Ensemble Gombert
Ensemble Gombert is Melbourne’s outstanding chamber choir, noted for its pure intonation and historic approach to choral sound and style. Named after Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495–1560), it specialises in a cappella Franco-Flemish music of the High Renaissance.
The Ensemble’s subscription concerts are broadcast regularly on ABC Classic FM, and it has recorded several albums, among them Josquin to Martin (MCD 277) and Christmas to Candlemas (TP192). It appears frequently at festivals across Australia, and has toured to North America (2009) and three times to Europe (2004, 2006 and 2015).
Founded by John O’Donnell in 1990, the Ensemble quickly established a reputation for purity of tone, and in 1991 gave a ‘stunning rendition’ of two works by the Czech composer Petr Eben in the composer’s presence. In 1992 it was invited to open the ‘Rubens and the Italian Renaissance’ exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, and later that year won first prize at the inaugural Australian National Open Choral Championships in Wagga Wagga, NSW. It launched its first subscription series in 1995 and has presented a series each year since.
In 2004 it returned to the National Gallery to sing Monteverdi’s Vespers, presented by the Italian Institute of Culture with the ‘Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and his World’ exhibition. Other performances of note include the first Australian performances of Edmund Rubbra’s Mass in Honour of St Teresa of Avila and Arvo Pärt’s Canon of Repentance, and premieres of works by Australian composers Calvin Bowman, Andrew Robbie, Vaughan McAlley and Peter Campbell.
Complementing the annual concert series have been numerous return appearances at the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival and the Woodend Winter Arts Festival, culminating in an invitation to perform for the 2015 European Capital of Culture festival in Plzeň, Czech Republic. From 2016 the Ensemble has performed twice yearly in the Melbourne Recital Centre ‘Local Heroes’ series.
Ensemble Gombert is featured on the following titles
Josquin to Martin
A miscellany spanning High and Late Renaissance motets and nineteenth- and twentieth-century sacred works, drawn from Ensemble Gombert’s first European tour in 2004. The programme was chosen to complement Hommage à Gombert, then in production, with Gombert, Lassus and Monteverdi.
Ensemble Gombert also appears on
Music from 4 to 40 Parts
Angeli Vocal Ensemble, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, chamber choir Ensemble Gombert and the Four Seasons String Quartet perform Melbourne composer Vaughan McAlley’s music. The programme explores writing from four parts up to forty, in his distinctive approach to counterpoint.
Members of Ensemble Gombert
John O'Donnell
John O’Donnell, Director of Ensemble Gombert, studied at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and at the University of Durham. After performing Bach’s complete organ works in 1974, he built an international reputation as an organist and harpsichordist.
Vaughan McAlley
Vaughan McAlley is a composer and arranger, alto and tenor, a capable flautist and French horn player, and the recording engineer behind countless Move releases.