Mosaic World Choir offers international treats

Mosaic World Choir offers international treats

Nelson’s oldest world music choir has a concert coming up at Old St John’s that promises to be a pre-Christmas international treat.

A recent spate of popular films has seen a boom in community and world music choirs, but the 50-strong Mosiac World Choir is proud to have been bringing a-cappella pleasure to singers and audiences for 15 years.

Musical director Shannel Courtney says Mosaic is all about the enjoyment of singing together.

“Performance is not our primary focus, but we’ve decided to host this concert, with a really interesting and varied programme, as a fundraiser for a great cause – the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary fence project,” he says.

Songs have been chosen to cover most of the continents of the world, including songs from the Pacific.

“We’re really into African music and that is reflected in the repertoire – it’s lively, it gets people in a happy mood, there are great harmonies and rhythms and the words often repeat, which is good when you’re singing in another language like Xhosa or Zulu,” Shannel says. “We’ll also be singing songs in 11 other languages - some Russian and Latin processional church music, Bulgarian and Georgian folk songs and songs from Samoa, Tokelau and Maori waiata – there’s a good range of moods from the uplifting and expansive to the gentle and introspective.”

The Mosaic World Choir concert is at Old St Johns at 320 Hardy St, at 7.30pm on Thursday December 5. Tickets are on sale at Everyman $15 waged, $10 unwaged, $30 family. Proceeds to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary fence project.

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