Our Lady of Dolours Church: Sydney (AUSTRALIA)

So, after exploring so many churches and cathedrals in Europe, I'm starting to explore the many churches in Australia as concert venues as well. On this day, we had a concert at the Catholic Our Lady of Dolours Church in the Chatswood area of Sydney. It is a bit of a strange church, as it appears that are many congregations that use it... I do wonder if all of them are Catholic, or if many denominations use the shared space.

Anyway, my interest here is more as a concert venue rather than a religious place. Now... although it appears sunny and bright, it was actually a bit of a chilly day... and it was much colder inside the church than it was outside in the early winter Sun!

From the entrance, we see the large high topped roof, with the curved ends. The space opens out into a large T sort of shape... which isn't always ideal for sound, as most of our sound ends up dissipating into these unused areas.

As I had mentioned before, it was pretty cold inside... many churches in Australia (many buildings as well) are designed with the hot Australian summer in mind... and so, they aren't really that great at keeping heat inside... of course, it doesn't help when there are also doors that are open...

Sadly... no real designs on the roof. This was a feature that I loved from European churches and old concert halls... the paintings and frescos that would adorn the roof and give me something to admire and look at whilst on stage! Still, a geometric pattern is better than nothing!

Looking back from the "stage"/altar... you see a nice little organ down the back. I'm curious to know if it was a proper air-pipe organ, or an electronic one with a facade. Something that I also noticed for this charge was the lack of stained glass windows... it does make for a brighter atmosphere, but it is sadly a lot less pretty!

Also, lining the walls of the church are the familiar stations of the Cross... a staple wall decoration of any self-respecting Catholic church!

Now, the place itself was quite boomy to play in... and more than a touch cold in the early winter afternoon of Sydney. The long resonance time meant that we had to take some slower tempi for the concerts... always tricky to maintain the same level of energy and excitement when you are playing slower in the interests of clarity!

LOL... and just in case you were wondering, yes... there are instructions for the correct way to tie a rope cincture! Just in case you were hoping for a monk-like look the next time you were going out... or if you have just run out of belts!