The Australian Voices
Vocal Ensemble (Australia)
From its inception in 1993, The Australian Voices (TAV) has relentlessly pursued its mission to commission, perform and promote Australian music, both locally and internationally.
The vision of Graeme Morton and Stephen Leek when founding the group was to tap into something unique about Australia, its land and its people.
Through the music of a new generation of Australian composers, including the original musical language of Stephen Leek, TAV created a sound unlike anything the world had heard before. In 2009 Gordon Hamilton took the reins, and with works like Toy Story 3 = Awesome and Robert Davidsons acclaimed Not Now, Not Ever! a musicalisation of Julia Gillard’s ‘misogyny’ speech, brought the group firmly into the 21st century and again at the forefront of Australian, and international choral music.
Recently, the choir has collaborated with numerous Australian musicians and ensembles: in 2019, the choir performed Britten’s Cantata Misericordium and a ‘re-composition’ of Mozart’s Requiem by then-Artistic Director Gordon Hamilton in collaboration with Omega Ensemble; in 2022, collaborated with ARIA-nominated artist Raphael Karlen and Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra to premiere Sinking Cities, a work for string orchestra, choir, and saxophone; and at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the choir commissioned 22 (mostly) Australian composers to write a choral work on the theme “Far and Near”, in response to the darkening of concert halls around the world.
Now under the artistic direction of John Rotar—one of Australia’s leading young composers—and building on a legacy of excellence established by past artistic directors, the choir is poised to take the next step in its evolution. Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023, the group marked this milestone by releasing two groundbreaking albums in 2024. Far and Near is a reflective collection drawn from the 22 commissions during the COVID years, while Painted in Dirt offers a stunning exploration of Australian music, featuring incredible new compositions and a crowd-favorite title track filled with evocative bush noises.
Image credit: Kris Anderson
