2010

Bledisloe Cup
Our Melbourne girls wowed match goers at Etihad Stadium at the recent Bledisloe Cup game. 85 of our Performing and Canto choristers performed a spectacular version of I Still Call Australia Home’ complete with choreographed star shape formations and a flag reveal, as well as forming the guard of honour for the trophy segment. Even though the game didn’t go Australia’s way, our girls had an amazing time!

Masterchef mania hits the AGC
Our National touring choristers had their own little sneak peak of the filming of Masterchef, when they performed at a special dinner hosted by the Governor-General at Government House Canberra to thank individuals for their contribution to the recovery efforts following last year's bushfire and flood emergencies. The dinner saw the final three Masterchef contestants cook for the guests and our girls were excited to meet judges Matt Preston and George Calombaris.

Australian Business Events Expo
Performing Choir in Sydney represented Qantas at the ABEE with a special performance at the Sydney Convention Centre. After performing at this event last year, the organisers were so impressed with our girls that we were invited back to entertain the guests once again. We were thrilled to receive a wonderful audience response and comments that many guests had tears in their eyes' from the girls' moving performance.

Christmas Pageant Media Launch
Our Adelaide girls brought Christmas cheer to Rundle Mall in the school holidays when they performed at the media launch for the announcement of the Christmas Pageant King and Queen. The girls performed several brackets of their favourite carols and also a fanfare for the grand announcement. We're looking forward to our involvement in the Credit Union Christmas Pageant in November!

Goodnight Hamer Hall
Our Camerata and Performing choristers sang at the farewell concert for Hamer Hall in Melbourne on Saturday July 3, which is closing temporarily for redevelopment. The performance featured other artists including Rachael Beck, Silvie Paladino, Ian Stenlake and the Melbourne Youth Orchestra conducted by John Foreman.

Shanghai World Expo
A small group of Performing choristers have recently returned from their travel to China for the Shanghai World Expo, which is currently attracting over half a million visitors each day. We were thrilled to represent Qantas and perform with members of the National Boys Choir of Australia and the Gondwana National Indigenous Children's Choir on Australia's National Day of the Expo. Our girls sang a selection of well known Aussie songs at the official Protocol Ceremony, which was attended by the Governor-General Ms Quentin Bryce, and also at an afternoon performance to over 2000 expo attendees. Singing alongside other prominent artists including Jessica Mauboy, Katie Miller Heidke and the Sony Company was a real thrill for our choristers, and the opportunity to explore the Shanghai sights was great fun. Congratulations to the girls selected to be involved in this exciting trip; we are extremely proud of your achievements!

Socceroos Farewell Match
We were thrilled to sing as part of the pre-match entertainment for the Socceroos Farewell Match before their departure to the World Cup in South Africa. In addition to singing Qantas' anthem I Still Call Australia Home' we were also part of the reveal of a giant gold Socceroos scarf that covered the length of the MCG! 

Zaidee's Shoelaces Gala Ball
We were delighted to lend our support to the Zaidee's Rainbow Foundation by performing at their Gala Ball which will be hosted by Andrew Denton. Zaidee's Foundation is all about raising awareness of organ donation and transplant, and their major focus has been in selling rainbow shoelaces which have been worn by celebrities, sporting clubs and politicians. We were thrilled to perform the theme song at this special event as well as a couple of our other favourites.

GenerationOne 
We recently joined together with high profile musicians including Christine Anu, Ernie Dingo, Casey Donovan, Mark Gable, the Rogue Traders, Melinda Schneider, Jack Thompson and Ursula Yovich to record a song written by Les Gock for the GenerationOne project, which was officially launched in Sydney. Andrew Forrest and James Packer have been the driving force behind the GenerationOne campaign which is all about getting the Australian public involved in ending Indigenous disadvantage by creating fifty thousand sustainable jobs for Indigenous Australians. We're thrilled to also be performing in Melbourne and Brisbane as part of the GenerationOne Roadshow. Visit http://www.generationone.org.au/ for more information.  
Check out the photo gallery.

