ChorusOz is the brainchild of Brett Weymark, Artistic and Music Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, who wanted to give people the opportunity to spend a weekend singing some of the world’s best music in some of Australia’s most amazing venues, including the iconic Sydney Opera House.
Almost every year since 2005, people from every state and territory in Australia, and from many other countries, have come together to sing with up to 1,000 other passionate music-makers, performing with world class soloists and a professional orchestra.
When you register for ChorusOz, you will receive learning tapes to help you practise your music, online workshops with ChorusOz Music Staff, and a highly collectible ChorusOz T-shirt! You’ll also have the option to purchase the music score if you don’t have one, and discount audience tickets for your friends and family. On a ChorusOz weekend there will be two rehearsals with Brett Weymark on the Saturday, and a rehearsal and performance on the Sunday.
Brett Weymark OAM
Brett Weymark is one of Australia’s foremost choral conductors. Since 2003 Brett has conducted the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs throughout Australia and internationally. He has also conducted the Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland, West Australian and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Sydney Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic and productions for WAAPA, Pacific Opera and OzOpera. He has performed with Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Song Company and Musica Viva.
He studied singing and conducting at Sydney University and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and continued conducting studies with Simon Halsey, Vance George, Daniel Barenboim and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, amongst others.
His performances have included Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, the requiems of Mozart, Verdi, Duruflé and Fauré and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He is champion of Australian composers and has premiered works by Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and many others. He has prepared choirs for Sir Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Sir Simon Rattle. He has recorded widely for the ABC and conducted film scores, including Happy Feet, Mad Max Fury Road and Australia.
Recent highlight performances include Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (West Australian Opera), Paul Stanhope and Steve Hawke’s Jandamarra (SSO), Michael Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time (Adelaide Festival) and Carousel (State Opera South Australia). In 2023, he has led Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in Handel’s Samson, The Golden Age of Broadway for the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary Inside Out at the House festival, Verdi’s Requiem and ChorusOz in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony.
In 2001, Brett was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal. In 2021, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the performing arts through music.
Brett is passionate about singing and the role that music plays in both the individual’s wellbeing and the overall health and vitality of a community’s culture. Music can transform lives and should be accessible to all.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is a dynamic force in Australian music, known for its ambitious programming, exciting musical collaborations and musical excellence. Founded in 1920, SPC has brought people together through music, and for over five decades it has been the heartbeat of choral performance at the Sydney Opera House.
With more than 2,000 singers across six ensembles, giving around fifty performances annually throughout Sydney and beyond, SPC is Australia’s premier choral organisation. Under the leadership of Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark OAM and Associate Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott, SPC brings the full power of the human voice to dynamic music making – from blockbuster choral classics like Verdi’s Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana to soaring film soundtracks and heartwarming musical theatre, from Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces to bold new Australian works.
In addition to its annual concert series, each year SPC collaborates with top-tier orchestras, soloists and conductors, performing regularly with many of Australia’s most prominent arts companies and festivals, and as the choir of choice for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra since 1936. SPC has performed in the Sydney Opera House, Hamer Hall Melbourne, the Singapore National Football Stadium, Westminster Abbey, the Tokyo Dome and the Royal Albert Hall. Highlights over the years have included the opening of the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney and Nagano Olympic Games and being the first Australian choir to perform at the BBC Proms.
SPC concerts celebrate diversity – of voices, of stories, and of sound. We sing in numerous languages from English to Gadigal, keeping things fresh with premieres, commissions, and new interpretations of beloved classics. Our musical diversity is reflected in our choristers, a true cross-section of modern Sydney’s international population, with singers aged 18 to over 80, and from a whole range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
We’re equally passionate about the next generation of music-makers. Through our VOX choir for young adults, our Conducting Fellows and our Emerging Composers we provide meaningful pathways into choral music for emerging singers, composers, and conductors. We regularly perform the world and Australian premieres of new works, we particularly champion Australian composers and have an extraordinary commissioning program, with 23 new works commissioned in the last five years alone.
Whether you’re a lifelong choral fan or stepping into a concert hall for the first time, SPC performances are for you, and for everyone.
