Highlights include world premieres, an Indigenous dance collaboration, and the chamber version of Fauré’s Requiem.

The Song Company has announced its programme for 2018, featuring world premieres by established and emerging Australian composers, an intimate arrangement of Fauré’s Requiem, and a cross-art collaboration with Indigenous choreographer Thomas E. S. Kelly.

The season begins in the 16th century, with a concert of selections from the Dow Partbooks, containing works by William Byrd, Robert Parsons, Robert White and others. The second programme harks back earlier still to medieval France, with a series of ballads and lays by poet-composer Guillaume de Machaut, who tells his ‘true love story’ in song.

The ensemble has also commissioned two new works to mark the centenary of the 1918 peace which brought the first world war to an end. It will be a programme framed by newly commissioned music by three Australian composers: Ruth McCall, Ella Macens, and Ross Edwards. Later in the year, Edwards also provides the pretext for a special celebration concert, a December one-off which will commemorate his 75th birthday with a chamber version of Fauré’s ageless Requiem.

A pair of dancers from The Thomas...