Author: Richard Morgan

More from the spectacular International Tour of St Paul’s College Chapel Choir.

For some members of the Choir this visit was their first time to the ‘City of Light’ but they made sure it was for them their ‘city of music’. Having a well-prepared programme from the UK leg of the tour three concerts were given in the most amazing places of worship in Paris.

La Madeliene – 7 January 2025. The first church was a rehearsal and performance at Égise de la Madeliene dedicated in 1764 and re-purposed in 1814 in the Neo Classical Style by Napoleon Bonapart as a monument to his victories in war, and completed as a church again 1842. Its entrance, like that of an ancient Greek Temple, leads you into a sumptuous and enormous interior that provides an outstanding acoustic for voice ensemble and particularly for organ music.

The College Choir was delighted to welcome the Australian Ambassador to France, Her Excellency Lynette Wood. She greatly enjoyed the concert and greeted the choir members afterwards and commented on X “It is a great pride to witness the talent of the 32 talented choristers of the choir at St Paul’s College, University of Sydney. Thank you to them for this magical performance in the heart of Paris.” She invited the choir to the embassy the next day for a tour of the art collection. The Choir was also delighted that the legendary Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg came along to attend the concert. Siobhan commented that it was a similar tour that she did whilst a chorister at the Choir of Trinity College Melbourne that inspired her to pursue an international career in singing – that has taken to her as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin and more. 

St Paul’s College Choir singing in front of the altar with the painting by Jules-Claude Ziegler (1804–1856) which depicts major events in the history of Christianity above, their voices rose into the marvellous acoustic performing a range of works from the baroque to modern Australian including Gabriel Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine. Fauré was the Organist at La Madeleine from 1896-1905.  Both College Organist David Drury and our Organ Scholar Bailey Yates played the Chancel organ built by the revered organ firm of Cavaillé-Coll in 1842.

Saint-Sulpice – 8 January 2025

Apart from rollicking around the Eiffel Tower, museums and cafes the choir had more work for Concert No. 2 on 8 January in the baroque interior of Égise Saint-Sulpice of 1646. This stunning church is the third largest in Paris and it has another huge acoustic to come to terms with. The choir under the masterful lead of Jack Stephens sang a range of acapella pieces and in the very French church tradition these were interspersed with organ improvisations on the chancel organ by David Drury.

The concerts in Paris also featured a new composition by a member of the Choir, William Varga, who set the poem ‘Faith, Love and Death’ by Old Pauline Dowell O’Reilly. Dowell O’Reilly was a member of NSW Parliament in the late 19th Century, and who moved the first motion in favour of Women’s suffrage in New South Wales. 

The choristers found a fascinating place to change and prepare for the service in their allocated room in the crypt, where another small organ was used. This room led into the foundations of the church where remnants of the original 13^th century structure can be found.

Saint-Eustache – 9 January 2025

The final concert was held on the night of 9 January at Église Saint-Eustache, the second largest church in Paris, built between 1532 and 1633 with is flying buttresses in Gothic style. This church contains some important Renaissance art and one of the highest vaulted church ceilings in Europe. This presented another challenging acoustic for the choir who were accompanied by David Drury playing the 8,000 pipe grand organ (one of the largest organs in France). This final concert featured the Choir’s largest works on the tour – centred around Jean Langlais’ epic Messe Solenelle. At a huge surprise, the Choir was thrilled to discover that Madame Langlais (the widow of Jean Langlais), had heard about the concert that would feature her late husband’s work. 

Pictures above: Vanessa Agius, Noel Debien, Richard Morgan

Canterbury

The City of Canterbury in the County of Kent is one of the most picturesque cities of England and is home to the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury the symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Church. 

Founded in 597, Canterbury Cathedral was rebuilt between 1070 and 1077 and greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late 14th century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.

Here the Choir of St Paul’s College were warmly welcomed by the Dean the Very Reverend David Monteith and the other clergy and sang Evensong for New Year’s Day and again on 2 January. They delighted the large congregation of locals and a few who had come down from London, after word spread about the splendour of the choir’s music, with the singing of William James’s Australian carol Carol of the Birds, David Drury’s arrangement of Silent Night and Balfour Gardiner’s Evening Hymn. 

The cathedral is the burial place for many interesting people including Bishop William Broughton, first bishop of Australia who was an early advocate for a Church of England college in Sydney. With his involvement in the establishment of the University of Sydney he was against it being a secular institution and therefore opposed the proposal that church residential colleges be established within its grounds. Yet he remained involved with Sir Alfred Stephen in the committee for the establishment of St Paul’s until his return to England in 1852 [See. J M Bennett, Sir Alfred Stephen, 2009 and A Atkinson, Hearts and Minds, 2017]. 

York

Then to the City of York in North Yorkshire where this other ancient settlement boasts one of the finest cathedrals in Europe, York Minster. The under croft contains re-used fabric of c. 1160, but the bulk of the building was constructed between 1220 and 1472 in Perpendicular Gothic style. Being the weekend, the choir was given a busy schedule which started with a very rewarding choral workshop with Robert Hollingworth – winner of numerous Gramophone Awards, artistic director of the internationally-renowned I Fagiolini and the head of the Masters of Solo Voice Ensemble singing at the University of York. Then it was Saturday Evensong with a large congregation filling the choir and on Sunday the Feast of Epiphany, when the 32 choir members and the retinue of 16 followers trudged through the early morning snow up to the Minster, where they sang at Matins, Eucharist and Evensong. 

