Our History

The Australian Voices was established in 1993 by Stephen Leek and Graeme Morton, the founding fathers of Australian choral music. These two pioneers saw an opportunity to introduce a rich, iconic sound that was previously unaccounted for within the global music industry. Seeking inspiration from the unique landscape, culture, and history of their homeland, The Australian Voices debuted with Great Southern Spirits in 1994 under the artistic direction of Morton. This album featured pieces inspired by the Glasshouse Mountains, Uluru, and Torres Strait Islands, and included Leek’s popular arrangement of ‘Monkey and Turtle’, now performed by choirs and vocal ensembles throughout the world. Stephen Leek became the Artistic Director in 1997, expanding the global reach of the ensemble through international tours to Hungary, Germany, Guatemala, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and the United States, as well as a further three record releases. The first of these albums, Ngana, features all seven movements of the revolutionary ‘Once on a Mountain’. This piece introduced international audiences to the magic produced through harmonic singing, complex dissonant harmony, and graphic scoring, all of which are integral to the Australian choral sound we know and love today.

In 2010, Leek passed the baton to Gordon Hamilton, a former vocalist in the ensemble and a flourishing composer and instrumentalist. Hamilton focused on providing Australians with opportunities to access music inspired by the land they lived on, touring over eighty locations within Australia in 2012 alone. The Australian Voices embarked on a new journey providing choral and theatrical experiences, including their acclaimed performances of Hamilton’s Moon and Boombox, as well as reinventions of classic choral music by Bach, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. During this time, the ensemble returned to China, the United States, and Germany, while also expanding their tour circuit to further regions of Europe, including performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012. 

The Australian Voices has always promoted a sound rooted in the Indigenous culture of the land. With many pieces inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island language, stories, and land, one of the ensemble’s most widely performed tracks is ‘Kalkadunga Yurdu’ by Australia’s leading didgeridoo player, William Barton, from the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga peoples. This piece is deeply connected to the mission of The Australian Voices, as no sound is more Australian than that of its traditional owners for more than 50,000 years. 

As technology and social media began changing the landscape of the music industry, The Australian Voices continued to thrive; this emerged through their collaboration with composer Rob Davidson. In 2016, The Australian Voices and Topology released The Singing Politician, featuring iconic political speeches and texts throughout the previous century which Davidson arranged in fourteen spectacular tracks. Julia Gillard’s “Misogyny Speech” was transformed into ‘Not Now, Not Ever!’ which became a viral sensation on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram while receiving over 350k views on YouTube alone. 

The landscape of the global industry changed in 2020 as the world was plunged into lockdown with the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, The Australian Voices commenced the Far and Near project, commissioning works by 22 composers including Lisa Young, Katie Noonan, Nico Muhly, and Melody Eötvös. These works were performed locally in two parts throughout the pandemic, and are to be released as an album in 2024. 

In 2021, the artistic direction of The Australian Voices was passed on to instrumentalist, bass vocalist, composer and conductor, John Rotar. Rotar discovered The Australian Voices during their regional tour to Bundaberg and has been an active performer and composer in residence for the ensemble since moving to Brisbane to formalise his musical training through the University of Queensland. Since then, The Australian Voices has collaborated with a variety of renowned and professional artists including the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Camerata, Queensland Wind Orchestra, and Hobart Chamber Orchestra. The Australian Voices also collaborated with One Equal Music to perform ‘Passio’, Rotar’s setting of the Passion of Saint John, boasting a five-star review in Limelight Magazine who wrote that the work “surely will stand the test of centuries in the repertoires of the greatest choral ensembles on earth,”. Amongst the repertoire currently being performed by the ensemble, Rotar’s iconic “Painted in Dirt”, which was described as “an atmospheric and spectacular display of vocal pyrotechnics illustrating sounds of the Australian bush,” is a favourite amongst audiences for its transportive and immersive soundscape (Limelight, 2023). 

To date, The Australian Voices has toured over ten countries, released thirteen albums, and commissioned hundreds of works. Now celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, the ensemble’s celebrations include a national tour of seven towns and cities, as well as alumni events and new commissions.