Remembrance Day work-in-progress concert 
After just six weeks of rehearsal, on Tuesday 11 November, we nervously opened the doors of Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACC&C) in Barton at 7.30 pm, not knowing how many people would come and how they would react to the first performance of the new music that Glenda Cloughley has been composing for the community oratorio that we will perform in full next April/May at the Albert Hall.  

We needn’t have worried – by 7.15 there was a queue of people waiting to buy tickets and the space was soon full.  

In addition to the 35 singers in the Chorus, we were lucky to have an amazing cast of soloists including Louise Page (who sang the part of the 1915 Congress Chair, Jane Addams), Angela Giblin (sang Dr Aletta Jacobs of The Netherlands who called the Congress), Jenny Sawer, Judy Clingan and Margaret Sim. We were also honoured to have David Pereira (cello) among our cast of wonderful musicians.

From when the first note sounded, the audience was immersed. Glenda had devised a truly beautiful and moving composition of words and music. The performance of the Chorus and the soloists was astonishing, complemented by the wonderful acoustics at ACC&C.

The audience was not backwards in coming forwards with praise and gratitude. Just some of the things attendees had to say afterwards or kindly wrote in our guestbook included:

"As soon as the singing began, it was magic."
"The music was sublime...a truly stunning work."
“I still feel the ‘glow’ from the evening, and it has given me a lot of joy.”
"The music is superb. Altogether it is magnificent...I felt the connection with the1915 women in the performance.”

The immense positivity towards the work -- the music, the words, the performance and the inspiration -- was reinforced by the number of people who stayed behind to talk with Glenda and other members of Chorus about the work so far and to offer their thoughts towards the words and music Glenda continues to write as she completes A Passion for Peace.

Feedback during this conversation also reinforced that as we edge closer to the Gallipoli centenary, the desire and need within our community to have alternative narratives for how we remember war, are both very real and legitimate.

See the program of the performance for further information about the evening and details of our amazing cast. 

We Women — Centenary Fanfare for WILPF
As a gift to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom for its 100th birthday, Glenda has composed a ‘Centenary Fanfare’ for WILPF called ‘ We women — are an international league for peace and freedom’. We premiered this piece at the 11 November performance. Introducing the song, Glenda mentioned A Chorus of Women’s association with WILPF over the past 11+ years and the inspiration we have drawn from the ACT and national members of the organisation. Glenda dedicated this first performance of the song to Hellen Cooke, a long time and active WILPF member, who died in August 2013, not long after she had written to Glenda saying how thrilled she was to hear about the Passion project. 

To make the gift of the song to the Australian and  international WILPF communities, last Sunday we gathered at the Belconnen Arts Centre with Kimmo Vennonen (audio specialist ) and  Miriam Pickard (filmmaker) to record and film us singing this song. After a most enjoyable 3 hours, enough sound recording and film footage had been collected for Kimmo and Miriam to create a video and recoding to send around the world. Watch this space – and You-tube! (Hopefully it will go viral.)

Fundraising
In September we received the wonderful news that the Passion project had been awarded an artsACT grant of $25,000 towards the staging costs for the three performances at the Albert Hall next year. 

We were not so lucky with our application for a Graham F Smith Peace Foundation Grant; and we are still waiting to hear the outcome of a submission to the Anzac Arts Grants.

In the meantime, if you support our mission, please make a donation towards the cost of the Passion project, or purchase a Gold Pass to the festival for yourself or for your friends. Also, please pass this information on to your friends and contacts that you think may be interested in helping us.

We are also running a raffle with some absolutely fabulous prizes to be won including a 100% cotton batik quilt crafted by Pam Strickland. The raffle will be drawn on 2 May 2015 at the Albert Hall. Raffle tickets are $5 each and if you would like to purchase tickets or sell them on our behalf, contact Sarah Stitt at sarahstitt@grapevine.com.au.  

Media
IN THE PRESS: On 10 November, The Canberra Times’  Ian Warden (who is a great supporter of the Passion project) published another article, Gang-gang: Chorus of Women sing a different tune for Gallipoli centenary.

ON AIR: 
In early November, Glenda, Johanna, Sarah and Janet had a 1-hour interview with Canberra@work on Community radio 2XX.  Glenda and Janet were each interviewed on ABC 666 in the week leading up to our 11 November performance.

Our thanks to Chris Wagner for help with a media release for 11 November and other assistance and advice.

