The concert will be led by the Dunedin RSA Choir, and will feature soloists, Knox Church Choir, a children’s choir, St Kilda Brass band ensemble, and City Organist David Burchell. It will be held from 7pm at Knox Church, entry by koha.
Solo passages will be sung by University of Otago Performance students Emma McClean, Calla Knudson, Lillian Gibbs, Kieran Kelly and Jesse Hanan.
Dunedin RSA Choir chairman Kevin Tansley said the choir had chosen to sing the "evocative and poignant mass" on Armistice Day, November 11, "to promote peace, especially considering the war in Ukraine, but to also remember those who gave their lives in past conflicts".
Choir director and conductor Karen Knudson said Jenkins’ The Armed Man — A Mass for Peace was also a timely and appropriate way for the choir to mark its centennial, after celebrations were delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The Armed Man is a very popular choral work, which is a powerful call for peace," Knudson said.
It was "very cool" to have large forces to marshall for the performance, including St Kilda Brass Band players to help give the piece "the right flavour".
She encouraged audience members to wear their medals, or those of their forebears, for the event.
The Dunedin RSA choir was formed after the end of World War 1 by returning servicemen.
Founder James McNish was motivated to form a choir after hearing Turkish soldiers singing in the trenches at Gallipoli, and vowed he would form a choir if he survived. He did, and the Dunedin RSA Choir performed its first concert at Dunedin Town Hall in 1920.
- Armistice Day commemorations, marking the end of World War 1 — at 11am on November 11, 1918, will be held at the cenotaph in Queens Gardens this Friday.
People are asked to gather from 10.45am, ready for the ceremony to start just before 11am with a two gun salute, fired by members of the Otago Gunners Association.
The service will be led by MC Lieutenant William Atkinson and Padre Aaron Knotts, with guest speaker former Police commissioner Howard Broad, CNZM.
Following the service, Toitu Otago Settlers Museum will host a free talk by Emeritus Professor Tom Brooking entitled "Loss: The Impact of the First World War Nationally and in Otago and Southland", at noon in the museum auditorium.
