The Australian Voices are a national choir of young adult Australian singers directed by John Rotar and produced by Scott Griffin. The choir is prominent promoters and performers of Australian choral music, commissioning a number of works in their distinctive

A cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

style. The choir has performed concerts throughout Australia,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the United States,

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, Canada and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. They have also performed for

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...

radio live concerts, appeared at major concerts for festivals and events, and produced thirteen CDs and two kits on creative choral singing.

History

1993 - 2009

The choir was founded in 1993 by Graeme Morton and

Stephen Leek Stephen Leek (born 1959) is an Australian composer, conductor, educator, and publisher who specialises in choral music. Early life Leek was born in Sydney in 1959, lived in Brisbane from 1964 through 1969, and then spent the rest of his childho ...

to promote Australian choral composition with both existing and new works. Graeme Morton was artistic director and conductor from 1993 to 1996. During this time, they released 4 albums, which their debut album "Great Southern Spirits" (which included Leek's piece of the same name) won the Sunnie Award for Best Classical Recording. They were also invited to perform in 1996 as the official Australian Choir at the 4th World Symposium on Choral Music, held in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

was artistic director and conductor of the group from 1996 to 2009. Under his tenure, they traveled internationally and performed at international choral competitions and Eisteddfods, as well as perform at regional concerts and festivals. They also released 5 albums. Their accolades during this time included: * 'Best Performance' and other major prizes at the 1998 Béla Bartók International Choral Competition in Hungary, * First prize in the Youth Choir Category, First Prize in the Chamber Choir Category and finalists in the Choir of the World Competition at the 2001

International Eisteddfod The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is a music festival which takes place every year during the second week of July in Llangollen, North Wales. It is one of several large annual Eisteddfodau in Wales. Singers and dancers from around ...

in Llangollen, Wales, * Two gold medals at the 2006 World Choir Games in Xiamen, China, and * Won the 2008

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes ...

award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in a Regional Area.

2010 - 2021

Gordon Hamilton was artistic director and conductor between 2009-2021. Under his tenure, they have continued to perform at choral events, eisteddfods and concerts, but also release online recordings and behind the scenes videos on

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and

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. Their first online releases were around the theme that Hamilton described as the "juxtaposition of things that don't belong together". Their first online release was ''Toy Story 3 = Awesome! (The Facebook Song)'' a piece composed by Hamilton which takes a series of Facebook status updates and connects them in song. One year later, they released their song ''Tra$h Ma$h'', which takes over 30 pop songs and mashes them together in the style of

Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...

. In December 2012, they released ''Initialise'', which contrasts different three letter acronyms. In February 2013, they release their last song in the theme, called ''9 Cutest Things That Ever Happened'', which was based upon a BuzzFeed article on cute images. Also during this time, they presented their choral-theatre show, ''MOON: an epic song of love'', across Australia in 2011, and at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The piece got Hamilton his first Work of the Year nomination at the Australian Music Centre's Art Music Awards in 2014. An anthology of their songs were released with sheet music in 2012 by Edition Peters. Between 2012 and 2016, they collaborated with Rob Davidson and Queensland-based quintet

Topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

to create, perform and record ''The Singing Politician'', an anthology of songs based upon musicalisations of historical

Australian Prime Minister The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the princi ...

speeches. Of particular note in the anthology was their song ''Not Now, Not Ever!'' (2014), which was based on then prime minister's Julia Gillard's 2012

Misogyny Speech The Misogyny Speech was a parliamentary speech delivered by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 9 October 2012 in reaction to the opposition leader Tony Abbott accusing her of sexism. "Looking back, I think it was driven by a deep frustr ...

, and ''The reward for public life'' (2014) based upon Noel Pearson's eulogy at the state memorial service for

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...

, which was premiered live on the Australian talk show Q+A in Pearson's presence. In 2016, they released their own album, ''Reverie'', with ABC Classics, presenting their other Australian commissions. The album ''Elsewhere'' was released in 2019. In 2020, they announced 22 new choral commissions for established and emerging Australian composers to be performed in the future. In August 2021, Hamilton announced that he would step down from the role of artistic director and conductor. He cited difficulties during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, including being stranded in Germany for an extended period of time, the inability to return to Australia, and since finding work and opportunities in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

2021 – present

Brisbane based composer, John Rotar, joined as artistic director in October 2021.

Discography

The Australian Voices have released thirteen CDs: * Great Southern Spirits * The Listening Land * Sing My Soul * A Millennium of Choral Composition * Ngana * Voices Live * Sea Children * Between Two Horizons * Summer Star * The Australian Voices * The Singing Politician (with Topology) * Reverie * Elsewhere

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Voices, The 1993 establishments in Australia A cappella musical groups APRA Award winners Australian choirs Chamber choirs Musical groups established in 1993