Choir Ensembles
Choral Excellence
At St Peters, all students are encouraged to sing in our extensive and inclusive choral program. There are ten choirs at the College, all of which cater for students in Years 1–12. Our choirs perform a rich and diverse repertoire of music at College and community events such as concerts, festivals, tours, masterclasses and workshops. The depth and breadth of these opportunities challenge choir members to strive to reach their musical potential individually and to express themselves musically through the uplifting experience of shared music-making. And besides, singing together is just great fun!
Lower Primary (Years 1–4)
Upper Primary (Years 5–6)
Junior High & Senior School (Years 7–12)
St Peters Chorale
St Peters Chorale is an auditioned, SATB choir for students in Years 9–12. This choir has a national and international reputation for its compelling sound and performance of innovative Australian repertoire as well as choral classics. The Chorale regularly tours both domestically and overseas.
St Peters Chorale has a national and international reputation as one of Australia’s most outstanding youth choirs. Since June 2012, it has been under the direction of Kathryn Morton. Kathryn sang in the Chorale as a student, then under the direction of Graeme Morton who founded the choir in 1983.
WORKS AND RECORDINGS
The Chorale is renowned for its championing of Australian choral composers as well as having a focus on performing works from the great European tradition of choral music. The Chorale has commissioned scores from leading Australian composers including Stephen Leek, Sarah Hopkins, Vincent Plush, Matthew Orlovich, Iain Grandage, Peter Rankine, Paul Stanhope, Joseph Twist, Paul-Antoni Bonetti, Michael Knopf and Andrew Schultz. Many of these works have become choral repertoire classics and are performed by leading choirs around the world.
Alongside these stand performances of such works as Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. In 1989, St Peters Chorale received a grant from the Australian Government, through the Australian Music Council, to record and produce the first ever CD of Contemporary Australian choral music, Until I Saw. To date the Chorale has produced seven compact discs—the award-winning Until I Saw (1991); Voyage (1993); Our Time and Place (1997); This Our Land (2004); On the Road (2008); Hot Sun, Cool Fire (2010) and Under Southern Skies (2016). In 2020, the St Peters Chorale released a recording of John Rutter’s Gloria for Choir, Percussion Ensemble and Pipe Organ on YouTube.
TOURS
The St Peters Chorale began its international touring program in 1990 with a tour to England, Scotland, Germany and Holland. Its performances in Cambridge, England were filmed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and broadcast as the documentary, Singing Cambridge. Since that inaugural tour, the Chorale has toured internationally regularly, visiting countries such as Wales, the USA, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, France and Italy. On these tours, the Chorale has been privileged to be invited to perform in many special venues, including St Thomas’ Church, Leipzig; the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Bad Staffelstein; the Carmelite Convent at Dachau Memorial Site; the Salzburg Dom; Bath Abbey and the Cathedrals of St Paul’s, London; Wells; Coventry; St. Alban’s; Rochester; Ely; Gloucester; Bristol; Winchester; Newport; Christ Church, Oxford; and Canterbury. In 2019, St Peters Chorale was the only international choir invited to sing in the Brandenburg Choral Festival of London.
