Sydney Male Choir

Sydney Male Choir

BY JARROD WOLFHUNTER

The Sydney Male Choir surely has to be Sydney’s hidden gem of performers. The choir has around 50 members, all from very diverse backgrounds, who come together once a week to practice their singing routine.

The groups inception was almost 108 years ago in 1913. The man responsible for this robust institution was a violinist named Charlie Miller. Charlie lost three fingers in an industrial accident forcing him to look past his violin and into another musical avenue. In the year before the first World War, Charlie had garnered enough interest around town to start the longstanding Sydney Male Choir.

Jim Neville is the current President of the Choir and talks passionately about being at the helm of the choir as it persists through the doldrums of the pandemic and all its uncertainty. Sadly, the choir had to cancel their annual concert at Sydney Town Hall, and many other performances, during the recent shutdown.

Neville talks about the challenges involved in organising these events but concedes that with many willing and capable members, the formidable workload is much easier to manage.

There is no dust on the Sydney Male Choir going into 2022 because their online efforts in the shutdown period allowed members to hone their craft under the direction of new firebrand Musical Director, Warwick Tyrrell. The online platform allowed Tyrrell the advantage of giving individual directives to choir members through the digital group space. This gave members the opportunity to practice in a solo space but with direct input from the Musical Director to benefit the overall group.

The Sydney Male Choir has supported talent like Marina Prior, Kamal, David Hobson and Yvonne Kenny in the past. They’re due to support Tenor, Mark Vincent next August after a few unavoidable postponements of late.

It seems that the sky’s the limit for the Sydney Male Choir. However, this volunteer organisation is currently running with the COVID handi-cap. Neville outlines that going into the future, the choir’s priorities are recruiting new members, developing new repertoire, and performing in new shows to attract new audiences. Neville urges newcomers to visit their website for information on how to get involved.

Sydney has surged back to life in the past few weeks and the Sydney Male Choir is leading proceedings with their calendar already booking out with concerts well into 2022. Get along to a show to give your support, or, roll up to the York Club on Tuesday nights at 6pm to get involved!

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