The Bangalow Music Festival, presented by the Southern Cross Soloists (SXS), kicks off tonight with a special Prelude featuring local musicians and a community choir.
Each year the Festival Prelude combines the talents of local musicians with the Festival artists in an exceptional concert experience for one night only.
But this year it will also premiere a ground breaking community participation event, Bangalow Sings, welcoming all members of the community, local choirs and audience to join in a massed combined choir event to perform Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco and the mighty Hallelujah Chorus.
The Prelude takes place at the A&I Hall from 7.30pm and is presented by the Bangalow Chamber of Commerce.
The weekend will see nine concerts take place around the town with the A&I Hall once again the main focal point.
Tomorrow night (Saturday) the Southern Cross Soloists will officially the 15th Bangalow Music Festival with Claire de Lune, a vibrant program of works from France and Spain. This will be followed by the Festival Welcome, billed as ‘a delightful smorgasbord featuring all the artists of the festival.’
Other concerts set to impress include: Stars of Tomorrow, featuring SXS Next Gen Artists with XS clarinetist Ashley Smith in the NSW premiere of Lachlan Skipworth’s clarinet quintet, The Eternal; Faster, Higher Stronger, highlighting ‘composers who pushed musicians past the accepted human limitations to achieve extraordinary heights that changed classical music’; and Heart and Soul, with music that ‘explores the far reaches of human emotion from dark menace to sweet romance’.
Tickets are still available. Go to the festival website to securely book online.
Tickets to the Prelude Concert can be purchased directly from Barebones Art Space and the Bangalow Newsagency (for phone sales 6687 1396).