Welcome to the home of the

Scholars Pro Musica Chamber Choir

The Scholars Pro Musica is a Mount Maunganui based chamber choir under the musical direction of Chalium Poppy. We are the only auditioned early-music based choral ensemble in the Bay of Plenty.  With a reputation for singing of remarkable magnificence and superb finesse, we seek to explore forgotten and often unknown choral works emphasizing stylistic sensitivity. While early music makes up the foundation of our repertoire, the Scholars repertoire spans choral music from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. Recently, the Scholars have received international accolades for the New Zealand premieres of choral works by Henry Purcell, Jean-Phillipe Rameau, and Michael Haydn.

Reviews

"Evident from the start was the hours of work the Choir Director must have invested in his Choir and Soloists to produce the French accented Latin, the embellishments on the cadence points, the phrasing and styling required for this period of music.  Numbering 23 voices, the choir in fact sounded much larger, producing confident singing"

- Bay of Plenty Times

"As a Handel fan I must confess that my favourite work of the day was Handel's Coronation Anthem No 3, 'The King Shall Rejoice', written for the coronation of George ll. It showed the distance travelled to arrive at the level of expertise shown at the concert. In typical Handellian fashion the choir rose to the drama and expressiveness demanded by one of the masters of early music..."

- Bay of Plenty Times