The Aureo Castro Vocal Works album

On April 6, 2019, the Aureo Castro Vocal Works Album was launched in Macau. The Learners Chorus is proud to have recorded two of Fr. Castro’s choral works and to have participated in the combined choir for the recording of his large scale choral work Te Deum. Miriam Choi of Learners represented the choir at the launch event.

In May 2018 the Learners Chorus was invited by Academia de Música S. Pio X (聖庇護十世音樂學院) of Macau to participate in the public performance and recording of the majestic Te Deum by Macanese composer Fr. Aureo Castro at the St. Lazarus Church in Macau.

Fr. Castro founded and directed the Academia, then the first music school in Macau, and was arguably the preeminent musician in Macau from c. 1960 until his death in 1993. In his lifetime Fr. Castro rarely talked about his compositions, and the true extent of his composition was discovered, catalogued and performed posthumously. This performance of the Te Deum, conducted by Veiga Jardim, was the first recording of the work after its premiere in Lisbon in 1958. The combined choir included singers from the Academia de Musica S. Pio X Choir, Coro Perosi of Macau, Chummy Choir and The Learners Chorus.

Later in the year, the Learners was again invited to record two additional choral pieces from Fr. Castro’s “Chinese Melodies for Mixed Choir” – his arrangement of Hung tau tzi (紅豆詞) and the joyous Gong tzi fa choi (恭喜發財), which the Chorus recorded in November at the Hong Kong Children’s Choir West Kowloon Centre Recital Hall, conducted by our Music Director Apollo Wong. A soprano of Learners, Harmony Chen, sang the solo part for the recording of Hung tau tzi.