Night Songs at Coney Island

Ceremony of innocence

A deeply moving work in an iconic Sydney location. This immersive choral music experience takes over Coney Island, featuring artists from the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, vocal soloists Peter Coleman Wright AO and Cheryl Barker AO, a children’s ensemble, and chamber orchestra performing music by Poulenc, Stravinsky and Mahler – capturing the darkness and light. 

Coney Island’s amusement hall has been a childhood escape from reality for almost a century, with rotating barrels, giant slides and funhouse mirrors. 

This playground setting comes to life with Poulenc’s buoyant and jubilant Sextet for Piano and Winds, before the shadow of grief and loss takes over, set against a community’s lament for atonement sung to Stravinsky’s Mass. Woven throughout the evening is Mahler’s hauntingly personal Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), performed by Coleman-Wright and Barker. 

Night Songs at Coney Island observes innocent children on the ride of their life. This is an evocative experience like no other, reflecting on innocence lost during times of conflict and greed. 

Program:

• Francis Poulenc Sextet for piano and winds

• Gustav Mahler Kindertotenlieder (arr. Byrne)

• Igor Stravinsky Mass 

• Edward Elgar Nimrod from Enigma Variations (arr. Byrne) 

Please note this event begins at Pier One, Walsh Bay. Patrons will take a ferry from Pier One to Luna Park as part of the show’s immersive musical experience. If you miss the ferry, you will need to find your own way to Coney Island. After the show, the ferry will take you back to Pier One.

Be advised that there will be periods of standing throughout the performance. Recommended for ages 12+

★★★★★ "A blazingly triumphant performance with soloists and choir on top form." – Limelight Magazine, on Handel's Samson, 2023

Visit the Sydney Festival website for all the details!