Gondwana Choirs comprises the most accomplished choral groups of young people in Australia. Led by Artistic Director & Founder, Lyn Williams AM, the organisation is synonymous with performance excellence and has a reputation for the highest standards of young people’s choral music in Australia and internationally.
In 2019, the Sydney Children’s Choir celebrated its 30th anniversary with the spectacular Gondwana World Choral Festival, which brought the world’s finest children’s choirs to Sydney for a week of 21 performances. Broadcast on ABC Classic, the festival included the world premieres of Only I by Nico Muhly and I am Martuwarra by Paul Stanhope. In 2020, SCC will tour to Japan to give concerts in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka and to Melbourne to perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
Gondwana’s national choirs represent Australia on the world stage. In 2019, Gondwana Voices travelled to Berlin to perform Brett Dean’s Vexations and Devotions with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Philharmonie under the baton of Vladmimir Jurowksi. In 2020, Gondwana is honoured to be the only Australian choir invited to perform at the World Symposium on Choral Music hosted by the International Federation for Choral Music.
Based in Cairns, Queensland, Gondwana Indigenous Choir and their ‘big sisters’ Marliya are the most powerful and well-recognised group of young Indigenous performers in the country. The rich, vibrant sound of the choir warms the hearts of audiences whenever it performs. GIC regularly collaborates with the Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective and with leading Indigenous artists and has a commitment to commissioning new choral music incorporating Indigenous language and story, in collaboration with cultural custodians.
Marliya was first formed to appear in Felix Riebl’s Spinifex Gum. With Spinifex Gum, Marliya has appeared at the Adelaide and Sydney Festivals, at Dreamtime at the G, and the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games. In 2019 Spinifex Gum was nominated for Best New Australian Work in the Helpmann Awards and performed at the Garma Festival and across Western Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. In 2020, Marliya performs at Perth International Arts Festival, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney and the WOW Festival in Brisbane.