Dan Forrest’s REQUIEM FOR THE LIVING and the 2025 RMP ARIA FINAL
The Edge, Federation Square
RMP Artistic Director Andrew Wailes has announced the finalists for the 2025 RMP Aria Competition as chosen by the judges:
2025 RMP Aria Finalists:
· Amanda Hargreaves, soprano, 26, Heatherton, VIC (b. Melbourne, VIC)

JUDGES
Joining RMP Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Mr Andrew Wailes as judges on this year’s panel are Ms Sally-Anne Russell (leading Australian oratorio soloist, operatic mezzo-soprano and singing mentor), Mr Andrew Bainbridge (RMP Principal Organist; Director of the National Boys Choir of Australia; former continuo and organ soloist with Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras; and organist of both St Mary’s and St David’s Cathedral’s Hobart) and our official accompanist, Mr Peter de Jager (Internationally acclaimed pianist, RMP Associate Accompanist, 2014 Freedman Classical Fellow).
We encourage you to join us at the 19th RMP Aria Final on Saturday the 16th August at The Edge, Federation Square at 7pm. The evening will also feature a full-scale performance of Dan Forrest’s beautiful Requiem for the Living. Under the direction of conductor Andrew Wailes, it will be performed by the RMP Oratorio Festival Choir (over 160 voices) and RMP Chamber Orchestra, as well as outstanding soloists and Andrew Bainbridge (organ).
EXTRA AUDIENCE TICKETS can be booked through the RMP website www.rmp.org.au or from the MRC Box Office.
For further information, please visit the RMP Website: www.rmp.org.au
Hear some of the nation’s finest young singers battle it out in the final of Australia’s most prestigious oratorio soloists award, accompanied on piano, as well as a spectacular orchestral performance of Dan Forrest’s stunning “Requiem for the Living” – a beautiful and uplifting work, which has been hailed as “… a twenty-first century masterpiece”.
Requiem for the Living is a major choral symphonic composition in five movements by young American composer Dan Forrest, who is quickly emerging as one of that country’s most popular and important choral composers. Completed in 2013, it is a non-conventional and extended setting of the Requiem Mass, scored for boy soprano, soprano, choir and orchestra, and organ. The Latin text that Forrest set combines sections from the Requiem with biblical texts from Ecclesiastes and the Book of Job.
About Dan Forrest’s “REQUIEM FOR THE LIVING” “… a twenty-first century masterpiece”
Featuring :
Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir
Melbourne University Choral Society, Box Hill Chorale
with soloists, organ, and orchestra
conducted by Andrew Wailes
3pm, Matinee performance (concert only) JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT
7pm, Evening Gala (includes concert at the Final of the 2025 RMP Aria) JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT