The Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival is an annual event in which members of university choirs from all

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

capitals of Australia and the national capital Canberra meet for two weeks to rehearse, socialise and perform combined concerts. The Festival also serves as the annual conference of the member choirs of AICSA, the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association

Overview

The festival is hosted by the AICSA choirs in a particular city on a rotational basis, the roster being maintained by AICSA's governing body, the Australian Intervarsity Choral Council (AIVCC). Most IVCFs have involved between 100 and 300 festival participants (choristers), who perform one to three concerts over the course of about two weeks, often accompanied by a major symphonic orchestra. An example is the festival in 2008. IVCF was hosted by the

Sydney University Musical Society The Sydney University Musical Society (SUMS) is an undergraduate choral society at the University of Sydney. Founded in 1878, it is one of the oldest secular choirs in Australia, and the oldest Australian University Choir. SUMS has performed ma ...

in association with other university choirs including Macquarie University Singers, and the

Music Society of the University of Technology (Sydney) Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

, and performed a concert of English works including

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (23 November 1585; also Tallys or Talles) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one ...

' 40-part motet ''

Spem in Alium ''Spem in alium'' (Latin for "Hope in any other") is a 40-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, composed in c. 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. It is considered by some critics to be the greatest piece of English early music. H. B. ...

'' and Ralph Vaughan Williams' '' Serenade to Music'', and one of Australian works including a commission from

Anne Boyd Anne Elizabeth Boyd AM (born 10 April 1946) is an Australian composer and emeritus professor of music at the University of Sydney. Early life Boyd was born in Sydney to James Boyd and Annie Freda Deason Boyd (née Osborn). Her father died when ...

(see Promotion of Australian Composition below).

Recent festivals

* IVCF – held in Hobart in 1975 presented Rossini's ''

Petite messe solennelle Gioachino Rossini's ''Petite messe solennelle'' (Little solemn mass) was written in 1863, possibly at the request of Count Alexis Pillet-Will for his wife Louise to whom it is dedicated. The composer, who had retired from composing operas more ...

'' conducted by

John Lanchbery John Arthur Lanchbery OBE (15 May 1923 – 27 February 2003) was an English-Australian composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements. He served as the Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972, Principal Conductor ...

* 62nd IVCF – held in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

in July 2011. Works performed include a rare Australian performance of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

All-Night Vigil The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches consisting of an aggregation of the canonical hours of Compline (in Greek usage only), Vespers (or, on a few occasions, Great Compline), Matins, and the F ...

, an Australian première performance of

Desenclos Alfred Desenclos (7 February 1912 – 3 March 1971) was a French composer of (modern) classical music. Desenclos was a self-described "romantic" whose music is highly expressive and atmospheric and rooted in rigorous compositional technique. To ...

's '' Messe de Requiem'', Alain's ''Requiem'', and works by Fauré and

Bortniansky Dmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky ; ; alternative transcriptions of names are ''Dmitri Bortnianskii'', and ''Bortnyansky'', group=n (28 October 1751 – ) was a Russian Imperial composer of Ukrainian Cossack origin. He was a composer, harpsichor ...

. * 63rd IVCF – held in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in June–July 2012. Works performed include Berlioz's '' Requiem'',

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

's '' Requiem'', and a specially-commissioned work by Australian composer Matthew Orlovich. * 64th IVCF – held in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in January 2013. It featured a performance of

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

's ''

'', as well as pieces by Whitacre, Lauridsen, Z. Randall Stroope, and Australian composer

Nigel Butterley Nigel Henry Cockburn Butterley (13 May 1935 – 19 February 2022) was an Australian composer and pianist. Life and career Butterley was born in Sydney and learned to play the piano at the age of five. He attended Sydney Grammar School, but musi ...

. * 65th IVCF – held in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

in July 2014 presented two major concerts. The first was a performance of

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

's '' Mass in B minor''. The second contained pieces by Duruflé, Sisask, Tavener, O'Regan and Whitacre. * 66th IVCF – held in Sydney in January 2015 presented

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's '' Requiem''. *67th IVCF – held in Canberra in July 2016 presented

Bruckner Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-Germa ...

's '' Mass in E minor'', as well as a specially-commissioned work by Australian composer Michael Winikoff. *68th IVCF – held in

in January 2017 presented

Puccini Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...

