Salvation is Created
St Dominic’s Catholic Church, Camberwell East
15 December 2025
Guest organist: Fr Nicholas Dillon
Programming: Helena Ekins
Perotin Viderunt Omnes
Philips O Beatam et Sacrosanctum Diem
Chesnokov Spaséñiye, sodélal
arr. Rathbone Gabriel’s message
arr. Lawson Away in a manger
Berlioz Shepherd’s farewell
arr. Rutter Quem pastores
John O’Donnell Noel Nouvelet
Il est ne le divin enfant
HYMN Of the Father’s Heart Begotten
Emily Hazrati Coventry Carol
arr. Rutter Silent Night
Gustaf Nodqvist Strolander Jul
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi Staffan var en stalledräng
Sigurbjörnsson: Heyr himna smiður
Felix Mendelssohn Frohlocket, ihr Völker auf Erden
Lenten Meditation on the Cross
ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, ST KILDA EAST
SATURDAY 23 MARCH 2024 AT 3PM
Readings and compositions for Lent, in collaboration with Radio Maria.
Programming: Helena Ekins
Casals O vos omnes
Tallis In ieiunio et fletu
Arvo Pärt The Woman with the Alabaster Box
Southwell Lord Jesus, think on me
Rautavaara Avuksihuutopsalmi
Dominican chant Media Vita
Lajos Bardos Popule Meus
Purcell Thou Knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts
King John IV of Portugal Crux fidelis
Gesualdo Tristis est anima mea
Duruflé Ubi Caritas
O Radiant Dawn!
Christmas with the Dominican Friars of Camberwell East
Sunday 13 December, 2023
Drawing on ancient texts, these exquisite gems have been created to try to express the inexpressible joy, awe, and humble adoration at the birth of Christ, born for our salvation. The Melbourne Octet is delighted to be hosted by the community of Dominican Friars of Camberwell East, and live-streamed by Australian Digital Concert Hall.
Programming: Helena Ekins
Plainchant Veni, Veni Emmanuel
James Macmillan O Radiant Dawn (O Oriens)
Carol Barnett Angelus ad Virginem
Josquin de Prez Praeter Rerum Serium
arr. Pearsall In Dulci Jubilo
Tomas Luis de Victoria O Magnum Mysterium
Poulenc Hodie Christus Natus est
arr. Rutter Stille Nacht
William Byrd Attolite Portas principes vestras
Arvo Pärt Bogoróditse dyévo
Cecilia McDowall O Oriens
Trad. arr. Brian Kay Gaudete! Christus est natus
Trad. arr. David Willcocks Hark, the herald angels sing!
Queen of Heaven - Marian motets
8pm, 17 January 2023, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat, as guests of the Organs of the Goldfields Festival, Ballarat.
With Donald Nicolson, organist.
A programme of Marian devotion, featuring works from 12th to 21st centuries.
Hildegard von Bingen: O frondens Virgo
Palestrina: Assumpta est Maria.
Jean Baptiste Lully: Salve Regina
Franz Biebl Ave Maria
Brooke Shelley: Ave Maris Stella
Vaughan McAlley Magpie Morning
Michael Leighton Jones: Marian Sequence
Calvin Bowman: Ave Maria and Regina Caeli Laetare
James MacMillan: Ave maris Stella
Calvin Bowman: May Magnificat
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin has been expressed with tenderness and hope in music since the early Church. A mother figure to be cried to, with simple trust that she will treat us as her children and give succour, Mary is also our Queen, to be celebrated with joy: a human both ordinary and extraordinary. Marian musical settings reflect these facets of Our Lady, contrasting the sweet piety of Salve Regina with the jubilation of Regina Caeli, while Palestrina’s Assumpta est Maria takes the rising opening motif of the plainchant and develops it into a soundscape depicting the Virgin’s assumption, and the busy celebration of Angels in Heaven, and those of righteous heart on Earth.
Every piece on this program has references to Marian antiphons in plainchant form, though this is easier to identify in some. The extraordinary proliferation of Marian musical devotions throughout the Church’s history demonstrates both the human need for maternal love, even on a supernatural level, and also the endless variety of possibility for expanding on the plainchant themes associated with Mary - easily recognisable to Church musicians throughout the ages.
Programming: Oliver Mann, Helena Ekins.
Queen of Heaven - Marian motets
2.30pm, Sunday 28 August, 2022
St Andrew’s Church, Brighton
A programme of Marian devotion, featuring works from 12th to 21st centuries.
Hildegard von Bingen: O frondens Virgo Plainchant: Salve Regina
Josquin: Salve Regina à 5
Plainchant: Assumpta est Maria. Palestrina: Assumpta est Maria.
Plainchant: Ave Maris Stella
Grieg: Ave Maris Stella
Brooke Shelley: Ave Maris Stella
Plainchant: Regina Caeli
Michael Leighton Jones: Regina Caeli
Calvin Bowman: Ave Maria and Regina Caeli Laetare James MacMillan: Ave maris Stella Calvin Bowman: May Magnificat (première)
Programming: Oliver Mann, Calvin Bowman, Helena Ekins
Programming: Helena Ekins
Love. Art. Death.
An afternoon of Purcell arias and motets, accompanied by John O’Donnell on harpsichord, Rosemary Hodgson on theorbo and baroque guitar, Reidun Turner on Viola da Gamba - with strings and winds. Featuring Michelle Clark, soprano.
