Your Custom Text Here
“Jenny Duck-Chong spoke about vocal chamber music as music that opens your ears. That has certainly been true for me, but it also opens the heart. The proximity of the performers allows for a personal connection that transcends the confines of larger concert settings…if you get a chance to see Halcyon, go, you will be enriched.”
Pepe Newton, Classikon October 2023
Read more“a totally committed and wonderful performance from Duck-Chong and Larsen”
Alan Holley, Classikon, Sept 2022
Read more“Finely wrought by artistic director Jenny Duck-Chong … [the] programme’s diversity of composers and sonic forces presented many different colours of nature and the human predicaments enveloped by its power”
Paul Nolan, Sydney Arts Guide, October 2019
Read more“Lam writes with assured confidence for Duck-Chong’s clear warm mezzo-soprano voice and the result is a perfect partnership of words, melody, emotion and cerebral contemplation.”
Victoria Watson, Sounds Like Sydney, June 2019
Read more“For Halcyon, their last concert for 2018 could be considered something of a landmark for the vocal chamber group. Formed in 1998 by mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong and soprano Alison Morgan, the ensemble has been a leading light in the fostering of new Australian art music, especially for voice. With Duck-Chong now at the helm as Artistic Director, the group celebrates their 20th year of enthralling and engaging music-making with their program, Shining Shores.”
Heath Auchinachie, Classikon, December 2018
Read more"Kerry created music that shimmered like water and brought out liquid motifs on the piano. Duck-Chong’s mezzo soprano beautifully amplified the glassy piano chords and string harmonies suggesting still and then suddenly shattered water surfaces. Malouf’s songs are intensely atmospheric and the performance captured this."
Ben Apfelbaum, Sydney Arts Guide September 2016
"It is an important cultural event when one of Australia’s leading composers has a premiere of a work performed by one of Australia’s most iconic new-music groups, Halcyon and even more so when the text is by David Malouf, one of our national living treasures. Gordon Kerry’s Three Malouf Songs is a substantial new addition to the repertoire."
Alan Holley, Classikon Sept 2016
"I’m fascinated by the range of voices that came across so clearly, with such individuality, in the words and the music. And I’m fascinated by how the two mediums met and entwined and embroidered each other"
Harriet Cunningham, A Cunning Blog Sept 2016
"this concert transported listeners via music to a very different but desperately beautiful world of autumn winds, icy hills and footsteps in the snow."
Luke Iredale, Classikon September 2015
"one of the most important and satisfying concerts in Sydney for a very long time"
Alan Holley, Classikon July 2014
"Thank goodness for Halcyon."
Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald May 2014
"creating a progressive Australian vocal repertoire and a new understanding of how to write to the voice in a post-modern age."
Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald March 2014
"Kingfisher – Songs for Halcyon is a substantial gift for the present and a legacy for the future."
Shamistha de Soysa, Sounds Like Sydney March 2014
"A true celebration"
Alan Holley, Classikon March 2014
"Halcyon is a creative powerhouse for Australian (and international) new music."
Harriet Cunningham, Sydney Morning Herald March 2014
"Two significant 21st century vocal chamber works filled out this compelling program."
Paul Nolan, artshub September 2013
"Offbeat stunning and genius"
David Gyger, North Shore Times September 2012
"the two singers blending beautifully"
David Gyger, North Shore Times June 2012
"The results were impressive: nine well-formed new works, all displaying their own, distinctive voice and all performed with a thrilling mix of commitment and virtuosity."
Harriet Cunningham, Sydney Morning Herald November 2011
"Intriguing world premiere"
David Gyger, September 2010
