Performance History

Drs Robb Dennis and Allen Steele founded The Promise in 2005. Dennis, a senior lecturer in music at the time, directed the ensemble for seven years, returning with it to his home state of California, USA, in 2011. Steele served as an Assistant to the President for Advancement.

The first performances of note for The Promise were at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific’s five-yearly business meeting and at Sydney Adventist Hospital’s Carols by Candlelight in 2005.

The following year, The Promise performed during a televised worship service in St Paul’s Cathedral during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, released its debut album, The Promise, and toured New Zealand.

Signing in 2010 with the Psalter Music label led to the release of The Promise’s second album, Faithful, in 2011. Performances that year included the inaugural Gabe Reynaud Awards at the Manifest Creative Arts Festival and the Institute of Worship’s Hymns and Songs of Praise, which it headlined.

In 2012, The Promise performed at the Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia’s Winter School in Townsville and as support for German a cappella ensemble Amarcord after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation announced the Avondale ensemble as a finalist in a vocal competition.

The release of The Promise's third album, Give Thanks, and an invitation to perform at Australia’s largest Christian music festival, Easterfest, came in 2013.

A collaboration with composer David Pudney and his Avondale Jazz Ensemble led to the release of The Promise’s fourth album, Jesus: HIStory, in 2014. Both ensembles performed with multi-instrumentalist Adrian Cunningham at the launch. The Promise, with Pudney and Cunningham as support, then returned to Easterfest. The next performance of Jesus: HIStory: with James and John Morrison. The Promise also toured New Zealand with the Institute of Worship and performed at Kodály’s National Conference in 2014.

The year 2015 saw The Promise collaborating with The Song Company and touring Melbourne. The year 2016 began with a return to the Kodály National Conference, and the ensemble went back to the studio late in the year and recorded its fifth album, The Promise Songbook, which it launched with performances at Avondale and in Sydney in 2017. The year also included performances at Avondale Alumni’s Gospel Homecoming concert, Avondale Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church’s annual Spring Service and Avondale School's Community Christmas Carols.