REVIEW: Into the Blue - The Australian Voices

Into the Blue Presented by: The Australian Voices

Artistic Director / Composer / Conductor: John Rotar

Tides of Ocean — Matthew Orlovich

Pearl — Gordon Hamilton

Anthos — Alys Rayner

Meteora — Meta Cohen

And There Was No More Sea — Margaret Tesch-Muller

Island Songs — Stephen Leek

Bellbird Valley — John Rotar

Into the Blue — John Rotar

Waltzing Matilda — Traditional, arranged by John Rotar

“There is a magic in the world when you’re a kid”

There’s nothing quite like strolling into a choral concert and being whisked away on a mental vacation across the vast Australian landscape, all through the power of voices. No orchestra, backing tracks, or elaborate staging — just lungs, humans, harmony, and vocal control that makes me wonder if these singers have superpowers!

Founded over 30 years ago, The Australian Voices is renowned for championing contemporary Australian choral music, and this program was a strong reminder of just how much variety, imagination, and emotional colour can exist within a choir. Led by the maestro of melodies, John Rotar introduced the inspiration behind the program and its individual pieces. The concert explored the vastness of the Australian environment, from the deep seas to open skies, flower fields to childhood beaches and the little mythologies we build around places. John spoke passionately to offer context that shaped the listening experience and encouraged us to engage our own imaginations actively. After all, listening to music is not a passive activity.

The venue itself beautifully enhanced the visual and auditory experience. The tall archways and brickwork of St Brigid's Church were illuminated with gradients of colour, transitioning through blues, violets, oranges, and pinks based on the mood of each piece.The acoustics were so clear that you could pick out individual voices distinctly, even within the full ensemble sound. At one point, a little songbird in the eaves joined in, which was either a coincidence or excellent unpaid immersive design.

The concert opened with Matthew Orlovich’s Tides of Ocean, which ended up being my favourite. It was bright, consuming, and full of movement, with the choir creating wave-like sounds that pulled the audience straight into the water. Without any instruments, the singers created an entire oceanic world through shifting vocal patterns. It was like being serenaded by a school of musical fish.

Gordon Hamilton’s Pearl was like a musical cloud floating through the room, with layered harmonies, descending trills, and some beautifully controlled soprano lines floating above the ensemble. The low bass moments were particularly resonant too. The balance between the voice parts and dynamics was one of the choir’s major strengths, with the ensemble shifting swiftly from delicate transparency to a much fuller sound without losing clarity.

Alys Rayner’s Anthos and Meta Cohen’s Meteora redirected our attention skyward, moving from flower fields and blue skies to a cosmic journey through galaxies and vast distances. Both pieces explored ideas of separation and connection, particularly the image of two people gazing up at the same sky from different corners of the world. Meteora was especially demanding, playing with repeated text, canons, and tempo changes. In Anthos, the phrase “under the air” returned again and again in different forms, passed around the ensemble until it seemed to orbit overhead.

Margaret Tesch-Muller’s And There Was No More Sea took us on a deep dive into the murkier waters of life’s big questions. Penned by a member of the choir, the piece explored mortality, chaos, and the sea, with the men’s voices bringing a low, thunderous weight to the sound. It was something of a philosophical storm at sea, giving the program a moment to sit with something more existential.

Stephen Leek’s Island Songs honoured the choir’s founder, and I had a little personal flashback here. I once sang the good old Monkey and Turtle in a bossa nova arrangement — a sentence that will make instant sense to choir people and absolutely no sense to everyone else. That small connection was a lovely reminder of how widely Australian choral music travels through classrooms, choirs, and community spaces, often shaping musical memories in ways we do not realise at the time.

John Rotar’s Bellbird Valley was one of the most moving parts of the concert. Based on a family poem and a location held in memory, the piece captured the warm, bittersweet nostalgia of looking back at a place you cannot quite return to — not because it has vanished, but because you are no longer the person who first knew it.

The world premiere of Into the Blue transformed John Rotar’s childhood memories of Coonarr beach into a grand narrative. The work had a childlike mythology to it — the way a beach can become an entire kingdom when you are small. The composition featured depictive lyrics, percussive vocal effects, manipulated vowels, and even a cheeky nod to the Jaws motif for the bull sharks. It captured the magical blend of wonder, danger, and imagination in childhood memories.

This concert differed from my usual coverage of plays and musicals, which involve characters, staging, choreography, design, and narrative all working together. Into the Blue was far more stripped back, but definitely not simpler. If anything, it required closer attention because the music is exposed and immediate. No lighting cue or costume change could save a harmony or mask an imperfect entrance. It served as a reminder that skilled singers like these can evoke landscapes, weather, tension, humour, memory, and movement with just their voices.

The Australian Voices performed with focus, stamina, discipline, and a shared understanding of the music. Most pieces were memorised, with eyes fixed on John’s conducting as entrances, cut-offs, dynamics, and tempo shifts landed with impressive precision (and some seriously strong breath control!). John was visibly working hard too — conducting contemporary choral music is clearly not a low-sweat activity. The large crowd packed into the church seemed very willing to take the journey with them, and it was heartening to see hundreds of people turn up for contemporary Australian choral music.

Unfortunately, I had to leave before the finale because Into the Blue was only the first stop on a three-show review day! But watching a video later of John Rotar’s arrangement of Waltzing Matilda confirmed what a fitting closing choice it was. Concluding a program of sea, sky, landscape, and national sound with a fresh percussive take on a familiar tune perfectly suited a choir dedicated to evolving Australian music.

Into the Blue was thoughtfully programmed, exquisitely sung, and deeply connected to place. More than anything, it showed how powerful a room full of voices can be when they are used with this much care, imagination, and purpose.