International Tour Scholarship
In 2008 a very generous choir parent approached us about providing a touring scholarship and the directors of ASPA joined with him to send one girl on the International Tour, the scholarship was provided again in 2009 but this time for the National Tour. The vision, to quote the scholarship donor, is to provide “the opportunity of a life changing experience for a young lady and her family who may not be able to afford this unique experience."  

This year, the extraordinary generosity of this benefactor continues; he and the ASPA directors will once again be providing a scholarship that covers all touring costs, other than personal spending money, for a Performing chorister who has not previously toured with the AGC. 

We were absolutely thrilled to invite Performing choristers who have not previously toured to apply and we were overwhelmed by the calibre of the applicants. We are delighted to announce that the 2010 International Tour Scholarship recipient is Erika Ananiadis. Congratulations to Erika on her selection and thank you to all the applicants for their letters.

Mother's Day Classic for the National Breast Cancer Foundation 
Congratulations to all of our choristers, family and friends who joined the Australian Girls Choir team and participated in the Mother's Day Classic (MDC). We were delighted that we had over 800 participants involved nationally and that we received either first or second prize in the community award in each state! It was lovely to receive so much positive feedback from our parents on what a great morning was had by all, and in particular that our little girls absolutely adored meeting and walking/singing with our older Performing choristers. We hope that all of our mums had a wonderful day, and we look forward to being involved again in 2011! 

I am just writing to let you know how fantastic it was to be a part of the AGC group in the Mother's Day Classic walk. In particular, my wife and I were very impressed with the big girls' of the Performing Choir. Our two daughters were VERY excited to see the big girls' up close backstage on stage, have their photos taken with them as part of the AGC group, and even more so to sing along with them as we walked. Both of my daughters are in awe of the big girls', and after seeing them in action during the MDC walk interacting with the younger girls - I am too.
Matthew (father of Kathleen and Jessica)

Government House Open Day
Our Brisbane girls will entertain guests at the Government House Open Day on Sunday June 6 from 11.00 - 11.20am. The Open Day will feature a number of school and community groups and is open for the general public to attend. 

Australiana Fund
Our Brisbane girls entertained the Governor of Queensland at the Australiana Fund event at Government House. The girls sang several songs from their performance repertoire and were thrilled to receive such a great response from their audience!

Australian American Association Benefit Dinner
30 Melbourne Camerata girls recently performed with the National Boys Choir at the Australian American Association Dinner honouring the Pratt Family. The event was hosted by Eddie McGuire and guests included the Victorian Premier and Victorian Governor. 

Qantas eXcel Awards
Forty members of the Sydney Performing Choir performed on the Concert Lawns at Taronga Zoo as part of the Qantas eXcel Awards. The girls received a rapturous applause for their performance of I Still Call Australia Home' just prior to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's address. 

Adelaide Cup
Performing for an audience of over 30,000 racegoers, our Adelaide girls sang the National Anthem and some other favourite songs before the main race at the Adelaide Cup!

Qantas Olympic Golf Day
Our Brisbane choristers performed for guests at the Qantas Olympic Golf Day held at Hope Island. The girls received an extremely positive response for their rendition of some of our favourite Aussie songs! 

Australian Open Tennis Championships
One hundred Melbourne Choristers recently performed to a packed audience at Rod Laver Arena as part of the pre-match entertainment for the Australian Open on Australia Day. The girls sang a wonderful medley of Australian songs as well as the National Anthem. Representing Australia at this International event has become a highlight in our events calendar and we congratulate the girls on their outstanding performance! Check out photos on the Australian Open website

Nigel Milan appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
Congratulations to ASPA Advisory Board Member, Nigel Milan, who has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in this year's Australia Day honours list. Nigel has had a long association with ASPA as a parent of an ex-chorister and recently as Chair of our Advisory Board. Nigel received this prestigious award for service to the Australian radio and television industries, and to the community, particularly eye-health, medical and arts organisations.