See our ‘Singers and helpers’ page for details of how you can join us to sing in A Passion for Peace.

Glenda’s music includes sections for all levels of ability, with some more challenging sections for soloists and small ensembles, and some choruses and chorales for less confident singers. However, it would be helpful if most singers joining in February 2015 have some choral or other musical experience, can read music and learn their part quite easily. 

>> If you have friends or relations who fit this description, please let them know about this project. We feel sure that all singers joining A Chorus of Women and the other performers in this venture will remember it for the rest of their lives. 

Judith Clingan, our Senior Artistic Adviser for the Passion,  has said in letters to choristers, "The combined impact of a beautiful, sincere text which will cause singers to think deeply about the great issues facing humanity, with exquisitely expressive music, in a unique yet approachable style, is rarely encountered, and will be treasured by all lucky enough to perform A Passion for Peace."   

See our ‘Meetings and rehearsals’ page for venues, other details and updates of planning meetings, gatherings and rehearsals for the Passion project. 

>> Rehearsals for A Passion for Peace will be on Sunday afternoons, starting on Sunday 1 February, 3.30-5.30 pm. A detailed schedule will be posted shortly and sent to all singers.

Planning meetings will be on Thursdays at 7.45 pm starting from 15 January. We need more helpers for publicity, administration, various logistics at the Albert Hall and other tasks — please consider joining us if you are interested in this project. See our ‘Singers and helpers’ page for further details.

Would you like to help us make A Passion for Peace happen? Here are a few things we could really use your help with!

>> PR GURU REQUIRED
We are in need of the services and expertise of an accomplished PR guru with strong connections to the Canberra media contingent. If you or someone you know fits the bill, then please contact us!

>> SINGERS, SINGERS, SINGERS!
We need singers! We are looking for female, male and young singers of diverse levels of experience and skills to join us in April 2015 to perform A Passion for Peace.  See our Singers and Helpers page for more information or contact us.

>> YOU CAN DONATEIf you support our mission, please make a donation towards the cost of the Passion project. Feel free to pass our newsletter on to your friends and contacts who you think may be interested in helping us - either through a donation or in kind.

We are holding a series of community conversation events to raise awareness about the Passion project and to promote discussion about the continuing relevance of the 1915 women’s achievements in political process, peace-making, international relations and law. Our next conversation will be our Remembrance Day work-in-progress concert and conversation.

Sing for Peace – Walk for Climate
Whilst this is not a conversation event, we strongly encourage all those who acknowledge the link between climate change and peace to join us at the National Aboretum Canberra on 21 September.

We will be joining Avaaz members around the world in a people’s call for action on climate change. 21 September is also the International Day of Peace, so we remind everyone that around the world, people want peace, not war, and that action on climate change is needed to maintain peace and secure the future for our children.

We will start on Dairy Farmers Hill at 9am with a Call to Peace and meditation led by Dru Yoga with World Peace Flame, then lead a singing walk to the Village Centre.

At 10am we will enact a ‘flash mob’ at the Village Centre, singing songs for peace and care for our Earth.

We will finish at 10.20am to join our friends at the sister event ‘Action not Words’ at the Australian National University at 11am.

Check Facebook to RSVP and for updates or contact us.

Public forum -“The war to end all wars”: Our Responsibility to those who died 
When:                     4 November, 7.30 pm 
Where:                   Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 15 Blackall Street, Barton

This will be a public forum to consider Australia’s World War One commemoration and whether it pays appropriate respect to those who died believing in a better world.

The event has been organised by the Medical Association for the Prevention of War with the ACT branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Honest History and A Chorus of Women.

Enquiries can be directed to Dr Sue Wareham on
02 6253 1117 or at warehams@ozemail.com.au.


Remembrance Day work-in-progress concert and conversation 
When:                     11 November, 7.30 pm
Where:                   Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 15 Blackall Street, Barton
Tickets:                  $20 ($15 concession)

This evening will combine a work-in-progress performance of A Passion for Peace with presentations by composer Glenda Cloughley and musical director Johanna McBride. This will be followed by a conversation with the audience facilitated by Janet Salisbury. Click on the image below to view the flyer.

FUNDRAISING
Our Fundraising Team is delighted to announce that an application has been submitted and accepted for the major Graham F Smith Peace Foundation Grant.

This year they had an unprecedented number of applications from groups like Chorus committed to the concepts of “Working for Peace through the Arts”.