A special treat was the impromptu unaccompanied singing of Philip Stopford’s 2008 setting of Luli Lulay sung in the incredible acoustic of the octagonal Chapter House. The video below had incredibly been sent to the composer of the work, who messaged the Choir stating that he wished we had invited him along to join in. 

Above pictures and video: Vanessa Agius, Noel Debien, Richard Morgan

Our student leaders and pastoral staff gave their time for professional development over the week before Welcome Week including a two-day retreat to Blackheath. ‘Being a leader’ and ‘being a team’ were two of the most significant topics presented to the students who are College Junior Deans or members of the Students’ Club and Middle Common Room management committees. They were joined by Welcome Week leaders and the Peer Support Leaders back at College on day 3 and completed further development in respect, first responder, mental health and bystander training.   

One of the positive outcomes is having the Junior Deans taking on leading roles in presentations to freshers in Welcome Week (pictured presenting is JD Ed Taylor). They then continuing leading into semester, modelling positive behaviours, mentoring, guiding and inspiring their peers.

Perfect weather greeted over 130 freshers joining the undergraduate community and 31 arriving postgraduates joining Graduate House on their first day at St Paul’s on Monday 17 February. Many of the undergraduates were accompanied by their parents, care-givers and, for those from overseas, their locally-based relatives.

A packed program included arrivals, keycard pick-up and move-in, the traditional welcome ceremony and signing of the College Register, parents’ cocktail party, then Chapel for all new students followed by formal dinner in the Hall. What is exciting this year is the growing number of new Paulines from outside Sydney: 33 from regional NSW, 19 interstate and 20 who live overseas.

Our new members of Graduate House were welcomed at a rooftop lunch by the Dean, Dr Antone Martinho-Truswell, and are representative of a range of higher degrees from across the spectrum of courses offered at The University of Sydney. 

The undergraduates have chosen a wide range of degrees, from Commerce and Engineering being the most popular, to Science (Medicine), Arts, combinations with Law and a range of degrees in the Applied Sciences, Psychology, Design and Politics. We are also seeing the resurgence of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Science amongst the choices.

The welcome ceremony was held in the Waddy Performance Centre Theatre which comfortably catered for the gathering of 400 people. A number of key messages were delivered to the students: the Warden encouraging our students to be “other-centred” and be there for their fellow Paulines; Senior Student Tilly Walker asked freshers “to be your unique self”; and Head of Admissions TJ Christie emphasised that “Paul’s is a place to make deep connections”.

Before the formal dinner in Hall the freshers attended their first St Paul’s College chapel service welcomed by Chaplain Antony Weiss with wonderful music led by the Chapel Choir under Director of Music Jack Stephens.

Welcome Week continued with a broad and deep programme of history, culture, academic writing, drugs and alcohol risks, code of conduct, city and beach visits, university campus tour and visits to other colleges.   

The St Paul’s community welcomes our fresher cohort and look forward to seeing and hearing about their achievements throughout 2025.

Expectations about a visiting Australian choir in London were well and truly exceeded when St Paul’s College Chapel Choir sang their first notes in St Paul’s Cathedral London on 28 December 2024. 48 choir members and supporters undertook an international tour over the 2024 Christmas-2025 New Year season to London, Canterbury, York and Paris.

The St Paul’s College Choir Tour sang for Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral London on Saturday 28 December and then Sung Eucharist and a final evensong on 29th. Every service was packed with London-based and visiting worshipers. On the Sunday 2,500 people filled the Cathedral, with another 1,000 viewing on live-stream, for Eucharist when the choir sang the Howells Collegium Regale and the anthem was Philip Stopford beautiful setting of Lully Lulay.

London was packed with people for end of year events and each service was swelled with visitors from all over the world hearing our choir, who were announced as one of Australia’s best choral ensembles.

The Choir were then the guests of Westminster Abbey for Monday 30th and Tuesday News Year’s Eve Services of Evensong . The congregation was treated to the Australian bush carol Carol of the Birds by William G James. This caused great interest and resulted in a wonderful article in the Sydney Morning Herald by their UK correspondent Rob Harris. For the article in SMH (3 Jan 2025) CLICK HERE

Above pictures: Vanessa Agius, Noel Debien, Richard Morgan

The St Paul’s College Chapel Choir will embark on a highly anticipated tour from Saturday, 28 December 2024, to Thursday, 9 January 2025, performing in some of the world’s most renowned churches and cathedrals.

If you are nearby, all Paulines, their families, and friends are invited to attend the public services and concerts during the tour. Please REGISTER here.

The touring choir consists of members of the 2024 Chapel Choir, as well as choir alumni from the past three years now living in the UK and Europe, all under the direction of Jack Stephens, our Director of Music. Their repertoire spans English church service settings, psalms, responses, anthems, motets, and music ranging from Gregorian Chant to contemporary works composed by current students.

The Choir will be accompanied by our Organist and Composer-in-Residence, David Drury, along with Organ Scholar Bailey Yeates. They will also give solo performances on the grand organs of St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, La Madeleine, Saint-Sulpice, and Saint-Eustache.

For a download of the program poster below CLICK HERE