UWA’s hallowed halls will echo to the strains of medieval mayhem when ChorusOZ and Perth Symphony Orchestra present Carl Orff’s choral epic Carmina Burana on AFL Grand Final day next month.

A volunteer choir of 200 backed by PSO’s professional musicians and vocal soloists will ring the rafters with the well-worn ad-jingle anthem, O Fortuna, amid two dozen “cantiones profanae” in a pastiche of life before woke was a thing.

Sydney-based conductor Brett Weymark brought ChorusOZ to Perth for the first time last year, taking over the 575-seat Heath Ledger Theatre for Mozart’s Requiem, and this year promises to be even bigger at UWA’s 900-capacity Winthrop Hall.

“From the thunderous ‘O Fortuna’ on, you’re on this wild rollercoaster ride through the fickleness of fate and fortune, the circle of life, the joys of wine, gambling, love, lust, passion. . . Carmina Burana has it all,” Weymark says.

And there are a few places left in the choir, as PSO creative director Fiona Campbell explains.

“It’s the most beautiful opportunity for people of any ability to join in and sing an epic choral work,” she says.

“It’s just the best fun and you’re so well supported to learn the music. There’s a combination of people who are very experienced choristers and some people who have never sung in a chorus or a choir. They send the music, they send you the learning tapes in advance, so there’s everything that you need to prepare.”

Weymark will lead sectional rehearsals for tenors, basses, altos and sopranos on September 25, before full chorus and orchestra combine for a run through and performance on September 26.

“So it’s a real thrilling ride and just a fabulous festive mood for the whole occasion,” Campbell says.

“And of course the work itself is so primal and loud and spectacularly dramatic and theatrical, it just makes the whole experience thrilling.”

Campbell, a distinguished opera diva, sang the alto solo in last year’s Requiem, alongside WA Opera soprano Prudence Sanders and baritone Paul Clayton, who both back up this year for Carmina Burana.

They are joined by tenor Perry Joyce, who sang with Clayton in the 2020 WA Symphony Orchestra production which reopened Perth Concert Hall after COVID shutdowns.

There is no alto solo for Campbell this year, but that’s all in the creative director’s job description.

“I’m the happiest when I’m employing other artists,” she says. “Then I get to relax and enjoy the show.”

Following the old adage, “fill the stage to fill the hall”, last year was a sellout and this year promises the same.

“We sold out the State Theatre Centre’s Heath Ledger Theatre last year and we had a huge number of people, including people from interstate who came to sing with us, which was lovely, and even an international or two,” Campbell says.

“This year there’s already more people signed up for it, so it’s going to build and build, we hope.

“Obviously Winthrop Hall is much bigger than the State Theatre Centre and it is the AFL Grand Final.

“But there’s lots of people who don’t watch the AFL Grand Final, believe it or not, who are looking for something else to do, and this is the perfect antidote.”

Sign up at chorusoz.com.au/perth/