LUMINESCENCE Chamber Singers got off to an exquisite musical start on Friday (March 19) at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery with the announcement of the 2021 season.

Bronwyn McNaughton, chair of the Luminescence board, told those present that in a move towards developing a more permanent ensemble, there would now be a core of five singers – mezzo-soprano AJ America, bass Jack Stephens, tenor Dan Walker and sopranos Rachel Mink and Veronica Milroy.

But it would be expanded to eight for the Canberra International Music Festival (CIMF) and 12 for the end-of-year concert.

With a focus on collaboration, she explained, CIMF director Roland Peelman would now become the artistic mentor to the singers, who, without government funding, were thriving in their aspiration to sing.

Peelman was on hand to conduct and accompany the group, opening up with a piece of Monteverdi, which illustrated his self-described passion for singing – “good singing”, that is.

Associate director Dan Walker unveiled a song he’d been asked to compose for the wedding anniversary of bass singer Ron Bennett and his wife Kim, based on the Corinthians 13 words: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels”, and performed with French horn played by Natasha Meston.

Bennett, it turned out, had written a piece in response, based on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, “Let Me Count The Ways”, which we also heard.

Artistic director of Luminescence, AJ America, took the mic to outline the coming program, which would involve collaborations with the Canberra International Music Festival in May and at Christmas, and “The Flowers Of War: Vietnam Requiem” in June.

There would be a new solo series highlighting the individual talents of the singers, which would include “Populares Canciones”, “Songs Of Travel” and “At The Statue Of Venus”.

America couldn’t resist a terrible pun when she reminded those present that “musicians will always be ba-roke”.

After that, the singers wound up the evening with Australian composer Alice Chance’s work, “Fiat Lux”, an Icelandic hymn and Gershwin’s “Summertime”, arranged by Walker.

The 2021 concert season will include David Lang’s “Little Match Girl Passion”, Samuel Barber’s “Hermit Songs” in “Solitude and Silence”, “As A Flower Unfurls” and, not unlike the concert in late 2020 which saw them return from covid isolation, “A Luminous Christmas”.

Children’s activities will include “We Are The Skywhales”, the Luminescence Children’s Choir’s July holiday program “Of Mice and Mozart”, and “Songs of Innocence”, in which Luminescence Children’s Choir and Canberra Sinfonia join forces.

All details of coming performances and bookings here.