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the Sydney Children’s Choir

Pushing creative boundaries.

Founded in 1989 by Lyn Williams AM, the choir are recognised for their crystal-clear sound and their precision and artistry, possessing a courageous and compelling performance style.

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Join the Sydney Children’s Choir

 

Join the Sydney Children’s Choir to sing, make friends and learn new skills. Our approach is based on our values of excellence, accessibility and community, and most importantly, fostering the inherent creativity of children through song.

Our choral training program offers a standard of vocal training unsurpassed in Australia, developing each chorister in choral singing, aural skills, music theory, composition, sight singing, movement and professionalism on and off stage. The program goes beyond the school curriculum, allowing choristers to extend their musical knowledge and providing them with exciting performance opportunities.

There are two options for rehearsal location:

  • Sydney CBD: rehearse at Wharf 4/5 at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct (there are choirs for all school-aged choristers)
  • Parramatta CBD: rehearse at PHIVE, 5 Parramatta Square (there are choirs for young people in Years 2-6)
Click here for the full list of rehearsal times and locations

Children up to Year 5 will be placed in the choir most suited to their age. We will listen to children in year 6 and up so that they can sing in the best choir for them.

The Sydney Children’s Choir is a place for children to find their voice, develop their musical skills and be part of something truly extraordinary. Join us today!

 

Contact Sydney Children’s Choir using the enquiry form below or call us on (02) 8274 7001.

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Sydney Children’s Choir has many programs for all levels of experience and age.

From our training to our performing choirs, explore which choir will be right for you!

Mini Singers

If you’re in (or going into) Kindergarten or Year 1
at school, you can join our Mini Singers! The Mini
Singers choirs are a really fun way to start your
choral journey, with songs and games for
everyone.

Junior Training Choir

Junior Training Choirs are mostly for children in Years 2
& 3 at school. They are named after Australian
composers such as Ruth McCall and Ben van Tienen. The
Junior Training Choirs are the next step after Mini
Singers, and choristers also begin to learn music theory
for the first time.

Intermediate Training Choir

Intermediate Training Choirs are perfect for children in
Years 4 & 5 at school. They’re the next step on your
choral journey – these choirs learn sight singing as well as
music theory, and join together in performance to sing in
two or more parts.

William Barton Choir

If you’re in Years 6-12 at school, you can join the William Barton
Choir. Barton choristers challenge themselves
to sing music at a high level in a relaxed and
enjoyable environment. The choir sing repertoire
which showcases their energy and vigour, crossing
musical time periods and genres.

Junior Performing Choir

The Junior Performing Choir is a joyous, selective extension choir
for choristers in Years 4-8. This ensemble rehearses twice
weekly, and regularly represents the Sydney Children’s
Choir at exciting events, recently the Sydney Energy
Forum and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Gala. The choir
works at a standard which requires a high level of
commitment.

Matthew Doyle Choir

Conducted by Associate Artistic Director, Sam Allchurch,
the Matthew Doyle Choir is a senior performing choir for
boys with changed and changing voices.
Many of the choristers in this ensemble have already
been part of SCC as trebles and they continue their
musical journey through a rich repertoire, from Vaughan
Williams and Poulenc through to Billy Joel. The choir has
performed Sibelius’s Kulervo with the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra and gave the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Meeting the Sun in 2015.

Senior Choir

Conducted by Artistic Director, Lyn Williams AM, the
Senior Choir are a world-class treble vocal ensemble
who rehearse and perform at the highest level. The choir
has a long history of performing with the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra and other leading ensembles, and
has worked with conductors including Simone Young,
David Robertson and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Over the
decades it has performed at many high-profile events
including the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony,
Sydney Festival and most recently at the reopening of
the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

The choir has toured extensively, presenting their signature performances of contemporary Australian music to new audiences across the world. Choristers in Senior Choir are required to give a high level of commitment to the choir, recognising it as their highest extracurricular priority.

The Sydney Children’s Choir enjoys a reputation for artistic innovation and spell-binding performances. Founded as a single ensemble by Lyn Williams AM in 1989, it now includes approximately 400 young people from across Sydney, comprising performing choirs and training ensembles.

The Sydney Children’s Choir continues to forge new artistic paths and directions through its commitment to new music. Close to the choir’s heart is its repertoire of over 100 specially commissioned works, and it continues to premiere new music from leading and emerging composers. In June 2022, the choir gave the premiere performance of the daring staged work Hypnopompia, directed by Alexander Berlage with music ranging from Elliott Gyger to Sufjan Stevens and Billie Eilish.

