“Cloudburst” will see Sydney Chamber Choir join forces with internationally acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes in a program which explores both contemporary and renaissance music inspired by nature.

Eric Whitacre has become a choral “superstar” in recent years with his successful Virtual Choir becoming an internet sensation. “Cloudburst”, for chorus, piano, percussion and handbells, is probably his most well known work – it is “a ceremony, a celebration of the unleashed kinetic energy in all things”. This work is partnered with his contemporaries, American composer Morten Lauridsen’s “Fire Songs” – songs of the flames of love and passion based on Renaissance Italian poetry and Norwegian Ola Gjeilo’s beautifully haunting work “The Spheres” was inspired by the planets.

Australian composer Ross Edwards wrote “Ab Estatis foribus” as a commission for Sydney Chamber Choir in 1980 and it will be performed alongside a new commission by Stephen Adams featuring percussionist Claire Edwardes. The program also includes the atmospheric “Geography VI” by Sydney Chamber Choir’s Musical Director, Paul Stanhope and works for solo marimba.

Nature has long been an inspiration for composers, and the program includes madrigals by Monteverdi, Josquin and Brumel as well as Britten’s “Five Flower Songs”.