QUMS Semester 2 2025 Concert - "Bread and Empty Chairs"

Tickets on Sale Now - see below and press "Get Tickets" button to purchase. 

The Queensland University Musical Society (QUMS) is proud to present our Semester 2, 2025 Concert, "Bread and Empty Chairs", conducted by Guillaume Lemay-Yates. The concert features three distinctive works that explore aspects of the human condition through a nuanced interplay of voices and instrumentation:

• Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands draws inspiration from Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, integrating fragments of early music with modern compositional techniques. The piece invites reflection on themes of vulnerability, displacement, and shared responsibility, combining choral textures, spoken word, and tonal ambiguity. In the fifth movement the harmony is passed around, overlapping only briefy, while numerical fgures are spoken by the choir. These are global fgures of internally displaced persons, by country, sourced from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) data. As Caroline states - "sometimes data is the cruelest and most honest poetry". 
• Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, which premiered in Oslo in 2008, blends the traditional Latin Mass with atmospheric and cinematic musical textures. The work traces a path from abstraction to emotional clarity, with movements titled The Spheres, Sunrise, The City, and Identity & The Ground frame a journey from the abstract to the personal, mirroring the music’s transition from tonal ambiguity to grounded resolution.
• Brisbane based composer (and QUMS member) Mia McKinnon's SUM is a choral work that examines how identity is shaped through personal and ancestral influence. Drawing from the concept that “we are a mosaic of everyone who has ever touched our lives,” the piece traces everyday habits and creative expression back to people and moments that left a mark. The text reflects on heritage across generations - recognising that our existence depends on thousands of lives stretching across centuries. Through this lens, SUM presents a perspective on legacy and continuity, positioning each of us within a broader historical and cultural narrative.

Location:

The concert will be held in the GHD Auditorium, which is inside the Advanced Engineering Building (49) at The University of Queensland, St Lucia. 

UQ is very accessible by public transport, bicycle, or car. The best parking is the Grassy Knoll car park (P11) or on Sir William MacGregor Drive near-by. A limited number of accessible car parks are available closer to the building. For more info on accessible parking, see the UQ website. 

The venue is wheelchair accessible, please do let us know if you have any further questions.

Tickets:

We have a special discount for groups of 3 available now. We are happy to discuss volume discount for groups larger than 3, contact treasurer@qums.au for more options.

Tickets also available at the door.

Special Mentions: 

QUMS is grateful to Jerica Lau for sharing her time and skills with us this semester, accompanying our rehearsal sessions.