The choir also enjoys rich artistic collaborations with musicians from a wide range of cultures such as Suara Indonesia Dance and Mongolian singer and horsehead fiddle player, Bukhchuluun Ganburged.

The choir has a long history of performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In July 2022, the choir performed William Barton’s Of the Earth with the orchestra and Chief Conductor Simone Young to celebrate the re-opening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. In June 2023, the choir joined with Marliya to perform Spinifex Gum with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conductor Aaron Wyatt.

Over the decades it has performed at many high-profile events including the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony, World Youth Day, Sydney Festival and with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

The choir has toured extensively, presenting their signature performances of contemporary Australian music to new audiences across the world. In 2019,
the Sydney Children’s Choir hosted the Gondwana World Choral Festival, which brought the world’s finest children’s choirs to Sydney for a week of 21
performances at the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Conservatorium of Music, broadcast on ABC Classic.

In early October 2023, Sydney Children’s Choir gave the premiere performance of Gumura a new work written especially for the choirs by long-standing collaborator and friend Matthew Doyle. The performance also included the premiere of five new works by emerging composers, all of whom are alumni of the choir.

The Sydney Children’s Choir is available to perform for a range of events and recordings. The Choir has performed widely for industry and government conferences as well as charity, community and private events. Our team is always pleased to discuss options: fees are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, depending on the scale of the performance, length of time required, as well as the choice of repertoire.  

Please contact Rebecca Hilliard, Operations Coordinator, to enquire using the form below.

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  • Lyn Williams AM

    Artistic Director & Founder

  • Sam Allchurch

    Associate Artistic Director

  • Bronwyn Cleworth

    Director of Choral Education

  • Lachlan Massey

    Artistic Associate

  • Rebecca Hilliard

    Conductor

  • Lucy Cantrill

    Conductor

  • Megan Cronin

    Conductor

Lyn Williams AM

Artistic Director & Founder

Lyn Williams is widely regarded as one of the finest conductors of choirs around the world. For over 30 years, Lyn has harnessed the incredible power of young voices through her world-renowned ensembles: the Sydney Children’s Choir, Gondwana Voices, the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir and Marliya. Her choirs have appeared with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors and at festivals including the BBC Proms and Polyfollia.  

Lyn has commissioned over 200 works from composers across Australia and around the world and her ability to forge innovative and meaningful collaborations is widely recognised. She continues to foster strong relationships with First Nations artists across Australia, bringing together cultural custodians and composers to create new works which preserve and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island languages and cultures. Lyn enjoys a long-standing collaboration with singer-songwriter Felix Riebl of the Cat Empire and the singers of Marliya, presenting the critically-acclaimed show Spinifex Gum, which has featured at almost every Australian arts festival since its premiere at the Adelaide Festival in 2018.  

In 2017, Lyn received the Australia Council for the Arts’ Don Banks Music Award for outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia, in recognition of her lifework as founder and director of Gondwana Choirs. 

Sam Allchurch

Associate Artistic Director

Sam Allchurch is recognised as one of Australia’s leading conductors of choirs. Sam began his life in choral music as a chorister of the Sydney Children’s Choir and Gondwana Voices, under the direction of Lyn Williams AM. He is now the Associate Artistic Director of Gondwana Choirs, directing the Young Men’s Choir which is regularly featured in concerts at City Recital Hall and heard on ABC Classic. Working closely with Artistic Director Lyn Williams, Sam has also prepared the treble ensembles of the Sydney Children’s Choir for performances with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia and plays a key role in artistic planning.

Sam Allchurch is the Artistic Director of the acclaimed Sydney Chamber Choir, and the Director of Music at Christ Church St Laurence. Sam is frequently invited to conduct the City Recital Hall’s Flash Mob Choir and has appeared as a guest conductor at Festival of Voices, Tasmania and the Combined Schools Music Festival.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne and a Master in Music (Choral Studies) from the University of Cambridge. His studies in Cambridge with Geoffrey Webber and Stephen Layton were supported by a scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bronwyn Cleworth

Director of Choral Education

Bronwyn Cleworth conducts ensembles within the Mini Singers and Intermediate Training Choirs levels of the Sydney Children’s Choir.

