Saturday 29 August 2026 · The Concourse Theatre, Chatswood · Doors 7.00pm, concert 7.30pm · Formal dress
A full symphony orchestra.
A choir drawn from more than twenty denominations. A hall of fewer than five hundred seats, black tie, and a bar that opens the moment the doors do.
In 1895 a London impresario put the greatest music on earth in a room where ordinary people could walk about, talk, eat and drink, and called it the Proms.
The genius of it was never the formality. It was the welcome. We are taking that welcome and giving it back to Christ.
The whole evening rests on one line of Scripture, Psalm 150: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." You will hear it four times in one night, in four different musical languages. Dan Forrest's blazing Hallelu Yah. René Clausen's All That Hath Life and Breath, unaccompanied. Matt Boswell's setting for orchestra and soloists. And to finish, John Rutter's Psalm 150 for orchestra, choir and full brass, five of the most exhilarating minutes in the English choral tradition.
Around it sits Holst's Jupiter, sung as O God Beyond All Praising. The Benedictus from Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man, carried by solo cello. Michael Dooley's Suite from The Pilgrim's Progress. Our own Choir Director Matt Gibb's Were You There, in eight parts. And because a Proms night should also be a pleasure, Howard Shore's music from The Lord of the Rings.
Conducting is Natalia Raspopova, who opens the evening alone at the piano. Raised in the Russian Orthodox tradition, Natalia has recorded with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, been Assistant Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra alongside Simone Young and Marin Alsop, conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at London's Southbank, and reached the quarter finals of La Maestra in Paris.
Then the moment we have been waiting two years for. The Australian Christian Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir perform in public for the first time. They came together in May as the first phase of our youth programmes and have rehearsed every week since. On 29 August they walk onto a professional stage and play Tchaikovsky, Rutter and Jenkins, then stand shoulder to shoulder with the adults to finish the night.
This is a room where the whole Church stands together. Our Orchestra and Choir bring Catholics, Anglicans, Pentecostals, Orthodox, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Salvationists, Adventists and Lutherans onto one stage, sharing a music stand, playing for the same Lord. There is nowhere else in Sydney you can see that.
More than 6,600 people have gathered with us since 2022. Eight hundred came to Messiah. Six hundred and fifty came at Christmas. This theatre holds fewer than five hundred.
Early bird code PSALM150 takes $5 off every seat until Friday 14 August
Come dressed for it, come early, the bar is open from seven.
The Concourse is ninety seconds from Chatswood station.
Reclaiming the arts for Christ. Next stop, the Sydney Opera House.