The recipient of the grant will be announced at the Foundation’s annual fundraising dinner on 20 September. Fingers crossed and well done to Sarah, Jasmine and the team!

COMMUNICATIONS AND PR
IN THE PRESS: If you read the Canberra Times on 23 July, you will have already seen Ian Warden’s article Gang-gang. I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier. Ian is a great supporter of Chorus’s mission and we thank him for his insightful article promoting Passion and the need for an alternative conversation about war and peace during the ANZAC centenary year.

ON AIR: On 26 July a contingent of Chorus women descended on the ABC studios to promote Passion and speak about the women’s peace agenda on 666ABC Saturday Breakfast with Greg Bayliss. They also hit some high notes singing some wonderful Chorus staples including A Recipe for Peace.

We have received wonderful feedback from listeners and followers.

MEETINGS, GATHERINGS AND SINGING
See our Meetings and Rehearsals page for venues, other details and updates of planning meetings, gatherings and rehearsals for the Passion project.

A Lament for the People of Gaza: for the sake of humanity
On 13 August Chorus sang at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in a multi-faith service calling for people to come together in an act of solidarity with those suffering not just in Gaza but in Iraq, Syria, Southern Israel and throughout the Middle East.

1915—2015: Resolutions for a sustainable peace – then and now
On 31 July and despite severe weather warnings, a great group of fifty people joined us, including sisters from the Canberra branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, to discuss the progress of the women’s peace agenda since the International Women’s Congress in 1915 and the ongoing relevance of the resolutions drafted there. 


Thank you to all who came (particularly those new to Chorus’s work and from interstate) and participated in the conversation so willingly and contributed to making this a wonderful evening. See a full report of the conversation on the website. 

Women in Action presents: VOICE
On 14 July Chorus joined with a number of other inspirational women from around the capital to perform at Women in Action presents: VOICE. Touted as an evening to celebrate the singing, poetry and drama performances of Canberra’s women, it was so much more than that. See the report on the website.

See our Singers and Helpers page for details of how you can join us to sing or help in other ways with the project.

We are holding a series of community  events to raise awareness about the Passion project and promote discussion about the continuing relevance of the 1915 women’s achievements in political process, peace-making, international relations and law.  Our next event will be later this month: 

1915–2015: Resolutions for a sustainable peace — then and now 
When: Thursday 31 July, 6–9 pm (supper provided from 6 pm)
Where: Uniting Church Hall, Denman Street, Yarralumla
Cost: $15 or donation (at the door)

Join A Chorus of Women and a diverse range of other participants to discover and advance the resolutions of the 1915 International Congress of Women.

The far-sighted resolutions of the 1915 International Women’s Congress are still reverberating in international affairs through the first proposals for an International Court of Justice and other international institutions, including what became the United Nations. Chorus member and international human rights lawyer Emilia Della Torre has analysed the resolutions of the conference in terms of human rights law today and has shown their prescience in every way this area of law has progressed over the past 100 years. 

Together in conversation, we will explore what we can still learn from these resolutions and what new resolutions would guide humanity well for the challenges of next 100 years.

Bookings essential: please RSVP by 28 July to Sarah Stitt (see Contacts)

Remembrance Day work-in-progress concert and conversation 
When: 11 November, 7.30 pm
Where: Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 15 Blackall Street, Barton
Tickets: $20 ($15 concession)

This evening will combine a work-in-progress performance of A Passion for Peace with presentations by composer Glenda Cloughley and musical director Johanna McBride. This will be followed by a conversation with the audience facilitated by Janet Salisbury.

FUNDRAISING
Our fundraising team has been very busy preparing a grant application for the main arts ACT grants round for 2015. We are now turning our attention to other funding options, including crowdsourcing.

Meanwhile, if you would like to make a donation towards the cost of this project, see our ‘Donate’ page under the ‘Contacts’ tab in this weblog. Please also pass this information on to any of your friends and colleagues who might be able to help us.

COMMUNICATIONS AND PR
Since the last newsletter, our beautiful and evocative Passion motif has been created by artist Honey Nelson and creative designer Lisa Abbott (with many a comment from the graphic sidelines).

Our communications coordinator, Danni Abou takka, has been busy populating our Facebook site with new entries and helping our fundraisers prepare materials for the crowdsourcing project.

Janet Salisbury, Sarah Stitt and Libby Lloyd met with Dr Brendan Nelson at the Australian War Memorial and had an interesting discussion about the centenary of the Anzac landings, the Passion project, and the Australian peace movement during the First World War (see below). 

