27 November 1998 Enjoy a lunchtime of song at final Music Society concert for year

Lincoln University Music Society concludes its 1998 season of campus/community concerts on a vocal note with mezzo contralto Raeleen Donald presenting a recital from the works of Brahms, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Ivor Novello and Granville Bantock.

Raeleen, a staff member with Lincoln Hospitality, will be accompanied by pianist Veronica Van der Knaap and cellist Ellen Doyle.

The concert, with free admission, is in Memorial Hall at 12.40pm on Wednesday 2 December and all staff and students on campus are welcome, along with members of the various townships and communities around the University.

For her programme Raeleen has chosen – Brahms' Gestillte Sehnsucht (Tranquil Yearning) and Geistliches Wiegenlied (Sacred Lullaby); Mussorgsky's Little Star So Bright; Rimsky­ Korsakov's The Rose Has Charmed the Nightingale; Rachmaninov's Oh Sing No More, Lilacs, and At Night; Novello's Love Is My Reason For Living and Some Day My Heart Will Awake; and Bantock's Winter Sleep; The Peach Flower; Yung Yang; and Lament of Isis.

For most of her life Raeleen has been involved in music, studying singing initially with Joan Davies and latterly Mary Adams Taylor. During that time she has been a member of several choirs including the Jubilate Singers.

Raeleen has performed several successful solo recitals with a wide range of repertoire, although her first love is German Lieder. She has been soloist in Handel's Messiah and Acis & Galatea, Bach's St John and St Matthew Passions and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. She has also recorded broadcasts for Radio NZ including Vivaldi's Stabat Mater and Magic Horn by Gustav Mahler.

Most recently Raeleen performed the role of Filipevnya in Canterbury Opera's production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Pianist Veronica Van der Knaap, who will accompany Raeleen, is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatorium. She has lived in New Zealand since 1971 and is active as a music teacher, accompanist and occasional soloist.

Raeleen's other accompanist for the concert, Ellen Doyle, is well known in Christchurch as a foremost cellist, a prominent cello teacher and a long-time member of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand