Sydney University Graduate Choir

The choir is committed to high quality performances of great choral music and its extensive versatile and innovative repertoire ranges from the grand works of the established masters to the music of contemporary composers. The choir’s patron is Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO. the choir sings under the direction of the highly respected conductor and composer Christopher Bowen OAM who has been Music Director since 1992. Christopher has established a very strong partnership with the choir, enriching its repertoire and setting new performance standards. Under his musical leadership the choir has given several Australian premiere performances of choral works and many outstanding new works have been commissioned. In recent years the choir has produced a “Sydney Sings...” series of concerts in the Sydney Town Hall, with three very well-received performances of Handel’s “Messiah” in 2007, 2010 and 2012, and a performance of Verdi’s “Requiem” in 2013. All concerts in the “Sydney Sings...” series have included a large guest choir, soloists and full orchestra. The premiere of An Australian War Requiem, a newly commissioned work by Christopher Bowen to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and the Gallipoli campaign, was a very memorable and moving event for the Choir and a significant event in Australian choral music