Next Masterworks Choral concert will have a definite Down Under feel

Masterworks Choral Ensemble will sing the United States premiere of “Dreams & Visions,” a multipart piece about love and community, during Saturday’s “Outback Odyssey” performance.

The 50-minute piece for chorus and orchestra by Australian composer John Peterson incorporates writings from Dante, Khalil Gibran, Walt Whitman and contemporary Australian poets — even speeches and newspaper headlines.

“What unifies the texts is his compositional style,” said Masterworks director Gary Witley. “It’s very rhythmic. It has beautiful soaring melodies. It’s a passionate and powerful work.”

Though the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir commissioned the piece, first performed in 2011, “Dreams & Visions” has universal themes, Witley said. “It’s a timely statement of unity and respecting differences that can speak to us all,” he said.

In a 2011 video made by the Sydney choir, Peterson said his creative process began with looking for texts and developing the themes, which include care for other people and care for the Earth.

“It had to have some overarching ideas that would amount to something,” he said in the video. “There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a 50-minute piece and going, ‘Oh, is that all it is?’ ”

“Dreams & Visions” will feature professional soloists Brianna Kramer of Olympia and Ryan Christopher Bede of Tacoma. Mezzo-soprano Kramer has performed in many musicals and operas, including work with the Arizona Opera. Bede, a baritone, has performed with Seattle Opera, Tacoma Opera and other companies.

The choir will perform with a 10-piece orchestra led by Ian Edlund, former director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra.

This is the first time Masterworks has focused a concert on the music of a single country. The other pieces on the program are “The Wanderer” by Dan Walker, which includes Australian indigenous language, and “Warri and Yatungka” by Paul Jarman, inspired by the true story of an aboriginal couple known as the Australian Romeo and Juliet.

Also during the concert, Masterworks will present its annual Salute to the Arts Award to John Welsh, founding music director and conductor of Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia.

Both Witley and the choir have connections with Australia. The choir director and his wife had a destination wedding there in 1998, and Masterworks performed there in 2002. But the choice of the theme was a coincidence. Witley came across the Australian Music Centre, which promotes the country’s music, and when he began to explore, he was captivated by “Dreams & Visions.”

While Australia might seem exotic, the pieces on Saturday’s program will feel familiar to fans of choral music.

“The music is from the European choral tradition,” he said. “If you walked in on a concert of choral and orchestral music in Australia, you could be in Washington state.

“It’s very accessible to our audiences.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Next Masterworks Choral concert will have a definite Down Under feel."