May 9th, 2025Songs of beauty and creation in concert

Dowland Songs of Beauty and Creation will be performed at Daylesford’s Stanbridge Hall on Saturday, May 10 from 2.30pm.  

The concert will feature Rosemary Hodgson, lute, Kate Macfarlane, soprano,  Christopher Roache, alto and tenor, Timothy Reynolds, tenor and Matthew  Champion, bass.  John Dowland is an English Renaissance composer, singer and lutenist.

The  concert will feature a range of voices singing Dowland’s melancholic songs.  

Rosemary Hodgson maintains a vibrant career as Australia’s virtuoso lutenist.  Specialising in the performance of historic guitars and lutes, she regularly engages in major festivals, recordings, and concert series throughout Australia and abroad.  

Soprano Kate Macfarlane has earned a reputation as a dynamic and versatile  singer on both the operatic and concert platforms.

She holds a Masters degree in  Baroque vocal performance from the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany,  where she studied under renowned counter-tenor Kai Wessel.  

Kyneton-based tenor and counter-tenor, Christopher Roache works as a choral  director, classroom music teacher, freelance singer and singing teacher.

Christopher performed as a tenor soloist in the 2022 Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival performance of three of J.S. Bach’s Cantatas and is a member of the eight-part vocal  group, the Melbourne Octet, where he sings both tenor and alto.  

Performed with The Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, The Bach Akademie Stuttgart, Timothy Reynolds has worked in Europe and across Australia. Overseas he has  Opera Holland Park, Philharmonischer Chor Esslingen, at the Edinburgh Fringe, and understudied several roles at Oper Stuttgart.  

Matthew Champion has performed widely in Australia and the UK, including  with OzOpera, Chamber Made Opera, Past Echoes, Palestrina Project, Buxtehude Consort, and the Choir of Newman College.

He was the director of the Queen’s  College Choir at the University of Melbourne, and since his return to Australia,  directed the newly formed polyphony ensemble Cantus temporum.  

Link: www.trybooking.com/eventlist/christchurchconcerts