Join tHE ORANGE REGIONAL MUSEUM on Saturday 25 March at 4pm to experience the Dunera Mass in a special collaboration with the Orange Regional Conservatorium’s Symphonic Choir, performed amongst Orange Regional Museum’s exhibition Enemy Aliens: the Dunera boys in Orange, 1941.

This is an opportunity to hear this choral work performed perhaps for the first time since 1941. The Dunera Mass is one of a few newly re-discovered manuscripts composed by internee Max-Peter Meyer aboard the HMT Dunera and performed while detained in Hay, Orange and Tatura.

Max-Peter Meyer (1892-1950) was one of many musicians among the Dunera boys, and went on to become a professor and Fellow of the London College of Music after leaving Australia.

Bookings are encouraged but not essential.

About Enemy Aliens: the Dunera boys in Orange, 1941

In September 1940, more than 2000 'enemy aliens' were transported from Britain to Australia on board the HMT Dunera. Interned in camps in regional New South Wales and Victoria, the story of the Dunera boys, is an intrinsic part of the history of Australia in the Second World War and in its aftermath.

This exhibition tells the little-known story of the time the Dunera boys spent at the Orange Showground in 1941 and features artworks created during their internment. Many are drawn from the archives of relatives and private lenders, as well as never-before-seen works from recently acquired collections held by the State Library of NSW. This project was developed by Dr Seumas Spark, Adjunct Fellow in History at Monash University, Emeritus Professor Andrew Mcnamara from the Queensland University of Technology and translator Kate Garrett, in conjunction with Orange Regional Museum.

Project Information

This event is part of the ‘Sharing music of the Dunera boys, Orange’ project, a collaboration between Orange Regional Museum, the Orange Regional Conservatorium and Nicole Forsyth.

This project is supported by Create NSW’s Country Arts Support Program, a devolved funding program administered by Arts OutWest.

Image: Orange Regional Conservatorium