Adelaide Chamber Singers (ACS) is embracing the idea that music can have healing powers as it launches its 40th anniversary season this year with a performance designed to heal and inspire. The concert, titled Heal You, is part of the Adelaide Festival’s 2025 lineup.
The evening promises to be a deeply transformative experience, combining traditional and contemporary pieces, including works by female composers. ACS will perform on Thursday, 13 March at 7:30 pm under the baton of Artistic Director and Conductor, Christie Anderson.
Following their involvement in the Adelaide Festival’s major opera Innocence, where they performed as the off-stage chorus, the singers of ACS will shift gears to present Heal You—a program focused on nurturing, healing, and joy. The concert will be a welcome balm for the soul, filled with music that resonates with both vulnerability and strength.
Christie Anderson, who has carefully curated the performance, shares, “In the wake of the raw emotions stirred by Innocence, Heal You was designed to acknowledge and soothe. The program explores the space between emotion and functionality—an area where women, in particular, have always thrived. It’s about feeling deeply, especially when challenged, yet still managing to move through life with grace.
With pieces from contemporary composers like Anna Meredith, we delve into the transformative power of music during our most vulnerable moments.
The program will feature Meredith’s title piece, as well as works that address themes of peace and healing, such as Caroline Shaw’s and the swallow, Anne Cawrse’s Night/Light (a work commissioned by ACS for the 2023 Adelaide Biennial of Art), and Jake Runestad’s Let My Love Be Heard, which was written in response to the 2015 Paris bombings.
The concert also includes compositions by Joanna Marsh, Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, and British singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé. Additionally, Anderson has selected pieces like Sally Whitwell’s The Lightness of Being and Reena Esmail’s Tuttarana to uplift the spirits with joy and energy.
ACS’s full 40th anniversary season includes future concerts that promise to Inflame You, Celebrate You, and Raise You in a year-long celebration of their legacy and commitment to exceptional choral music.
Concert details
- What? Heal You by the Adelaide Chamber Singers
- When? Thursday, 13th March, 7.30pm
- Where? Adelaide Town Hall
- Cost: Adults from $58, Concessions from $48. Festival Friend, Companion Card, U30 and Student tickets available.
Tickets to Heal You are available now on the Adelaide Chamber Singers website at adelaidechambersingers.com