We have met numerous other people and are currently planning to contact relevant embassies and other organisations.  Any assistance with these tasks would be much appreciated.  

MEETINGS, GATHERINGS AND SINGING 
See our ‘Meetings & Rehearsals’ page for venues, other details and updates of planning meetings, gatherings and rehearsals for the Passion project. In recent weeks we have welcomed a number of new singers to Chorus and have spent some enjoyable time together teaching them some of our most-performed repertoire from our ‘Songbook for Citizens’. 

In June, we held two Sunday ‘afternoon tea’ gatherings of both singing and non-singing Chorus members and friends to talk about the Passion project, read and philosophise together about some of the poems and writings of women during the First World War.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There has been a change to our gathering on Sunday 13 July to allow time for both talking and singing. We will start earlier at 2 pm for some planning, conversation and readings from 2-3.30 pm, followed by tea and cake and then singing  from 4-5.30 pm. All welcome. 

Glenda’s research for the creative development of the choral work, our philosophical discussions, and some general ‘nosing around the internet’ by Chorus members, is revealing some interesting stories of the first-wave feminist movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. In particular, we have been looking for links between the very active Australian women’s peace movement during the First World War and the 1915 International Congress of Women in The Hague. And we have turned up some intriguing stories. These show that Australian women pacifists were in close contact with the US and European women attending the congress, and were also very active in Australia, sometimes at significant personal risk of arrest and investigation. Meet two of these women below:

Vida Goldstein
Vida was a second-generation campaigner for women’s suffrage and social reform. In 1903, she was the first woman in the British Empire to stand for a national parliament. She stood again in 1910, 1913 and 1917 but was never elected despite good polling. The principle of peace, which underlay her 1917 attempt for a Senate seat, apparently lost – or split – her votes. In the early 1900s she travelled to Europe and the US, speaking at many woman’s suffrage conferences. In 1902, after Australian women had won the vote, she travelled to Washington DC to represent Australasia at the International Woman Suffrage Conference where she greatly impressed her audiences. President Roosevelt was also impressed by this emancipated woman from Australia and invited her to the Oval Office where she became the first Australian (man or woman) to meet an American President at the White House. It was another fourteen years before an Australian prime minister was granted the same privilege. 

Among her many activities, Vida was owner–editor of the Melbourne-based Woman Voter -- a newspaper published by the Women’s Political Association (WPA), which was a sister-organisation to the Women’s Peace Army, formed by Vida, Cecilia John (see below), Adela Pankhurst and others in 1915. With only 1000 members, the WPA was quite influential and attracted a lot of attention, including terrible harassment because of their pacifist views.  Writing in the Women Voter on 11 August 1914 in the week the Prime Minister Joseph Cook took Australia into the First World War, Vida said: 

‘I think that it is a fearful reflection on 2000 years of Christianity that men have rushed into war before using every combined effort to prevent this appalling conflict. It is my earnest hope that women in all parts of the world will stand together, demanding a more reasonable and civilised way of dealing with international disputes. 

The time has come for women to show that they, as givers of life, refuse to give their sons as material for slaughter, and that they recognise that human life must be the first consideration of nations. By the present development it seems that human life is held of no importance in comparison with property and aggrandisement of territory. The enfranchised women of Australia are political units in the British Empire, and they ought to lead the world in sane methods of dealing with these conflicts.’

Woman Voter suffered heavy censorship and armed soldiers once threatened to seize the printing equipment of the Women's Peace Army.

Cecilia John
Cecilia John was a singer, feminist and pacifist. She had a fine contralto voice and became a successful performer with the Metropolitan Liedertafel, the (Royal) Melbourne Philharmonic Society and with the German Opera Company.

Cecilia supported Vida Goldstein’s bid for federal parliament in 1913, regularly wrote articles for Woman Voter, and co-founded the Women's Peace Army with her.  Concerned about the indoctrination of children with militaristic ideas, she formed the Children's Peace Army. Cecilia's pacifist activities were carefully monitored by military intelligence. Although she was never arrested, her letters were opened and her home searched. She often sang at anti-war meetings and was once charged and convicted for failing to keep the aisles clear. She sang 'I didn't raise my son to be a soldier' to such effect that the song was banned. 

Released in 1915, this song featured prominently in the American anti-war movement opposing US entry into the First World War. Woman Voter gave a condensed version of the lyrics on 25 November 1915, and a further mention of the song being banned a month later. 

