News Archive

It may seem a tenuous link but the University was proudly represented on stage at the two recent Rolling Stones concerts at Perth Arena.

The Giovanni Consort, a semi-professional local choral ensemble, suddenly became rock'n'rollers when they backed one of Mick Jagger's signature songs , You Can't Always Get What you Want . Watch it here .

The choir, which performs a wide variety of music, but tends toward the classical repertoire, is used to performing at venues such as the Perth Concert Hall and Government House, where they sang recently. Listen to them here .

"Rock'n'roll is not normally part of our repertoire but it was a really cool thing," said Andrew O'Connor, the group's general manager who is also a singer and a graduate of the UWA School of Music.

The Giovanni Consort was formed about 15 years ago when the original ensemble were music students at UWA. Many of these have gone on to illustrious careers in composition (Iain Grandage), opera singing (Taryn Fiebig) or education (Andrew Sutherland).  More recent recruits to the Consort have been members of The Winthrop Singers under the guidance of Associate Professor Nicholas Bannan .

Nicholas is proud of the Giovannis' association with the Stones: "When I was a Cathedral chorister in Canterbury, some of my mates formed a tribute band that performed Satisfaction at a school concert in about 1965," he said.

"I have always loved this kind of cross-over, but would never have dreamed that the Stones would still be around 50 years later!  It is a useful reminder that, once you can achieve professional standards as a musician, the world is your oyster."