Melbourne University Choral Society

ABOUT THE CHOIR

Conductor and Musical Director: Andrew Wailes

The Melbourne University Choral Society (MUCS) is Melbourne's leading non-auditioning choir, offering both Melbourne University students and other interested members of the community the chance to learn and perform choral music in a friendly and relaxed environment. Anyone is welcome to come and sing with us, irrespective of age, experience or profession. MUCS is also one of Melbourne’s largest choirs, with over 150 active members, and well over 200 financial members. It is one of the oldest and most respected student organisations at Melbourne University.

MUCS was founded in 1939, when the university's men's and women's glee clubs merged. Since that time, MUCS has established a reputation as one of Melbourne's leading choirs, bringing youthful energy and musical skill to a diverse range of music in many of Melbourne’s major concert venues.


MUCS usually performs up to five major concerts each year. Recent concerts have included Orff's Carmina Burana, Handel's Messiah, Rachmaninov's The Bells, Mozart's Requiem, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Verdi's Requiem, Beethoven's Mass in C, Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony, Haydn's The Creation and Carl Vine's Choral Symphony to name but a few.

The choir has recently worked with some of Melbourne's leading musical organisations, including The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, Australian Classical Players and Victorian College of the Arts Symphony Orchestra. Members have also participated in performances including AFL grand-finals, Rugby games, International Comedy Festival Galas, various charity performances, and studio recordings for Films and Television.

MUCS prides itself on its ability to perform concerts of a high standard, while being welcoming, relaxed and fun. Whilst the choir is run by, and predominantly for students, it enjoys the benefits of top professional musical direction, a professional accompanist, and regularly works with some of Australia’s finest soloists and instrumentalists. In 2010 MUCS was invited to be a demonstration choir at the Voices of Tasmania Festival in Hobart, where it performed a number of concerts.

THE CONCERTS

MUCS performs a wide range of music, from large-scale works with full symphony orchestra to a cappella music from around the world. The choir often has the opportunity to perform with soloists and instrumentalists of international renown in Melbourne's foremost concert venues. Each year, we aim to perform a diverse variety of styles and repertoire.

In 2009 the choir celebrated its 70th anniversary, with a sold-out concert at St Paul's Cathedral featuring the Melbourne premiere of Gordon Kerry's new completion of the Mozart Requiem and Brahms' Shicksalslied, as well as Haydn's Nelson Mass and the Australian premiere of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man in the Melbourne Town Hall with the RMP Choir and Orchestra. The choir also appeared at the Rod Laver Arena for the State Memorial Service for the Victorian Bushfire Disaster with the MSO, and performed a selection of Great Sacred Choruses in Ballarat and Melbourne.

2010 highlights included a tour to Tasmania, Carissimi’s Jephthah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Pergolesi’s Magnificat, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra and a concert of contemporary Auystralian symphonic choral works at BMW Edge.The choir also performed the National Anthems for the Australia v England International Rugby match at AAMI stadium.

MUCS has hosted a number of visiting international choirs and orchestras, including several from the USA. These have included the Southwestern College Choir from San Diego, the Yale Glee Club (Yale University), Occidental Glee Club (Los Angeles), the acclaimed Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (Harvard University), the Orchester der Universität Stuttgart from Germany, and the Choir of the Hong Kong Baptist University.

2011 CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS
Purcell’s opera King Arthur
With Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra in May

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
With the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in August

Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius
with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra in October

Carols in the Cathedral
with The Australian Children’s Choir and RMP Choir in St Paul’s Cathedral late December


2010 EUROPEAN TOUR

In January 2010, MUCS successfully undertook its first international tour, the first Australian University Choral Society to do so. After arriving in the German city of Frankfurt am Main, 80 members of the choir presented around a dozen performances in various Cathedrals, Castles, Palaces and Concert Halls in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, singing a wide range of sacred music by composers including Bruckner, Rachmaninov, Schubert, Brahms, and Mendelssohn.

Highlights included:
Informal performance in Heidelberg Castle, Germany
Solemn High Mass in the Imperial Cathedral of St Peter, Worms, Germany
Concert in the Pauluskirche, Stuttgart West, Germany
Concert with the Michael Haydn Choir, Lamprechtshausen, Austria
Recording in Salzburg Cathedral, Austria
Mozart Week concert in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria
Solemn Mass and Concert in the Burgershallekirche, Munich, Germany
Recording in the Abbey of St Florian Abbey, Linz, Austria
Concert in the Concert Hall of Bad Mergentheim, Germany
Solemn Mass in the Imperial Chapel, Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria
Concert with the Apollo Choir in the Old Jesuit Church, Bratislava, Slovakia
Informal performance in St Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle, Czech Republic
Concert in the Church of St Nicholas, Old Town Square, Prague, Czech Rep.