Latvian Radio Choir and Genevieve Lacey – Musica Viva Australia in Brisbane

The Latvian Radio Choir is not just a choir: it is a sound laboratory, its members always ready to explore new work and new ways of singing. Its repertoire encompasses music from the Renaissance to now.

Genevieve Lacey is a fearless artist who challenges us to rethink the recorder, the classical music concert experience and, indeed, how we listen.

Together these pioneering musicians present a program of music which looks to the sky in search of beauty, wonder and things with wings.

Get a glimpse of the sublime with a psalm, a prayer and a song of songs; catch the call of the nightingale, the swallow and the sparrow; and explore the intimate poetry of bird names with Pēteris Vasks.

Then, to celebrate the return of this ensemble of musical pioneers, get ready to experience two new commissions which meld human and avian voices. Bird on Byrd is an interspecies collaboration where curiosity and humour meet, created by Australian composers Hollis Taylor and Jon Rose. Finally, Ceremony of Swans is a world premiere from internationally revered Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, with a text by celebrated Australian author Alexis Wright.