Graduate Singers. St Peter’s Cathedral. 12 Dec 2025

 

The Graduate Singers (or the ‘Grads) are an impressive outfit. They sing beautifully, they tackle diverse repertoire, they have a large and loyal following (understandably), and they are dramatic in their delivery.

 

Tonight’s concert, their final one for the year, is being held in St Peter’s Cathedral on a balmy summer’s evening to a near capacity audience. The program includes classics from both the sacred and secular repertoire, and … community carol singing, which for many was a highlight of the event.

 

The Grads number fifty-five at full strength and tonight’s concert features forty-four of them, not including Karl Geiger – their Director of Music and tonight’s conductor. St Peter’s presents challenges for such a large choir: it’s not easy to fit them in (along with any instrumentalists), and the acoustic of the cathedral punishes less than precise singing.

 

Geiger’s selection of songs was clever. Collectively they told the story of Christmas from religious and worldly perspectives, and they laid bare the evolution of spiritual thinking to something less mysterious, more relaxed and grounded in humanism. A greater contrast there could not be in starting the concert with Once in Royal David’s City as a community carol, following it with Hassler’s 1591 setting of The Word Became Flesh and ending the program with Joseph Twist’s joyous tongue-firmly-in-cheek Australian carol Christmas in the Sun! At appropriate times the audience sat in hushed reverential silence, and at others they were whistling and laughing. The concert had everything.

 

Geiger has obvious command of the choir, with clear and purposeful gesturing that evokes appropriate emotional responses from the choristers as well as instructions for tempi, dynamics and timing. And Geiger is mischievous! He toys with the audience as he encourages them to sing even louder the next time to raise the vaulted roof of the cathedral. It was almost pantomimical and one could imagine exchanges along the lines of “I bet you can sing louder!”, “Oh no we can’t”, “Oh yes you can!”. It was a joy.

 

Cleverly, Geiger has the choir surround the entire audience on four sides at the beginning. The process, and the occasion feels solemn as well as theatrical. David Heath on organ is impressive, with carefully controlled dynamics, and he works well with the five instrumentalists, which include trumpet, trombone, cello, horn and tuba (which is especially well played).

 

As previously mentioned, the acoustic of a cathedral space is challenging, and vocal articulation is vital if a large choir is to be clearly heard (and understood). The Grads are particularly effective in delivering clear diction with songs that are pacier, and when they are unaccompanied and vibrato is minimised. There are some issues with clarity at the beginnings of phrases in My Lord Has Come, but Silent Night is near perfect and the audience clearly enjoy John Rutter’s novel arrangements of the music.

 

Mistletoebird is a highlight of the concert, and it’s a joy that the composer Rachel Bruerville is in the room to receive deserved applause from the large appreciative audience. Their rendition of The Magi’s Dream was dramatic and solid evidence of the Grads ability to convincingly tell a story through song.

 

The absolute highlight of the evening is a spirited performance of The Twelve Days of Christmas which included excellent and controlled dynamics, and a humorous burst of speed towards its conclusion. As an aside, there is a quirky article in the December 2025 edition of the Interlude.HK classical music newsletter entitled “A Fun Cost Analysis on 12 Days of Christmas” in which the authors estimate the cost of giving all those gifts! If you’re doing the full measure, which would be 12 partridges, 22 turtle doves, 30 French hens, etc., for a total of 364 presents, you’re at over $1.5 million for 12 days of fun. $1,535,405.64, to be exact. It’s expensive to be whimsical!

 

But there’s nothing whimsical about a Grads concert, and Songs of Joy is a vocal celebration of joy, a celebration of the human voice, and an affirmation of all that is virtuous with humanity.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 12 Dec

Where: St Peter’s Cathedral

Bookings: Closed