's '' Messa'', and works by

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and Busto. *69th IVCF – held in Melbourne in January 2018 presented

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

's ''Light of Life'', and works by Parry,

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

and Michael Winikoff. *70th IVCF – held in

in January 2019 presented a concert titled "Northern Lights", including the Australian premiere of Kim André Arnesen's "Magnificat" *71st IVCF was to be held in

in July 2020 but was deferred owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. *The IVCF scheduled to be held in Sydney 2021 (expected to be 72nd IVCF) thus became 71st IVCF.

History

The first Australian InterVarsity Choral Festival took place in 1950 when the

(SUMS) hosted the

Melbourne University Choral Society Melbourne University Choral Society (MUCS) is a 120-voice choir in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia.The choir is affiliated with the University of Melbourne, but is also open to non-students who are willing and able to perfo ...

(MUCS) for a week-long rehearsal camp culminating in a combined concert. Other university choirs joined over the years, with all State and Territory capitals (except Darwin in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

) having at least one member choir by 1973. The IVCF has since become the largest regularly occurring choral festival in Australia. From 1975 on, when the 26th IVCF performed

's '' Requiem'' in the then recently opened Sydney Opera House, IVCFs have striven to perform large-scale works to high standards with professional orchestras where appropriate and available. The 37th IVCF (

, 1986) was the first to work with its state's peak professional orchestra, the then

Queensland Symphony Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, t ...

, the major work on the program being

Herbert Howells Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music. Life Background and early education Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...

' ''

Hymnus Paradisi ''Hymnus Paradisi'' is a choral work by Herbert Howells for soprano and tenor soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra. The work was inspired in part by the death from polio of his son Michael in 1935. Howells wrote the work from 1936 to 1938, dra ...

''. Two years later (1988), to celebrate Australia's bicentennial, the 39th IVCF collaborated with the Sydney Philharmonia and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit to perform Mahler's Symphony number 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand"), again in the Sydney Opera House. More recently, the 55th IVCF (

, 2004) took part in the Perth International Arts Festival to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Antonín Dvořák by performing his Stabat Mater with the Prague Chamber Orchestra under Australian conductor Graham Abbott.

Promotion of Australian composition

IVCFs have a long if intermittent tradition of performance of works by Australian composers. At least sixteen performances since 1962 have included works commissioned by the festival, including ''Blue Gum Forest'', composed by Matthew Orlovich for the 60th IVCF in 2009, ''Missa Pacifica'' by

, commissioned for the Sydney IVCF in 2008, and David Cassat's "Flesh to Stone" for semichorus and divisi main chorus, commissioned by the 56th IVCF (

) in 2005. Many other InterVarsity Choral Festivals have included premiere performances of works, including Paul Stanhope's "Pirramimma" for three choirs and string ensemble, performed in 2007 in

through a collaboration between the 58th IVCF and the Bonyi International Youth Festival.

Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association

The organization behind the IVCF is the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association (AICSA), which is a non-profit that represents each of the affiliated local choirs, with a purpose of encouraging choral music within tertiary academic settings. While officially formed in 1973, organizational cooperation to create the IVCF has existed since 1950. Since being officially formed, AICSA has acquired an increased role. Today, besides assisting in the organisation of the festival, it sponsors a database catalogue of music held by individual choirs, archives at the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

, and internet resources via aicsa.org.au. The newsletter ''Erato'' was published 3-5 times a year from 1971 to 2012.

Member societies

As of September 2012, member societies were: *ACT :*

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

Choral Society (SCUNA), Canberra. *New South Wales :* Musical Society of the

University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

(MuscUTS), Sydney. :* Macquarie University Singers (MUS), Sydney. :* Sydney University Madrigal Society (MADS), Sydney. :*

(SUMS), Sydney. *Queensland :*

Queensland University , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = Br ...

Musical Society (QUMS),

. *South Australia :*

Adelaide University The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

Choral Society (AUCS),

. :* Flinders University Choral Society (FUCS),

. *Tasmania :* Tasmania University Musical Society (TUMS), Hobart. *Victoria :*

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

Choral Society (MonUCS),

. :* RMIT Occasional Choral Society (ROCS),

. :*

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...

Choral Society (LatUCS),

*Western Australia :* Perth Undergraduate Choral Society (PUCS),

References

External links

Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association website

Prague Chamber Orchestra homepage

Reflections from England

Visions of Australia
{{coord, 27, 29, 50.81, S, 153, 00, 47.72, E, display=title, region:AU_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Recurring events established in 1950 Classical music festivals in Australia Choral festivals 1950 establishments in Australia Music festivals established in 1950