Woman Voter, 25 November 1915:
Once, when a mother / Was asked would she send
Her darling boy to fight /She just answered “No”!

Chorus: 
I didn’t raise my son to be a soldier / 
I brought him up to be my pride and joy, / 
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder / 
To kill some other mother’s darling boy? / 

The nations ought to arbitrate their quarrels / 
It’s time to put the sword and gun away / 
There’d be no war today, / If mothers all would say … 

I didn’t raise my son to be a soldier
All men are brothers, / Our Country, the world,
Glories of War are a lie: / If they ask us why,
We can tell them that mother’s reply, / 

Chorus

Woman Voter 23 December 1915: 
We have been forbidden by the military authorities to sing or make use of the song ‘I didn’t raise my son to be a soldier.’ Needless to say, the women will still continue to sing it, if they feel so inclined.

This WWI film alongside a recording of the whole song sung by a well-known men’s quartet of the time shows the poignancy of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2qOAgMCl4   

Sources: 
Australian dictionary of biography, Goldstein, Vida Jane (1869–1949) by Janice Brownfoot.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/goldstein-vida-jane-6418

Australian dictionary of biography, John, Cecilia Annie (1877–1955) by Patricia Gowland.   http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/john-cecilia-annie-6849 

Prejudice and reason — some Australian women’s responses to war, compiled by Geraldine Robertson. http://www.prejudiceandreason.com.au/11.16.html 

Gender and power in Australia: the world is watching, by Clare Wright.
http://www.womensagenda.com.au/talking-about/opinions/gender-and-power-in-australia-the-world-is-watching/20121011876#.U7USoImKAuV

This is usually the first question we are asked when we talk to people about the Passion project and Glenda and others have been deep in research looking for the answer. A week or so ago, Glenda reported ‘Fantastic research news’. She had found that the Woman Voter of 4 May 1915 reported:

‘… We are hoping that Miss Harriet Newcomb was able to represent Australian women at the Conference.’

Harriet Newcomb was English but spent many years living in Sydney where she founded a demonstration and training school for girls at Shirley on Edgecliff Road with her lifelong friend, companion and business partner, Margaret Hodge. Both women are listed in the complete congress transcript as paid-up members/delegates of the congress. But they were among 180 women from the UK who were unable to attend because the British Government stopped the shipping.  
 
Harriet and Margaret’s strong educational interests included Maria Montessori and, later in life, Rudolf Steiner. 

Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography: Newcombe, Harriet Christina (1854–1942) by Margaret Bettison
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/newcomb-harriet-christina-13270

See our Singers & Helpers page for details of how you can join us to sing or help in other ways with the project. 

A Passion for Peace is a community oratorio that we are creating for premiere performances by 100–200 singers in April 2015. It is inspired by 1300 women who gathered in The Hague from 12 warring and neutral nations at the end of April 1915 for the International Congress of Women, while Australian and New Zealand soldiers were in the first heartsick week of the eight-month Gallipoli campaign. 

We will perform A Passion for Peace as part of a five-day peace festival at the Albert Hall which will coincide with the centenary congress of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) at The Hague in the same week.

When: 27 April to 1 May 2015 (detailed program tbc)
Where: The Albert Hall, Yarralumla

>> See our first newsletter and other information on our website for more details about the vision A Passion for Peace initiator and composer Glenda Cloughley has for the work. 

>> See this website for a wonderful collection of documents about the International Congress of Women in 1915, the resolutions and subsequent visits to European capitals, heads of state and senior ministers.

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Passion composer Glenda Cloughley is hard at work developing the libretto and score for the work.  In March she ran sessions with small groups of Chorus women to talk through the development of the ‘plot’ and gather philosophical responses and ideas. This is an important part of the collaborative way that Chorus works. She is being assisted with dramaturgy by our great Chorus friend, Christine Hansen, who is currently working at Gothenburg University and has experience in theatre and dramaturgy. Glenda brought the first music to our rehearsal on 18 May and we eagerly await the next work-in-progress outings. 

WEB LINK WITH THE HAGUE
Chorus is excited to confirm that we are definitely on the program for the international centenary WILPF congress at The Hague from 28 April to 1 May 2015! The congress organisers are in discussion with our musical director, Johanna McBride, to arrange for part of our Canberra performance to be broadcast at The Hague congress via a web link. The details of the broadcast are now being worked out.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Our information session in March attracted a group of wonderful new singers and helpers for the project who are now working passionately on various aspects of the project plan and budget under project manager Janet Salisbury's leadership.  

