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.
Due to the popularity of previous events (2024 ChorusOz was hugely over-subscribed), 2025 will hopefully be the first year with two ChorusOz performances, one of Vaughan-Williams’s The Sea Symphony in Sydney and one of Mozart’s Requiem in Perth. (The Perth performance is a ‘work in progress’, and is dependent on dates and the availability of the venue.)
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 presents the art of choral singing at the highest standard, and develops the talents of those with a passion for singing, in Sydney and beyond. Founded in 1920, it has become Australia’s finest choral organisation and is a Resident Company of the Sydney Opera House.
Led by Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark OAM and Associate Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs comprises three auditioned and three community choirs that perform repertoire from choral classics to musical theatre and commissions by Australian composers. SPC presents its own annual concert season as well as collaborating with leading conductors, soloists and orchestras in Australia and overseas. In 2002, SPC was the first Australian choir to sing at the BBC Proms (Mahler’s Symphony No 8 under Sir Simon Rattle), returning again in 2010 to celebrate its 90th anniversary. The choirs perform in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s season every year, as they have done for more than 80 years. SPC also presents community singing events throughout the year – ChorusOz and singing workshops throughout Sydney and NSW.
The year 2020 was Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ centenary and saw the realisation of an inspiring commissioning project – 100 Minutes of New Australian Music – featuring works by composers including Elena Kats-Chernin, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon and Brett Dean. In 2022 the Choirs took part in the reopening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, performing Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, Brett Weymark celebrated his 20th anniversary as Artistic Director, a highlight be in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at ChorusOz.
The 2024 season includes performances of Mendelssohn’S Elijah, Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D, hits from the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Handel’s Messiah and ChorusOz with Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and a new commission by Katie Noonan. The Chamber Singers will perform Voices of the Italian Baroque in Canberra in August.
