Olivia Pike. Photo supplied.Mid Canterbury music lovers will be spoiled for choice this coming weekend as both the Ashburton Musical Club and Mid Canterbury Choir are staging concerts.

Accomplished vocalist Olivia Pike will star in the Ashburton Musical Club public concert Olivia Pike in Recital at the Sinclair Centre on Saturday at 7.30pm.

She will be joined by several invited guests including her younger brother Joshua Pike.

The concert will feature a variety of performances, both vocal and instrumental.

Having performed regularly for the club as a young singer and pianist while still at Ashburton College, Pike is looking forward to performing her first public concert for the club.

The University of Otago Bachelor of Music graduate is a choral accompanist for various Dunedin choirs, and has performed in several operas.

She is an accompanist for the Ashburton MSA Men’s Choir and credits many of her performance opportunities to her involvement with this choir, including singing with Simon O’Neill several times over the last few years.

On Sunday, Mid Canterbury Choir members are presenting for the first time The Heavens Declare, at St Stephen’s Anglican Church, 2pm.

Guest artists are soprano Olivia Stewart, a former choir member now studying music at Victoria University, as well as organist Martin Setchell and violinist Ruth Hall.

Setchell is also musical director for the concert.

Soloists include Stewart as well as contralto Ann Robinson, tenor David O’Beirne and bass Stephen Diedricks, while accompanists are Diedricks and Alison Holden.

The Heavens Declare is to feature classical music by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Fauré, and includes The Coronation Mass featuring the four soloists along with the choir.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 8 May 2017