GESUALDO

TENEBRAE

Luminescence’s three-year odyssey into the dark heart of the Renaissance, confronting Gesualdo’s definitive statement and final testament: the Tenebrae Responsories.

2025: Gesualdo Tenebrae
2026: Gesualdo Tenebrae II: All was made dark
2027: Gesualdo Tenebrae III: O Vos Omnes

early music
6 unamplified singers; 1 hour no interval
pre concert talks available by Roland Peelman

LUMINESCENCE

AND THE MACHINE

The primal force of the human voice meets the vast machinery of the digital age.
This is ensemble singing amplified, rewired, and supercharged.

Developed in collaboration with GRAMMY Award winning producer/composer William Brittelle. GRAMMY Award winning bass Cameron Beauchamp (Roomful of Teeth). and visionary sound artist Tilman Robinson, LUMINESCENCE AND THE MACHINE probes the porous boundary between the human and bionic. Ground-breaking electronic architecture enables each singer to digitally manipulate their own voice in real-time, and triggers a complex web of reflexive, inter-dependent effects and unleashing new sonic possibilities for vocal ensembles.

Witness the world premiere of this audacious new music project, where technology and humanity hum in dangerous, dazzling harmony.

new music
6 amplified singers + sound engineer

2025/2026 Vol I: Creative Development + premiere performances

RED

DIRT

HYMNS

A hymnal to the country under our feet.

A living songbook more than four years in the making, Andrew Ford’s hymnal brings together the words of sixteen contemporary Australian writers – poets, essayists, and folksingers. Born in a time of fire and darkness, grief, and loss, and then fragile, tender hope, Red Dirt Hymns are songs of awe and praise, dedicated not to a god, but to the land.

6 amplified singers; electric guitar; amplified cello
projection/video art by Sammy Hawker
1 hour no interval
associated community workshops and participation available
Minimum touring party of 9

2024 - Premiere, National Museum of Australia/Canberra International Music Festival
2025 - NSW Touring (Orange Civic Theatre; The Joan Penrith; Bowral Memorial Hall; The Q - Queanbeyan; Four Winds Bermagui)

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GARDEN OF

EARTHLY

DELIGHTS

A garden teeming with temptation and desire, grotesque creatures and improbable scenes of surrender: the uninhibited world of Hieronymus Bosch’s 500-year-old triptych “De tuin der lusten”, the Garden of Earthly Delights. Trust Luminescence Chamber Singers to turn this surreal feast of the senses into an aural tapestry as pleasurable and perilous as Bosch’s vision. Drawn from the vaults of Renaissance raunch, Medieval monasterial excess, and daring modern transgressions, Garden of Earthly Delights offers a vocal cornucopia of surprise and surreptitiously cheeky delight.

Sept/October 2025

6 unamplified singers; conductor
1 hour no interval

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Of The Body

Drawing inspiration from Renaissance art, music, and science, Dan Walker’s Of The Body is a musical dissection of sorts. Each movement of this song cycle is devoted to an anatomical part: the eyes, the hands, the mouth, the feet, the blood, and finally, the heart. Of the Body traverses sex, sensuality, our flesh and blood, exploring our corporeal form in a distinctly contemporary context.

2023 - Premiere
2024 - Touring & Recording
2025 - Album release

6 unamplified singers; 1 hour no interval
pre concert talk available

Discover

A tapestry of songs and stories spanning 2000 years, old airs is music about time itself; the way things change, and the way things remain.

2024

6 unamplified singers; 1 hour no interval
Conducted by Roland Peelman AM

old airs

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GLASS HEART

500 years of love songs and break-up anthems. From Monteverdi’s monumental “Sestina” and Marenzio’s sensuous “Baci Soavi e Cari”, to music by David Lang, Eric Whitacre, Drew Crawford, and more. Glass Heart explores the fragility of life and love, and the shattering pain of heartbreak.

2024

6 unamplified voices; 1 hour, no interval

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Performing the Betty Beaver Blaze with William Barton, Canberra International Music Festival (2017)

with the trial-concert cohort of Luminescence Children's Choir

with conductor Gordon Hamilton, Descent into Madness (2016)

Canberra international Music Festival (2018)

Dan Walker leading a conducting masterclass (2017)

With Daniel Brinsmead at Canberra Voices

with Sally Whitwell at the High Court (2016)

With Gordon Hamitlon on ABC Radio in Port Macquarie

In rehearsal with Roland Peelman and Kim Cunio

In rehearsal with Roland Peelman, Ensemble Offspring, and the Song Company

Canberra International Music Festival (2022)

Performing at the National Gallery of Australia (2022)

20201213a 032 CIMF Luminescence - Ceremony of Carols.jpg

Visiting Sing Out Choir in Dubbo, NSW 2023

In the ABC Sydney Studio with Virginia Read

Of The Body Album Recording at ABC Sydney, 2024

Backstage at Melbourne Recital Centre, 2024

With composer Andrew Ford, Red Dirt Hymns 2024