REQUIEM: Dane Lam conducts Verdi & Likhuta

Experience Dane Lam conducting one of the most powerful works for symphony orchestra and massed choir ever created, alongside a moving new work by Ukrainian-Australian composer Catherine Likhuta.

When Giuseppe Verdi's close friend and compatriot Alessandro Manzoni died, he expressed his grief by composing a religious work of operatic intensity. Verdi's Requiem has thrilled and moved audiences for almost 150 years. Fittingly, for music that foregrounds human dignity, the Requiem is a tribute to the beauty of the human voice, with soloists and massed choir resonating with a full symphony orchestra.

The Requiem’s deeply emotional soundscape is complemented by Through Healers' Eyes, a new work by Ukrainian-Australian composer and UQ School of Music alumna Catherine Likhuta. Inspired in part by the composer’s great-grandmother’s experiences as a war nurse in the Second World War, the work promotes healing, courage and compassion.

Proudly presented by The University of Queensland’s School of Music as part of the UQ Vice-Chancellor’s Concert Series. We welcome our performing partner the Brisbane Concert Choir and our soloists Eleanor Greenwood, Tania Ferris, Carlos Barcenas, and Peter Coleman-Wright AO.

Dr Simon Perry will deliver a pre-concert talk at 1:00pm that will provide audiences with an orientation to Verdi's Requiem and what listeners can expect. Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, one of the most famous of all musical settings of the Catholic Liturgy for the commemoration of the dead, is a large and multifaceted work for vocal soloists, chorus, and full symphony orchestra. Dr Perry will take listeners through an overview of the work, focussing on how it relates to the liturgy and its form and musical styles. In short, this talk will provide an introduction to this complex but rewarding work.