[Bel a cappella]
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Welcome to the home of Bel a cappella. We are a chamber choir that explores and enjoys choral music through performance. Bel aims to explore a wide variety of works in the selection of our repertoire and to foster and encourage the performance of Australian compositions.

Who are we?

Bel was formed in 1995, predominantly by a group of friends from Sydney University Music Society who had spent years singing with a big choir, and who wanted to try singing with a small one instead. We have travelled a long way since then and these days we come from a broad range of backgrounds - Choral, Jazz, Musical Theatre and Folk. It brings a depth of experience and a versatility to the choir which leads to great music.

What are we singing next?

Our next concert is
[Voices on a Sunday]
at 2.30pm on 25th May 2008 at The Independent Theatre, 269 Miller Street , North Sydney
This is a combined concert with Pacific Opera and is an aftrenoon of Opera and Choral highlights. It is also Russell's last concert before he heads overseas, so help us mark the end of an era!
Tickets are $40/$35 Conc/$20 Child For pre bookings please contact MCA-TIX at 1300 306 776 or www.mca-tix.com

Coming Soon:

Previous Highlights:

  • The Australian premiere performance of the original 1888 score of Fauré's Requiem, reconstructed by Matthew Wood
  • A concert version of Purcell's Dido and Aneas with the Bel Chamber Ensemble on period instruments.
  • Handel's Messiah and Coronation Anthems.
  • Haydn's Nelson Mass, Missa Brevis St Joannis de Deo and Mass in the Time of War.
  • Aaron Copland's "In the Beginning" and Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms."
  • "Immortal Fire" - a fully a cappella concert ranging from Britten's "Hymn to St Cecelia" to Matthew Orlovich's "Tides of Ocean".
  • A stunning rendition of Mozart's Requiem.
  • A glorious christmas afternoon of Britten with A Boy was Born.
  • The lusciously gorgeous Rachmaninov Vespers
  • The Austrlian Premiere of the Bruckner D Minor Mass
  • Bach's beautiful St John passion
 
Recordings of Bruckner Motets
Pictures of Lane Cove XMAS concert
Newspaper Article about Vespers
Recordings of Mozart Requiem
Recording of Pie Jesu

The man with the stick....

Russell was appointed musical director of Bel a Cappella in 2004. In 2005 he graduated with First Class Honours in Music from the University of New South Wales, having majored in voice and conducting.

Russell’s conducting debut took place at the Sydney Opera House in 2003 when he directed a fund-raising event featuring the finale from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In 2004 he was invited to Melbourne to conduct Orchestra Victoria and the Melbourne Male Voice Choir, and in 2005 he participated in an international master-class with the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand.

Through his involvement with Symphony Australia, Russell has been privileged to work with many of Australia’s top professional ensembles including the Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. He plans to continue his studies abroad in the future.

(He also plays the trumpet and the piano, though you would have trouble getting him to admit to it...)

What's in a name...

We are "Bel a Cappella". People who know us refer to us as "Bel". One member of eastern european extraction and an appalling sense of humour sometimes refers to us as "Blah kerPlah" but that is just silly.