Listen to us
Our banner image shows the best known side of Orpheus — a symphonic choir performing in a top venue by amazing soloists and instrumentalists. We are lucky to sing some incredible music which we love sharing with our audiences. Many of our concerts and those we perform with partner organisations like NZSO and Orchestra Wellington are recorded for Radio New Zealand. Here are some recent concerts:
Mozart Sparrow Mass
While our symphonic repertoire is the core of what we do, we’re highly versatile and like the challenge of trying new musical directions. Whether it’s backing Dave Dobbyn, providing smaller groups for events like the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Wellington), taking part in civic ceremonies like the 50th anniversary memorial of the Wahine disaster, being a regular part of Wellington’s Cuba Dupa and Matariki festivals, singing Christmas Jazz at Wellington Zoo or staging flash mobs at the capital’s famous Bucket Fountain, our unique Orpheus sound shines through.
O Fortuna
One of the most famous of all choral works — the spine-tingling O Fortuna from Carmina Burana. Anyone who doesn’t think they like choral music, probably doesn’t realise that quite a bit of it might be familiar from their favourite movies. This performance is with Orchestra Wellington and soloists Bass-Baritone and Lexus Song Quest Winner Joel Amosa, Soprano Amelia Berry, and our dying swan, Tenor Declan Cudd.
Rehearsing Messiah
With a baroque ensemble from New Zealand Symphony orchestra getting ready for Messiah, performed on 7 December 19 in Wellington. It was Australian Conductor’s 75th performance of this amazing work, and he sprinkled fascinating ‘Messiah lore’ through
What our audiences say
This year's performance of Carmina Burana far exceeded the hugely high expectations we had on arrival. The Choir sang with a power, control, clarity and joyful energy that was electrifying. They are always excellent, but it was one of those magic nights when you could feel that everyone knew they were performing at a new level. We, and the audience around us, were all buzzing with excitement after the concert ended with many well-deserved rounds of heart-felt applause.
Lesley
I have sung in 17 Messiahs and probably heard double that and last nights topped the lot of them!
Oh my goodness me!!! The choir were absolutely outstanding. Stops and starts immaculate and the
soft parts were just superb. It took me all my strength to not jump up and start singing.
"Surely" was like a rocket ride.And I have never heard such sustained applause after the Hallelujah chorus!
The connection between the choir and the conductor was spot on and I loved the pace he took!