Local music groups combine to bring concert for Anzac Day

While it’s taken an extra 12 months almost to the day, the message of peace through music will still be delivered at the Royal Wanganui Opera House on Anzac Day.

Karl Jenkins’ powerful concert ‘The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace’, is a large scale work which will be performed by multiple Whanganui music groups and solo artists.

Organised by the Schola Sacra Choir, this concert was originally set to be performed on April 26, 2020, only to have to be postponed due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Tickets have been transferred and others are now on sale and all the originally scheduled groups have recommitted to April 25 this year.

“Exactly on Anzac Day, so it’s the perfect day, really, for the concert,” said conductor Iain Tetley. “We’re not going to be beaten by Covid-19 doing this, we’re doing it anyway.”

Four of the soloists performed at the show held at Whanganui Collegiate last November, so the various entities already have the experience of working together.

Written by Jenkins in 1999, this large scale work will feature Schola Sacra, the Wanganui Male Choir, Brass Whanganui conducted by Bruce Jellyman, and solo performers including Jennifer Little, Cecily Shaw, Nigel Tongs, Lindsay Yeo and Whanganui Collegiate student Harrison Richmond.

There will be eight vocal and instrumental solos through the show. A specially compiled film is shown simultaneously with the live music, to enhance the audience experience, but some of the imagery is graphic, therefore the concert is not recommended for children under the age of 13.

“It portrays the end to world-wide warfare,” said Tetley. “It’s very invocative. The screen sits above the choir’s heads. The music brings the screen alive, and the screen brings the music alive.”

The performance will include a prayer call and a bugle playing of ‘The Last Post’.

Tetley agreed it had taken a big logistical effort to bring all the different groups together, but there had been a real combined enthusiasm from everyone to take part.

‘The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace’ will be begin at 2.30pm on Anzac Day.
Tickets can be purchased from Royal Wanganui Opera House Booking Office, with booking fees applying.
Costs are $30 for adults or $25 for concessions (seniors, 13 to 17-year-olds, Friends of the Opera House). Phone 06 349 0511 or for online bookings go to www.whanganuiivenues.co.nz.

Jared Smith
River City Press 22/4/21