The Sydney Eisteddfod is an independent community based not-for-profit organisation limited by guarantee a registered charity in Sydney, Australia, and listed on the federal Register of Cultural Organisations eligible to receive tax-deductible donations. Directors and advisors are honorary.

About

Sydney

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, a ...

annually presents a competitive festival with the help of arts and education professionals. The Festival involves events for singers, dancers, actors, musicians, choirs, bands and orchestras, along with creative categories for composers, writers and poets. The Sydney Eisteddfod formerly known as the City of Sydney Eisteddfod opened in 1933. held from 9 to 26 August 1933 in the Sydney Town Hall, The Assembly Halls, The Railway Institute Halls and Paling's concert Hall. The illustrated souvenir programme cost one shilling. The Sydney Eisteddfod acts as a reference source for public enquiries about other competitions and opportunities, arts organisations and supports groups, performances presented by commercial and non-profit presenters; encourages opportunities for public performance by developing artists; promoting recitals, concerts and performances; nurtures interest in the performing and creative arts, and cultivates future audiences. Sydney Eisteddfod won the City of Sydney Business Award, Cultural and Creative Services section in 2011

Current organization information

Co Patrons * General

David Hurley General David John Hurley, (born 26 August 1953) is an Australian former senior officer in the Australian Army who has served as the 27th governor-general of Australia since 1 July 2019. He was previously the 38th governor of New South Wales ...

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...

and Mrs Linda Hurley Life Member * Dame

Marie Bashir Dame Marie Roslyn Bashir (born 1 December 1930) is the former and second longest-serving Governor of New South Wales. Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Bashir graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956 and held various medical positio ...

Vice-Patrons * Sir Nicholas Shehadie * Doug Sutherland Artistic patrons *

Richard Bonynge Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances ...

Maina Gielgud Maina Gielgud (born 14 January 1945) is a British former ballet dancer and a veteran ballet administrator. She was artistic director of The Australian Ballet from 1983 to 1996. She had a twenty-year career as a dancer in Europe and the United Ki ...

Ambassadors *

Angela Bishop Angela Bishop (born 6 September 1967) is an Australian reporter and television presenter who is currently a co-host on Network 10's '' Studio 10''. Career Bishop is currently a co-host on the network's morning program '' Studio 10''. Bish ...

Amelia Farrugia Amelia Farrugia (often misspelled as "Ferrugia", born 28 July 1970) is an Australian soprano opera singer of Maltese descent. She won awards in the Sydney Eisteddfod and the 1996 Australian Singing Competition, and the 1995 Metropolitan Opera ...

* Joshua Horner * Geoffrey T. Jones * Simon Kenway *

Nicholas Milton Nicholas Christopher Milton (born 1967 in Sydney) is an Australian conductor and violinist. Career Milton studied violin with Gillian McIntyre, Robert Pikler and Harry Curby, graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He accepted a s ...

* Steven McRae *

Stuart Skelton Stuart Skelton (born 1968 in Sydney) is an Australian operatic heldentenor. In 2016 he opened the Metropolitan Opera season with Nina Stemme in Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde''. Discography Studio concert recordings *2008: Mahler – ''Das Lied ...

Simon Tedeschi Simon Tedeschi (born 1 May 1981) is an Australian classical pianist and writer. Early life Tedeschi was born in Gosford to Mark Tedeschi QC, Senior Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales, and doctor Vivienne Tedeschi, the daughter of a Polis ...

Simone Young Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961) is an Australian conductor. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Biography and career Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father's side and Croatian ...

* Leone Ziegler

History

The Sydney Eisteddfod grew out of Music Week Festival, first held in 1930 and which grew into a national event by 1932. Representatives of Music Week Festival and CA 244, the Citizen's of Sydney Organising Committee, announced plans for a Great Eisteddfod at the end of 1932, to be held at the Town Hall in August 1933 during the fourth Annual Music Week festival. (Source: Jennifer Rowley Lees, 2008, The Sydney Eisteddfod Story: 1933 – 1941) The NSW State Conservatorium and President of the NSW Music Week Committee drew up a proposal to hold a large-scale event to bring together the best musical and elocutionary talent of the various States. On 22 December, this was adopted at a meeting at the Sydney Town Hall under the chairmanship of the Lord Mayor Samuel Walder MLC. The first Eisteddfod executive meeting was held on 20 February 1933 and the first Official Syllabus was released in April that year. In the

1933 New Year Honours The 1933 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 30 December 1932. The recipients of honour ...

, Walder received a knighthood. He relinquished his mayoral duties, but continued his career in State politics, retained his place on the Citizens of Sydney Organising Committee and continued to support the Eisteddfod. The First City of Sydney Eisteddfod offered a programme of 84 vocal, choral, speech and musical events and drew 5,410 entries. It opened to great success on 19 August 1933 with artist including

Joan Hammond Dame Joan Hilda Hood Hammond, (24 May 191226 November 1996) was an Australian operatic soprano, singing coach and champion golfer. Early life Joan Hilda Hood Hammond was born and baptised in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her father, Samuel Hood, w ...

Ernest Llewellyn Ernest Victor Llewellyn CBE (21 June 191512 July 1982) was an Australian violinist, concertmaster, violist, conductor and musical administrator. He was the founding director of the Canberra School of Music and is commemorated by Llewellyn Hall, t ...

and Joy Nichols. Apart from a four-year recess during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

the competition has continued ever since. The Citizens Committee disbanded in 1950, but the Eisteddfod continued with the same mix of political, civic, educational and industry leadership. The City of Sydney Cultural Council was incorporated in 1975 to embrace a wider range of activities.

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

Australia commenced its association with Sydney Eisteddfod (formerly known as Sydney cultural Council) in 1988 with naming rights sponsorship. McDonald's Australia have also supported the McDonald's Operatic Aria since 1989 and the McDonald's Ballet Scholarship since 1998 providing the necessary

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

for encouraging and developing artistic talent across Australia. The Eisteddfod was cancelled in 2020 due to "health and safety concerns" over the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

. In 83 years it has only been cancelled once before, during

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Beginning their careers with Sydney Eisteddfod

Dame

Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed ...

References

External links