s rehearsals. Our choristers at the service were drawn from our main branch of the choir in Blackburn South, plus choristers from our Ballarat and Bendigo chapters.

With the combined Ballarat choirs, we sang several traditional Christmas carols as an SATB choir, and supported the congregational singing on other carols. In addition, each choir sang at least one hymn, carol or Christmas song of their own. For our solo piece, the Vic Welsh sang an a capella version of the lullaby Si Hei Lwli ‘Mabi .

On some of the carols, the choirs were accompanied by the Creswick Brass. One especially entertaining item of the evening was the singing of a jolly, Bavarian version of Silent Night, in which the Creswick Brass provided an accompaniment with a traditional German “oompah” rhythm.

The evening finished with a rousing rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. It was a wonderful way to commence the Christmas festival, and finish our singing year.