2025
In 2025 Luminescence Chamber Singers presents two major concert programs, GESUALDO TENEBRAE and GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS.
Each project takes as its starting point a Renaissance work that even today strikes the ears and eyes as avant-garde: Gesualdo’s 1611 Tenebrae Responsoria, and Hieronymus Bosch’s 1515 triptych “De tuin der lusten” (Garden of Lust, Garden of Earthly Delights). Both touch on transgressions and subversions; the breaking of artistic, moral, and social norms, and the sometimes-porous borders between the sacred and profane. Where Gesualdo’s responsories offer a radically unorthodox, subversive musical language, contained in a sacred, liturgical vessel, Bosch’s painting might be seen as a deeply pious statement, presented in a surreal, often grotesque tableau of sacrilegious excesses and indulgences. No music is timeless, but both of these programs explore the elasticity of time, and concepts of morality and modernity.
In November, we return firmly to the here and now with RED DIRT HYMNS. Here too, a sacred form takes a secular turn. Red Dirt Hymns are songs of awe and praise, dedicated not to a god, but to the land. On the back of a sold-out premiere performance in May 2024, we are thrilled to share Red Dirt Hymns with audiences across New South Wales, this time working closely with local choirs and singers across the state. Hymns were intended to be sung in community, after all.
Amidst these touring projects, we have a milestone to celebrate. In June, we invite audiences to join us in celebrating LUMINESCENCE’S 10th BIRTHDAY – an occasion to reflect upon Luminescence’s growth and transformation, and to look toward the future. As is tradition, we’ll herald the holidays with A LUMINOUS CHRISTMAS, featuring the combined forces of Luminescence Chamber Singers and Children’s Choir alongside long-time collaborator Roland Peelman.
Purchase a 2 concert package, exclusively available in Canberra.
Secure your tickets now and receive a 10% discount on the following performances:
GESUALDO TENEBRAE
Saturday 29 March, 7.30pm Wesley Uniting Church, Canberra
GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
Sunday 12 October – 6.00pm, Wesley Uniting Church, Canberra
When you purchase a 2 concert package, e-tickets for each concert will be emailed to you. You will receive your e-tickets in February 2025.
At the end of our 2024 Season, we farewell founding member and soprano Veronica Milroy. Reflecting on 10 years of Luminescence, particular thanks are due to Veronica, who has made an extraordinary contribution across every facet of the company since the very beginning of our story. We know that our audiences will join us in our expressing heartfelt thanks for her devotion to Luminescence over many years, and in wishing her the very best for the next chapter ahead.
In the new year, we welcome soprano Michelle Ryan to our ranks. Michelle joins us having recently returned to Australia after a 3 year-stint singing full time in Germany. If you don't want to wait until the new year to hear Michelle in action, you can hear her this Christmas in I Sing The Birth, during which she will make a cameo in the striking soprano solo that concludes Arvo Pärt's Sarah Was 90 Years Old.
MICHELLE RYAN SOPRANO
Born and raised in the Clarence Valley on the Far North Coast of NSW near Byron Bay, Michelle studied Piano, Flute and Singing. In 2009 Michelle was a featured artist in the Youth Olympics Opening Ceremony. Michelle moved to Sydney to study a Bachelor of Music Performance in Voice and a Graduate Diploma of Opera Studies at The Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2019, the competition scene saw Michelle as a Finalist in the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship and the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation Bel Canto Award where she won the DECCA award and the Tait Memorial Trust Award, enabling her to perform in London.
Michelle has sung regularly with Cantillation in productions with Pinchgut Opera and has performed in concerts and festivals with The Song Company. She was also in the extra chorus with Opera Australia in early 2020. Michelle recently sang full time with the South West Radio Choir (SWR Vokalensemble) in Stuttgart for the 2022/2023 season. In 2023 The Radio Choir performed in venues including La Scala in Milan and the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. She was previously the recipient of the German-Australian Opera Grant with the State Theatre of Hessen in Wiesbaden 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. Her roles included Gretel from Hansel and Gretel, Zerlina from Don Giovanni, Servilia from La Clemenza di Tito, Sophie from Werther and more.
Michelle has returned to Australia and is tutoring Voice at Frensham in Mittagong. She sings with St.James and St.Mary's choirs and performs in various concerts as a soloist in Sydney.
2025 SEASON: AT A GLANCE
-
“It is as if this work would constantly extend over its boundaries and transgress its time and setting, immediately addressing modernity” Mladen Dolar, Out of Joint (2020)
Gesualdo’s 1611 Responsories for Maundy Thursday is music of unmatched intensity; an evocation of abandonment, betrayal, and death. Translating literally to ‘darkness’, the plural form of ‘Tenebrae’ is fitting; it implies a multiplicity, all-encompassing shadows; a plunge into darknesses of both deeply personal grief and of universal sorrow.22 March - 5 April
Canberra - Sydney - Braidwood - Moruya - Wollongong -
Join Luminescence Chamber Singers and Children’s Choir as we reflect on 10 years of music making, and look toward the next chapter. This 10th Birthday Fundraising Gala features the premiere of a new work by Elena Kats-Chernin, commissioned in celebration of this milestone.
15 June
3pm, Albert Hall, Canberra -
A garden teeming with temptation and desire, grotesque creatures and improbable scenes of surrender: the uninhibited world of Hieronymus Bosch’s 500-year-old triptych “De tuin der lusten”. Trust Luminescence Chamber Singers to turn this surreal feast of the senses into an aural tapestry as pleasurable and perilous as Bosch’s vision.
20 September - 12 October
Canberra - Sydney - Kangaroo Valley - Bundanoon - Batehaven - Wollongong -
A living songbook more than four years in the making, Andrew Ford’s hymnal offers songs of awe and praise, dedicated not to a god, but to the land.
9 - 21 November
Orange - Bowral - BermaguiAdditional performances to be announced.
-
Luminescence Chamber Singers and Children’s Choir join forces with long-time collaborator Roland Peelman to herald the holidays with our annual tradition: a mini-festival for the festive season.
12 - 14 December
Canberra