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    

Work to rennovate Daylesford’s historic Stanbridge Hall is expected to start within days after funding was secured from the Anglican Diocese of Bendigo from the sale of church properties.

Situated on Central Springs Road in Daylesford, the historic hall was once the first girls school in Daylesford and was established by the pastoralist and mining investor William Edward Stanbridge, a notable local historic figure.

It has been in urgent need of rennovation for some years and works are now expected to begin within days.

Work will include repainting walls, installation of window furnishings, re-flooring the stage, new and directional lighting in the hall, a new commercial kitchen and a new pantry.

The space currently known as “The Green Room” will be renovated and extended making it very suitable for small groups to hire for craft, small conferences and meetings, while the stage is well suited to live performances.

Music students from Daylesford Primary School, Daylesford College, and Ballarat’s Loreto College
were thrilled to meet Canadian superstar violinist and conductor, Alexandre Da Costa, and his 1701
Stradivarius violin, at an afternoon tea in Stanbridge Hall, Daylesford in recent days.
One of the questions from the young students was “Have you ever dropped it?”, to which the answer, luckily, was no!
The event was organised by U3A Hepburn Shire and funded by the Community
Bank Daylesford District.
Students Lucy Martin-Lucoszek, Arlo Schwarz-Deakin and Olive Schwarz- Deakin with Alexandre Da Costa
Words & image: Sandy Scheltema