Bel Canto give World Premiere of Gifts

Last night Bel Canto, the senior choir at Firbank Grammar School, gave the world premiere of Gifts at St Andrews Church, Brighton.

The piece, for SSAA and piano, was specially commissioned for the choir to present in their forthcoming European Tour, including performances at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna. It is a setting of the poem Gifts by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, which recounts a young man's increasingly elaborate attempts to woo his sweetheart.

The choir gave an excellent performance under the superb direction of Philippa Jones, with Jerome Walles on piano. They really captured the drama of the poem and the nuances of the score and are to be most warmly congratulated.