24 July 2022 @3pm
All Saints’ Church, 2 Chapel Street, East St Kilda
Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei
An Evening Hymn
Beati omnes qui timent dominus
Music for a While
Strike the Viol
Hear my prayer. O Lord
When I am laid in earth
Remember not, lord, our offences
Hush, no more
My beloved spake
Bach and his contemporaries
7 July 2022 on Australian Digital Concert Hall - Postponed due to Covid-19.
Accompanied by strings and continuo, the Octet will explore the vocal and instrumental music of J S Bach and one of his major influences, Dietrich Buxtehude. The programme includes a rarely-heard gem by Bach’s predecessor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau, and Bach’s exquisite arrangement of it. Sung one-to-a-part, the text and drama of Bach’s virtuosic motets are freshly revealed.
J.S. Bach Komm, Jesu, Komm
D. Buxtehude Der Herr ist mit mir
J. Kuhnau Tristis est anima mea
J.S. Bach/J. Kuhnau Der gerechte kömmt um
D. Buxtehude Sonata in C (BuxWV 266)
D. Buxtehude Befiehl dem Engel, daß er komm
J.S. Bach Singet den Herrn
Afternoon Jazz
Woodend Winter Arts Festival and Moonee Valley Winter Arts Festival
3 April 2022, 10 June 2022, Woodend. 19 June, Essendon.
Let's Misbehave
Dayton, Ohio
It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t got that Swing
Blue Moon
Dream a little Dream of Me
Night and Day
The Girl from Ipanema
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic
Tea for two
Begin the Beguine
The Way You Look Tonight
Beyond the Sea
Soul Bossa Nova
Programming: Helena Ekins
The Octave of Christmas
Australian Digital Concert Hall - Live streamed from the Athenaeum Theatre
9 December 2021 @ 8.30pm
Perotin Viderunt Omnes
Anon (Medieval English) Sing we to this merry company
Hieronymus Praetorius. In dulci jubilo
Hieronymus Praetorius Joseph lieber
Richard Dering Quem vidistis pastores
arr John O'Donnell Noel nouvelet
arr John O’Donnell Il est né, le divin enfant
arr L. McDonald Gabriel’s message
arr Michael Leighton Jones Away in a manger
arr Daniel Brinsmead Silent night
Calvin Bowman Christmas
Benjamin Britten Hymn to the Virgin
Peter Warlock Benedicamus Domino
arr Alex L’Estrange Still, still, still
arr Alex L’Estrange In the bleak midwinter
arr Ben Parry Jingle bells
arr Alexander L’Estrange I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Exploring Christmas repertoire from the 13th to 21st Century, Melbourne Octet presented some of the most fabulous gems of Christmas music; each piece a showstopper in the context of its time. The programme included works by several Australian composers, and some classics in close harmony arrangement.
Distant Close Harmony: Athenaeum Theatre, 12 May 2021, with Melbourne Digital Concert Hall:
Let's Misbehave
Over the Rainbow
Dayton, Ohio
It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t got that Swing
Blue Moon
Dream a little Dream of Me
Night and Day
Loch Lomond
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic
Tea for two
O My Love is like a Red, Red Rose
Begin the Beguine
The Way You Look Tonight
Beyond the Sea
Goodnight Sweetheart
Le Baylère
Programming: Helena Ekins
Much of the repertoire in this programme was written in a period of history that saw recovery from a war and a devastating pandemic followed by the rule of several dictators across the world, mass unemployment, discrimination against and persecution of various groups, and unrest in international relations. Nearly a century later, the world has a disturbingly similar set of circumstances.
The lighthearted, slightly naughty, uplifting songs of this period were an escapist remedy for the times. Sumptuous harmonies, witty lyrics and cheerful melodies are an excellent distraction when ‘all the world is a hopeless jumble’. Somewhere - perhaps in an alternative reality preferable to the one we are all living through - things are just fine.
The programme was devised during the prolonged lockdown last year, when a desire to escape, a nostalgia for a mythical land of the past (which wasn’t ever perfect, but seemed to shine in comparison to the present), and a craving to let loose and run wild were recurring themes.
Separation and resignation to loss are parallel themes in this programme; Loch Lomond’s lament to the impossibility of returning safely home in this lifetime is the perfect expression of longing and sorrow, while O My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose evokes the burning need to be near the distant beloved, no matter what it takes to reach their side.
Since that time of lockdowns and concert postponements, just when things seemed to be getting better, we lost a core member of our group, Belinda Wong, whose sudden passing has changed the group forever. Belinda was an exceptional musician with a warm, rounded, beautiful voice. She was also an exceptional human being, friend and mother, as we appreciated on our tour to Sweden in 2019, where her family came along. We rehearsed this repertoire together, and had so much fun with the cheeky arrangements - her absence is deeply felt.
This concert was dedicated to the late Belinda Wong, dear friend and colleague.
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The Call of the Wild
The Melbourne Octet visited Sweden in July 2019, in collaboration with Swedish Mezzo-soprano, Maria Forsström, performing in several of Sweden’s finest churches. We were joined on the tour by organist, Calvin Bowman and soprano Elizabeth Dobbin.
Programme:
Ross Edwards: Dawn Chorus (organ)
Charles Wood: Hail, Gladdening Light
Roxanna Panufnik: Child of Heaven and Celestial Bird
Frank Bridge: Autumn
Veljo Tormis: Virmalised
David Wikander: Förvårskväll
Jehan Alain: Aria (organ)
Eric Whitacre: With a Lily in your Hand
Calvin Bowman: Fair Daffadills
Frank Bridge: The Bee
Judith Bingham: The Drowned Lovers
CV Stanford: The Bluebird
Programming: H Ekins.
Soloist: Maria Forsström
Organist: Dr Calvin Bowman
Soprano - Elizabeth Dobbin, Kristy Biber
Alto - Belinda Wong, Helena Ekins
Tenor - Christopher Roache, Timothy Reynolds
Bass - Oliver Mann, Jerzy Kozlowski.