Our Fundraising Team headed by Libby Lloyd AM is very busy. We are working towards a fundraising target of $50,000 (from a total budget of $170,000 - the remainder of which will come from ticket sales, donations and volunteer/in-kind contributions). We are exploring grant options, crowdsourcing and other sources.

>> If you know of a source of funding, or can help in other ways, please let us know. 

We also have a Communications Team led by Danni Abou-takka, who has worked with Miriam Pickard and others to set up a Facebook site for A Chorus of Women as well as this weblog. 

We are also developing a graphic motif for the project - a tricky task - so if you have any ideas, do let us know!

MEETINGS, GATHERINGS AND SINGING
We have had a number of meetings for the Passion project since March and have now developed a more regular schedule. See our Meetings & Rehearsals page for venues, other details and updates of planning meetings and gatherings for the project. In particular, we warmly invite anyone interested in the project to join us for the Sunday afternoon gatherings in June.

RELATED ACTIVITIES
Remembering War - Seeking Peace, Anzac Canberra Conversation
Our Anzac conversation was a rich exploration of how we remember Australian service people killed in war, as well as others affected by wars, and how this might help us to avoid war and seek peaceful solutions to conflicts in future. 

Manning Clark House was an excellent venue for this intimate conversation, which included a member of the ACT RSL, a member of the former Anzac Commemoration Advisory Council, members of MCH, organisers of the Anzac Eve Peace Vigil, eight Chorus members and others. See our report of the conversation on our website. 

Anzac Eve Peace Vigil 
A Chorus of Women once again took part in the 4th annual lantern lit Peace Vigil. As in previous years, we opened the event at the top of Mt Ainslie with community singing of peace songs. After Ngunnawal elder Jeanette Phillips (Nin) gave a Welcome to Country, we sang Glenda and Aunty Jude Kelly’s  beautiful ‘Spirit Songs for Anzac Eve’. A lantern parade down the mountain continued to the Australian War Memorial Forecourt for a peace fire and lantern-lit ceremony of lament for all those affected by war. The support we received from the Australian War Memorial this year was very encouraging (see the Canberra Times article). 

Our seminar and conversation series to raise community awareness about the project got under way with our Anzac Canberra Conversation (see above). Our next event will be a seminar and conversation event in early July: 

Revisiting the resolutions of the 1915 International Congress of Women 
The far-sighted resolutions of the 1915 International Women’s Congress are still reverberating in international affairs – such as through the first proposals for an International Court of Justice and other international institutions including what became the United Nations. Chorus member and international human rights lawyer Emilia Della Torre has analysed the resolutions of the conference in terms of human rights law today and has shown that they were prescient in every way of how this area of law has progressed over the past 100 years.  We find ourselves asking, what can we still learn from these resolutions and what new resolutions should we make today that would guide humanity for the next 100 years?     

We are planning to explore this question at a seminar and conversation in July (date tbc). In an exciting development, we have been talking to the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) about the possibility of running our event in conjunction with their international conference — Towards International Peace through International Law — in early July. Watch this space for further details. 

This evening will combine a work-in-progress performance of A Passion for Peace with presentations by composer Glenda Cloughley and musical director Johanna McBride. This will be followed by a conversation with the audience facilitated by Janet Salisbury.

11 November 2014, 7.30pm
Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture 
15 Blackall Street, Barton
Tickets: $20 ($15 concession)

We are a small community group and we are looking for more helpers to make our ambitious plans happen.

>> See our Helpers & Singers page for details about how you can help.

>> If you are interested in singing with us, it is not too early to let us know. See our Helpers & Singers page for further details.

>> See our Contact Us page for contact details.

In addition to our work on the Passion project, Chorus has also been busy with a number of other activities.

Chorus has also been busy singing at a range of other events, including the Break the Silence Rally for Refugees on 13 April in Canberra (where Glenda was also able to address the 2500-strong crowd for a few minutes about the Passion project); the Canberra launch of the National Energy Efficiency Network  (NEEN) at the Great Hall, ANU; and the opening of the Gala concert of the Canberra International Music Festival, Saturday 10 May, where we sang Acknowledgment of Country composed by Glenda Cloughley with words by local poet Hazel Hall (see reports in City News and the SMH/Canberra Times). 

>> Find us on Facebook for further details.