“How fortunate for any composer, young or old, to have one of the doyen of Australian art song performers, Jenny Duck-Chong as your musical protagonist.”
Alan Holley, Classikon, February 2020
Read moreIn Nature
“Finely wrought by artistic director Jenny Duck-Chong … [the] programme’s diversity of composers and sonic forces presented many different colours of nature and the human predicaments enveloped by its power”
Paul Nolan, Sydney Arts Guide, October 2019
Read moreThe Art of Disappearing
Holland-Batt’s words are given life by mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong, co-founder of Halcyon. Her beautifully measured delivery and bell-like purity works with the strings so well that at times it seems all might be emanating from the same breath.
Lisa MacKinney, Limelight October 2019
Read moreThe Art of Disappearing
“Lam writes with assured confidence for Duck-Chong’s clear warm mezzo-soprano voice and the result is a perfect partnership of words, melody, emotion and cerebral contemplation.”
Victoria Watson, Sounds Like Sydney, June 2019
Read moreThe Art of Disappearing
“The soundscape is minimalist. Duck-Chong’s beautifully rounded voice is incisive yet gentle and she sings with impeccable diction. Amply suited to contemporary style, her voice joins the quartet as another instrument, straddling wild leaps in register and unerring in pitch.”
Shamistha de Soysa, Sounds Like Sydney, June 2019
Read moreFrom the Hungry Waiting Country
“I would encourage even those disinclined to engage with unfamiliar contemporary work to challenge yourselves with this strikingly lush collection of vocal chamber works by Elliott Gyger, performed masterfully by Halcyon.”
Alex Rainieri, Loudmouth e-zine, May 2019
Read moreFrom the Hungry Waiting Country
“Singers Jenny Duck-Chong and Alison Morgan, aka Halcyon, have been quietly getting on with making tricky and beautiful things for two decades now. For this, their latest CD, they return to the music of Elliot Gyger, a composer, colleague and co-creator who has been with them throughout their journey. It is a potent combination: Gyger juggles words, notes, jokes and observations, meanings and warnings with uncanny skill, creating something at once complex and as clear as still water; Duck-Chong and Morgan take his ideas and make them dance with deceptive ease. “
Harriet Cunningham, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 2019
Read moreFrom the Hungry Waiting Country
“Hardly surprising for the composer of the acclaimed chamber opera version of David Malouf’s Fly Away Peter (2015), this album presents some of the most virtuosic and uplifting vocal music ever created by an Australian composer.”
Vincent Plush, The Australian, December 2018
Read moreShining Shores
“For Halcyon, their last concert for 2018 could be considered something of a landmark for the vocal chamber group. Formed in 1998 by mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong and soprano Alison Morgan, the ensemble has been a leading light in the fostering of new Australian art music, especially for voice. With Duck-Chong now at the helm as Artistic Director, the group celebrates their 20th year of enthralling and engaging music-making with their program, Shining Shores.”
Heath Auchinachie, Classikon, December 2018
Read moreFrom the Hungry Waiting Country
“As a collection of contemporary compositions, it is a testament to the substantial history of collaborative performances by Halcyon and their colleagues. The voices blend beautifully, with a purity of tone and little vibrato, well matched in timbre and style. The vocal writing is adventurous; the complex rhythms with explorations of tonality and harmony are formidable and are ably achieved by the performers who make up an experienced and tightly knit ensemble, exploring 21st century music, its ability to engage and the power of its messages.”
Shamistha de Soysa, Sounds Like Sydney, November 2018
Read moreThis Moment Must Be Sung
“This moment must be sung is an important snapshot of contemporary Australian chamber song writing and performance.”
Shamistha de Soysa, SoundslikeSydney, October 2018
Read moreWar Letters
“This music enhances and underlines the emotional impact of war in settings of letters written by people who experienced the actuality first hand, as relevant today as ever.”
Gwen Bennett, Music Trust Loudmouth e-zine, February 2017
The Poet's Voice
"Kerry created music that shimmered like water and brought out liquid motifs on the piano. Duck-Chong’s mezzo soprano beautifully amplified the glassy piano chords and string harmonies suggesting still and then suddenly shattered water surfaces. Malouf’s songs are intensely atmospheric and the performance captured this."
Ben Apfelbaum, Sydney Arts Guide September 2016
The Poet's Voice
"It is an important cultural event when one of Australia’s leading composers has a premiere of a work performed by one of Australia’s most iconic new-music groups, Halcyon and even more so when the text is by David Malouf, one of our national living treasures. Gordon Kerry’s Three Malouf Songs is a substantial new addition to the repertoire."
Alan Holley, Classikon Sept 2016
The Poet's Voice
"I’m fascinated by the range of voices that came across so clearly, with such individuality, in the words and the music. And I’m fascinated by how the two mediums met and entwined and embroidered each other"
Harriet Cunningham, A Cunning Blog Sept 2016
Kingfisher: Songs for Halcyon
"The human voice — and some of the best harmonising you’re likely to hear anywhere — is at the centre of Kingfisher"
- Steve Moffatt, NewsLocal July 2016
Read more
Kingfisher: Songs for Halcyon
"little gems that caress the ear in beauteous, rhapsodic and reflective sounds"
Vincent Plush, The Australian February 2016
Kingfisher: Songs for Halcyon
"Kingfisher – Songs for Halcyon is a substantial project. It has expanded significantly the repertoire of contemporary Australian song, leaving an enduring gift for the future."
Shamistha de Soysa, Sounds Like Sydney, November 2015
Waves I & II
"These two CDs are top quality. They present composers and performers of distinction and the results are exemplary. May there be many more."
Gwen Bennett, Music Trust Loudmouth e-zine November 2015
Winter Moon Secrets
"this concert transported listeners via music to a very different but desperately beautiful world of autumn winds, icy hills and footsteps in the snow."
Luke Iredale, Classikon September 2015