Dedicated to music education, Bronwyn has more than twenty years experience as a specialist music teacher at SCEGGS Darlinghurst. She is a longstanding member of the Sydney Chamber Choir, specialising in early music and contemporary repertoire, with an emphasis on Australian composers.

With the Sydney Chamber Choir, Bronwyn has toured Taiwan, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Adelaide and regional NSW. As an educator, Bronwyn has expertise in both Kodaly and Orff. She is passionate about the musical development of young children and enjoys sharing her love of song and singing.

Lachlan Massey

Artistic Associate

Lachlan Massey is a young Australian conductor and composer.

Lachlan is Artistic Associate at Gondwana Choirs, working under Lyn Williams AM. In his time with the choirs he has assisted in preparing them for performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Theatre Company and for six Prime Ministers of Australia. He is privileged to conduct the Sydney Children’s Choir’s Junior Performing Choir, a selective extension group for young people ages 9-14 who show especially strong musical aptitude.

As Artistic Director of Musgrove Opera, Lachlan has directed several productions for children and families, described by Time Out as “ingenious…petite productions for hungry young minds.” Lachlan presents an annual season with the company which has included four petite productions at the Sydney Opera House in recent years, as well performances at The Concourse and in schools.

​Lachlan has presented workshops for ACO Foundations and was a guest conductor for the RSCM Junior Schools Choral Festival in 2022 and 2023. Lachlan is a former Young Ambassador for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Rebecca Hilliard

Conductor

Rebecca Hilliard is a 23 year old Australian composer-conductor currently based in Sydney, Australia.

She began her musical journey with violin, and started singing in the Sydney Children’s choir at age 6. In 2013, she began her education at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, where she later received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2019, Rebecca moved to Canberra in order to study Science and Music at the Australian National University. Whilst at ANU, Rebecca participated in many projects as both a composer and conductor with Luminescence Children’s Choir, the Australian Girls Choir and the ANU Chamber Choir.

In 2023, Rebecca was commissioned by Gondwana Choirs as part of Gumura, a significant work exploring connections to place at Dawes Point. In the same year, she also composed the score for the award winning dance film Kiku, directed by Natsuko Yonezawa. After completing her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Science, Rebecca returned to Sydney and is now working as the Operations Coordinator for Gondwana Choirs. She is also a Sight Singing Teacher and the conductor of JTC Chance and ITC Whitwell.

Lucy Cantrill

Conductor

Lucy Cantrill conducts Mini Singers and Intermediate Training Choir levels of the Sydney Children’s Choir. Since moving to Sydney in 2018, she has enjoyed being involved in Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Rejoice Gospel Choir, the Australian Christian Orchestra, Hummingsong Choirs and Sing Australia. Her involvement in Gondwana National Choral School from a young age sparked a passion for choral singing, musical leadership and collaborative music-making.

Lucy studied a Bachelor of Music (Education) at Sydney Conservatorium of Music and majored in Classical Piano (Performance), studying under Gerard Willems AM, Dr Bernadette Harvey, Dr James Humberstone and Dr Jim Coyle. She is currently a music educator and choral conductor at Danebank School where she is helping to build a strong Performing Arts program across K-12.

Lucy is the conductor of the Sydney-based, Australian Christian Orchestra and has been a part of the entrepreneurial team in establishing this new organisation since 2023

Megan Cronin

Conductor

Megan is a classically trained singer and recorder player with extensive experience as a performer and educator.  As a performer she worked for Musica Viva in Schools with her ensemble Pastance, playing a mixture of Celtic, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary folk music. With Pastance she has toured throughout schools in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand, performed at many of Australia’s folk festivals and recorded four CDs.  Megan has performed as a soloist in operatic and music theatre productions, oratorios and chamber music, but particularly enjoys singing with small choral ensembles and is a long-term member of Sydney Chamber Choir. Megan also sings at weddings, church services, corporate functions, aged care residences and concerts for musical societies. As a music educator Megan worked for many years as musician in residence at St Lucy’s, a school for students with special needs before training as a Primary Teacher and taking up Specialist Music Teacher positions in several State Public Schools where she has also fostered choirs and recorder ensembles. She firmly believes that every child should have access to a quality music education, to be exposed to a wide variety of musical styles and have opportunities to be part of a creative musical process.

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The Ground

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Deine Mami

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Lie light, dear heart

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