Fusion Vocal Ensemble
​Fusion Vocal Ensemble is a chamber choir based in Brisbane, singing music that is harmonically diverse, textually evocative, and spiritually uplifting. Under the direction of Dr Debra Shearer-Dirié, the group brings together experienced ensemble singers to perform choral art music, mostly unaccompanied, with a focus on contemporary works. They enjoy collaborating on creative and unusual projects, actively looking for interesting music that is not often performed in this part of the world.
Summer Lovin' - Bangalow
Saturday 22 November 2025
Fusion would like to invite you to Summer Lovin', celebrating the warmth, playfulness, and passion of summer with a vibrant program spanning centuries and styles - from early music to pop, madrigals to modern ballads. The program will include 13th-century English round Sumer is icumen in, a selection of Renaissance madrigals, Piazzolla's Verano Porteño, Whitacre's A Boy and a Girl, iconic hits from The Beatles and Freddie Mercury, and even a splash of Taylor Swift.
Come and fall in love with summer - and the music - all over again!
*Please be aware of daylight savings in NSW, the concert begins at 3pm NSW time.
Bangalow A&I Society Hall
Summer Lovin' - Fortitude Valley
Sunday 16 November 2025
Fusion would like to invite you to Summer Lovin', celebrating the warmth, playfulness, and passion of summer with a vibrant program spanning centuries and styles - from early music to pop, madrigals to modern ballads. The program will include 13th-century English round Sumer is icumen in, a selection of Renaissance madrigals, Piazzolla's Verano Porteño, Whitacre's A Boy and a Girl, iconic hits from The Beatles and Freddie Mercury, and even a splash of Taylor Swift.
Come and fall in love with summer - and the music - all over again!
Lightspace
Navegação
Friday 8 August 2025
How can the maps of others be about our own journeys? Can the songs of others be about ourselves? The first edition of Fusion’s Navegação concert series offers a celebration of the remarkable choral composers and arrangers of Latin America. When navigators were underway towards the Americas in late 16th century, they were looking for something very different to what they found. The challenges of overcoming and accepting the differences and commonalities of people meeting again after tens of thousands of years of human dispersion unfolded with surprise, awe, trauma and adventure. People have been sharing the stories and emotions of continuous migrations, uprooting, relocating hurt and hope, amazement and awe. These experiences became a source of music making moored to persistent longing and the resisting and centring relief of dance and song, as sound and stories tell us about how we navigate living in our world.
BEMAC (Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre)
Spirited Light
Saturday 29 March 2025
Throughout history, the word 'saint' usually refers to a person as holy, a person who possesses a spiritual power. These figures have an aura of holiness, they perform miracles, they have been given divine grace.
Spirited Light will bring to life some of those who have been graced with this title over time. Through the language of music, their spirits, auras, and greatness will be revealed.
St Andrew's Anglican Church
soundtrack 2
Saturday 9 November 2024
Within the last 30 years the music that surrounds the Stage and Screen has changed and even transformed the theatre and cinema-going experience. We no longer hear the tuneful melodies from the movie eras of The Wizard of Oz or Singing in the Rain, composers such as Henry Mancini and Nacio Herb Brown, or even the musical leitmotifs that can be heard in King Kong.
Today, most music for the screen is created to provoke the audience into feeling something. Sometimes this music can barely be heard and often the music is created to lie under the action on the screen, percolating away to organically meld together the visual and aural. This music subtly gives time, place, and sometimes culture to what is on the screen.
The expanse of music to draw from is so large and varied, that Fusion will only just touch the tip of the iceberg in our soundtrack 2 program. We look forward to seeing you as we take you on our journey of presenting music from both the old and new.
Holy Trinity Anglican Church
Fusion Vocal Ensemble - Sacred Places
Sunday 5 May 2024
Alex Berko’s “Sacred Places” forms the centrepiece for this concert. Enveloped by the timbral blanket of piano, violin and cello, the voices in this multi-movement work sing texts by Wendell Berry, John Muir, William Stafford, Rabindranath Tagore, and the Old Testament. It connects the old with the new, the sacred with the secular, and the individual with their community. The texts speak of the environment as a place of safety, comfort, and beauty. The other works in this program will touch on home as a place of belonging.
North Pine Anglican Church
Fusion Vocal Ensemble - Sacred Places
Saturday 4 May 2024
Alex Berko’s “Sacred Places” forms the centrepiece for this concert. Enveloped by the timbral blanket of piano, violin and cello, the voices in this multi-movement work sing texts by Wendell Berry, John Muir, William Stafford, Rabindranath Tagore, and the Old Testament. It connects the old with the new, the sacred with the secular, and the individual with their community. The texts speak of the environment as a place of safety, comfort, and beauty. The other works in this program will touch on home as a place of belonging.
St Mary's Anglican Church
Fusion Vocal Ensemble presents 'In Beauty I Walk'
Saturday 29 July 2023
We are all on some kind of continuous journey. Each day that we live is linked to the next, and the previous, weaving the strands in our journey of life. The path our journey takes will have moments of searching for the right path, rite of passage, going down the wrong path, returning, joining with others, or going it alone. These journeys bring moments of joy, sorrow, fulfillment, accomplishment, and loss.
The Camino de Santiago has featured in Fusion's journey in Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles. We return to this same pilgrimage in Gabriel Jackson's To the Field of Stars. Written for SATB choir, cello, and percussion, the Fusion singers will be joined by Evalyn Legried (cello) and Grace Kruger (percussion).
A selection of other a cappella works will complete the program, with each creating its own unique sound world, complementing the texts on the topic of stars and journey.
