• Entry type: Organisation
  • Entry ID: AWE4781

Australian Girls Choir

(From 1984 – )
  • Occupation Performing Arts Organisation

Summary

The Australian Girls Choir (AGC) was established in 1984 in Melbourne by music teacher Judith Curphey.

Whilst there were several boys’ choirs in Australia, there was no opportunity available for girls (outside of school choirs). The accepted convention at the time was that boys sing ‘better’ than girls (hence cathedral choirs are made up only of male voices). Judith wanted to challenge this belief and create a choir that appropriately trained and developed girls’ voices, particularly as their voices matured (as opposed to ‘breaking’ like boys voices) and conduct a choir that sang in Soprano and Alto registers only.

Her goal was to create a choir with a uniquely Australian sound and high artistic standards, a group which could dance as well as sing, and was renowned for its quality of presentation.

The Australian Girls Choir now has over 3,500 girls in training in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Details

The Australian Girls Choir celebrates 27 years of providing high quality education and wonderful performance opportunities to many thousands of girls from across the country. Girls aged five to eighteen years are trained in singing, dancing and performing on a weekly basis in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Best recognised for its involvement in the Qantas ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ advertising campaign, the Choir has sung at almost every major concert venue in the country. The girls have performed with a long list of outstanding artists and personalities from the entertainment world, and have been acclaimed in some hundreds of performances undertaken in numerous international and national tours.

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Events

  • 2010 - 2010

    Chasing Rainbows CD is released; debut album under the ABC Classics label.

  • 2011 - 2011

    Choir opened in Perth, Western Australia.

  • 1984 - 1984

    150 girls attend the first rehearsal of the Australian Girls Choir at Burwood State College, Melbourne, Victoria.

  • 1984 - 1984

    Choir opened in Adelaide, South Australia.

  • 1988 - 1988

    Choir opened in Sydney, New South Wales.

  • 1989 - 1989

    Inaugural international tour to Canada.

  • 1993 - 1993

    Sydney chapter goes into recess.

  • 1998 - 1998

    AGC selected, along with National Boys Choir, to participate in landmark Qantas advertising campaign featuring I Still Call Australia Home.

  • 1999 - 1999

    Sydney chapter re-opened.

  • 2002 - 2002

    Choir opened in Brisbane, Queensland.

  • 2004 - 2004

    Founder and Artistic Director Judith Curphey awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to music, particularly through the Australian Girls Choir.

  • 2008 - 2008

    Parent company Australian School of Performing Arts is incorporated. AGC now sits under this umbrella brand, along with Aus Girls Dance
    a3 – Australian Arts Alive.

Published resources

Related entries


  • Founder
    • Curphey, Judith (1929 - )