About the Choir

Under the direction of Founder & Artistic Director Lyn Williams, Sydney Children’s Choir has built a worldwide reputation for choral excellence. In the past 21 years, The Sydney Children's Choir has commissioned over 70 works from leading Australian composers and performs a significant number of Australian compositions each year. In this way, the Choir seeks to introduce worldwide audiences to a distinctive Australian choral sound and to increase audience appreciation of children’s choirs as a compelling medium for making music. 

The Sydney Children’s Choir is part of the Gondwana Choirs organisation and travels frequently throughout the world performing its Australian choral repertoire to great acclaim from international and national audiences. In July / August 2010 the Sydney Children’s Choir toured to China in celebration of the Choir’s 21st birthday. In June 2009 the Choir performed with the Gondwana National Indigenous Children’s Choir at The Dreaming Festival in Queensland. In September 2008 they travelled to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait for workshops and performances as part of their two year collaboration with Torres Strait Island communities. In September 2007 the Choir toured to Finland to participate in the international Sympatti Festival, to Estonia to collaborate with the Estonian Television Girls’ Choir and to Denmark to collaborate with the Danish National Girls’ Choir. In April of 2005 the Choir was the featured artist for Australian National Day at the World Expo in Aichi Japan and has toured extensively throughout Australia and to Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, France and the United Kingdom.

In 2010, the Sydney Children’s Choir has also performed to critical acclaim Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Gondwana Voices, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Symphony in February, sung at the International Society of Contemporary Music conference in Sydney in May, performed with all the choirs in the Gondwana family – including a 100 strong alumni choir – at their 21st birthday concert in the Opera House in July, and will perform Berlioz’s Te Deum with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in October and present Voices of Angels Christmas concerts with Gondwana Voices in December.

Highlights of the Sydney Children’s Choir’s 2009 season included the critically acclaimed world premiere performance of Ngailu – Boy of the Stars at the City Recital Hall Angel Place. In this work, commissioned by the Choir from Torres Strait Islander dancer and choreographer Sani Towson, Sydney composer Dan Walker and Torres Strait Islander visual artist Anthony Mayor, the Choir performed with 18 Torres Strait Islander members of the Gondwana National Indigenous Children’s Choir who travelled to Sydney from the Torres Strait Islands especially for the performance.  The Sydney Children’s Choir also performed Carmina Burana with the Sydney Symphony and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

In 2008 the Sydney Children’s Choir presented joint performances with the Young Voices of Melbourne and the St Louis Children’s Choir and performed with the Sydney Chamber Choir conducted by Richard Gill. In July, the Choir gave world premiere at the World Shakuhachi Festival, performed at the arrival of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as part of World Youth Day and gave a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. In November the Choir’s most recent CD Voices of Angels was released on the ABC Classics label. They also recorded for the film soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia.

In 2007 the Sydney Children’s Choir collaborated with the Nagoya Children’s Chorus in March in Sydney, and presented the world premiere of Heritage in Song, a critically acclaimed contemporary theatrical performance piece based around the stories and events in the lives of the current members of the Choir, their families and forebears, at the City Recital Hall Angel Place. They also performed at the APEC Leaders Week Cultural Performance at the Sydney Opera House and in Company B’s production of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie as part of the Sydney Festival.

The Sydney Children’s Choir’s performances in 2006 included the world premiere of Ross Edwards’ symphony The Promised Land with the Sydney Symphony and a concert with the Danish National Girls’ Choir. The Choir also performed on the soundtrack to the Academy Award winning film Happy Feet. In 2005, the Choir also performed with the Sydney Symphony in number of programs including Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust conducted by Charles Dutoit. During 2004, the Choir performed Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Symphony and William Walton’s Henry V, both with the Sydney Symphony and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Other recent performances include the Closing Ceremony of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, a concert in honour of his Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Sydney Opera House, the Dawn Ceremony performance on the sails of the Opera House as part of an international telecast, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the Sydney SuperDome to open the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival and the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games.