Debra Shearer-Dirié, Musical Director
St Andrew's Anglican Church
Fusion presents Wood Works (Sandgate)
Sunday 23 October 2022
Following the success of Fusion's 2019 performance of the Danish String Quartet's 'Wood Works', the Brisbane vocal ensemble returns with two more performances of this unique transcription for voices, violin and cello. Comprising folk melodies and fiddle tunes from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Wood Works takes listeners on a musical journey across Scandinavia -- from lively dance pieces to traditional wedding songs, and from wistful waltzes to pensive polskas. The DSQ's immensely popular string quartet arrangements have been performed all over the world to critical acclaim. This vocal setting, produced especially for Fusion, brings a new flavour to these evocative arrangements by transforming them for the human voice. If you share a passion for Nordic folk music and exploring the traditional musical roots of this part of the world, don't miss Wood Works this October.
(Some street parking available near the Town Hall, or try Woolworths, Sandgate station or Einbunpin Lagoon Park.)
Sandgate Town Hall
Fusion presents Wood Works (Brisbane)
Saturday 22 October 2022
Following the success of Fusion's 2019 performance of the Danish String Quartet's 'Wood Works', the Brisbane vocal ensemble returns with two more performances of this unique transcription for voices, violin and cello. Comprising folk melodies and fiddle tunes from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Wood Works takes listeners on a musical journey across Scandinavia -- from lively dance pieces to traditional wedding songs, and from wistful waltzes to pensive polskas. The DSQ's immensely popular string quartet arrangements have been performed all over the world to critical acclaim. This vocal setting, produced especially for Fusion, brings a new flavour to these evocative arrangements by transforming them for the human voice. If you share a passion for Nordic folk music and exploring the traditional musical roots of this part of the world, don't miss Wood Works this October.
Doors open 5.30pm, bar available
Limited parking available on church grounds (enter from Church St) or street parking
Holy Trinity Church Hall
Fusion - Path of Miracles (Ipswich)
Sunday 17 October 2021
Fusion Vocal Ensemble performs Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot, an intriguing, moving, exciting and contemplative choral work taking listeners on a journey through northern Spain and the four staging posts along the Camino.
Bookings essential (no tickets at the door). Performance time is approximately 1 hour, with no interval.
St Mary's Catholic Church
Fusion - Path of Miracles (Brisbane)
Saturday 9 October 2021
Fusion Vocal Ensemble performs Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot, an intriguing, moving, exciting and contemplative choral work taking listeners on a journey through northern Spain and the four staging posts along the Camino.
Bookings essential (no tickets at the door). Performance time is approximately 1 hour, with no interval.
St John's Cathedral
QUANTUM
Saturday 26 October 2019
A choral exploration of the universe, with Dr Joel Corney (School of Mathematics and Physics, UQ). Music by Eriks Esenvalds, Ann-Sofi Soderqvist, Urmas Sisask, John Boswell, Daniel Knaggs, J.S. Bach, Queen and U2.
St Andrew's Anglican Church
Fusion + Duoz: Wood Works
Sunday 26 May 2019
Nordic and Baltic music for voices, violin and cello, including Peteris Vasks's 'Plainscapes' and the world premiere of the choral transcription of the Danish String Quartet's 'Wood Works'.
Doors and bar open from 5.30pm.
(Best parking is in Prospect St or Hynes St. There is also undercover parking at the Homemaker Centre on Wickham St (first 3 hours free), which is about a 5-minute walk away.)
Lightspace
Madrigali
Between Saturday 16 June 2018 and Sunday 17 June 2018
In true consort style, Fusion explores the Italian madrigals of Monteverdi and Marenzio, and the English part songs of Morley and Weelkes, with brief sojourns into French chansons and Spanish villancicos.
ONLINE BOOKINGS FOR THIS CONCERT ARE NOW CLOSED. PLEASE RING BRONWYN ON 0422 964 621 TO CHECK TICKET AVAILABILITY FOR SUNDAY'S PERFORMANCE. THANK YOU.
Chambers Building (under the clock tower)
ANCIENT LANDS: Choral music of wonder and mystery
Saturday 24 March 2018
Featuring Joseph Twist's evocative Hymn of Ancient Lands, plus music across the ages from Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Estonia, Latvia and Brazil
Directed by Debra Shearer-Dirié
St Andrew's Anglican Church
SOUNDTRACK: Choral music from the world of film
Saturday 11 November 2017
Fusion Vocal Ensemble presents a program of music from the world of film. Whether your genre tastes include action, drama, comedy, world cinema, musicals, romance, animation or the black & white classics, we've got a song to match!
NOTE: Online bookings closed Friday at midnight. To ask about last-minute ticket availability, please ring 0422 964 621.
Cupo
East & West: Choral music of the Asia Pacific
Saturday 12 August 2017
Join us for a meeting of two worlds as we explore the fusion of the Western choral tradition with the rich cultural history of Asia, including music from Japan, South Korea, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand.
St Andrew's Anglican Church
Path of Miracles - Brisbane
Saturday 1 April 2017
Fusion's next season will feature the stunning Path of Miracles by contemporary British composer Joby Talbot, taking listeners on a journey through northern Spain and four of the staging posts along the Camino trail. Talbot's beautiful music weaves together expressive vocal writing with text by Robert Dickinson to create an intriguing, moving, exciting, and contemplative work.
St John's Anglican Cathedral
Path of Miracles - Toowoomba
Saturday 25 March 2017
Fusion's next season will feature the stunning Path of Miracles by contemporary British composer Joby Talbot, taking listeners on a journey through northern Spain and four of the staging posts along the Camino trail. Talbot's beautiful music weaves together expressive vocal writing with text by Robert Dickinson to create an intriguing, moving, exciting, and contemplative work.
St Luke's Anglican Church
