1989 WORLD TOUR

In 1989, The Australian Boys Choir celebrated its 50th anniversary with a momentous round-the-world tour. In a letter to tour manager, Garry Mahon, the Artistic Director described the tour as “a success of historic proportions” for the Institute.

Accompanied by The Vocal Consort, the boys journeyed from Melbourne on September 21 to Germany, where they performed a series of concerts in Bocholt and Neuss. On to London, the choir sang at Mass at Westminster and St George’s Cathedrals and performed several concerts in the regions of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, including Kimbolton Castle, best known as the home of King Henry VII’s first queen, Catherine of Aragon.

Brimming with excitement, the boys left the UK for Boston on October 7. After a performance at Boston’s oldest surviving church building, the Old North Church, the boys travelled to New York for a reception hosted by the Australian Consul. At the Concert Church of St Mary the Virgin in Manhattan, The Vocal Consort and the choir performed the US premiere of Sea Changes, Ian Cugley’s moving opera about young boys on board a convict ship to Australia.

The concert received glowing praise. The New York Times’ review (12 October, 1989) described the choir’s costumed and choreographed performance of Sea Changes as “impressively polished, both musically and dramatically”. The Vocal Consort’s performance was also “superb”, the reviewer noting Artistic Director and conductor Noel Ancell’s skillful shaping of Thomas Tallis' Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet in which he drew “a rich, seamless blend from his charges while singing a tenth vocal line himself”.

After their New York success, the exhilarated choirboys travelled to Hawaii for a retreat before returning to Melbourne on 14th October. A surprise party at Choir House marked the homecoming. To this day, the tour is described as “the experience of a lifetime” by those who participated.