AIME Cocktail Gala
We are delighted to have been asked on behalf of Qantas to perform at the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo in Melbourne. This event will see our Melbourne Performing Choir girls singing at Docklands Waterfront.

VISY Park Opening Launch
We were thrilled to perform with the National Boys Choir of Australia at the Opening Launch of Visy Park for the Carlton Football Club on February 10. We received a fabulous response from the football community for our rendition of I Still Call Australia Home' and the Carlton Theme song!

Mary Poppins the Musical 
Congratulations to all of the Victorian choristers who auditioned for the role of Jane Banks in the musical Mary Poppins. Hayley Edwards (Concert), Lexie van Maanen (Concert), Rachel Tunaley (Concert) and Zoe Gousmett (Camerata) reached the fourth and final round of auditions. We are very proud of their achievements in auditioning for this professional production!

G'Day USA
John Travolta, Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Simon Baker, Sam Worthington.....there were plenty of star spotting opportunities when eighteen members of the Australian Girls Choir travelled to Los Angeles to sing at G'Day USA' Australia Week celebrations for Qantas, our 7th year of performing at this prestigious event! Singing at the black-tie dinner proved to be the highlight of the whirlwind visit, with our choristers joining with members of the National Boys Choir of Australia and the Gondwana Indigenous Children's Choir to perform several items including a surprise finale of I Still Call Australia Home' with Olivia Newton-John and Jimmy Barnes. The girls also enjoyed the opportunity to sing for local school children at Laurence School who have been busy learning about Australia as part of their school curriculum. The audience of over 300 children were delighted to listen to our selection of Aussie tunes and to ask a few questions about life 'Down Under'. Taking in the local sights of Hollywood including the Walk of Fame, Chinese Theatre and Universal Studios was also a real thrill for our choristers. Congratulations to those girls chosen to represent the AGC at this event; we are very proud of your achievements! Check out photos from our time in LA in the photo gallery!

Sydney Festival
Our Performing and Camerata choristers were delighted to sing at the opening night of the 2010 Sydney Festival at the Domain. Joined by Pearl from the Gondwana National Indigenous Children's Choir, who sang the opening solo in Kala Lagaw Ya, a Torres Strait dialect., I Still Call Australian Home' was well received by the energetic crowd of more than one hundred and fifty thousand people.

AGC on TV!
Wow we were busy during December!

Our Melbourne and Sydney choristers were involved in television appearances on both Channel 7 and Channel 9 on December 12. A fun story about joining the AGC featured on Saturday Disney, while we had a guest appearance on the Kids WB Christmas Special. We were very excited to be involved in two fantastic children's shows which coincidently aired at the same time!

Bringing Christmas cheer became our speciality in December. Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane all were entertained by our senior girls during Channel 10 weather updates and our Melbourne girls performed our special version of the 12 Days of Christmas' on a Sunrise broadcast at Crown Casino. Singing with Mark Vincent and Leo Sayer, Sydney girls once again wowed the audience of Carols in the Domain and even managed to fit in some pre show entertainment and a visit to the VIP tent!

Each year the Australian Girls Choir joins forces with the National Boys Choir of Australia to perform at Vision Australia's Carols by Candlelight - 2009 was no exception. The AGC first performed at Carols by Candlelight in 1992 and the Channel 9 broadcast has become one of our favourite events of the festive season. Check out our girls launching the event on the Today Show and performing at the event on Christmas Eve.

2009

AGC Rock With INXS!
Teaming up with INXS, our Sydney girls rocked the star studded Pride of Australia Awards on Monday November 29th 2009. This prestigious event, hosted by Sarah Murdoch, recognised remarkable individuals who represent everyday Australians for their selfless contribution and extraordinary achievements

Parliament of the World's Religions
We were honoured to perform as part of the Parliament of the World's Religions Closing Plenary, which was attended by over 5000 international delegates, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We were particularly excited to be involved in the flag ceremony. We received lots of wonderful compliments from the generous audience.