Symphony Chorus is considered the most prestigious choir of its size in Australia, renowned for its sheer vocal power and precision. For the past 85 years, Symphony Chorus has been the chorus of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
This highly skilled group of up to 150 highly skilled auditioned singers performs a diverse range of repertoire from early Baroque and Renaissance, through to contemporary and newly commissioned works. It particularly excels in large-scale choral repertoire, which is why, for more than 80 years, Symphony Chorus has been the chorus of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
In 2026, Symphony Chorus will be performing Bach’s St John Passion at the Sydney Opera House. It will also be performing Haydn’s Creation in Sydney Opera House, and Handel’s Messiah also at the Opera House. With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Chorus will be performing Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
In 2025, Symphony Chorus performed I was Glad: Cathedral Classics at the Sydney Opera House, as well as at Bathurst and Goulburn in regional New South Wales. Symphony Chorus also performed Michael Tippett’s choral masterpiece, A Child of our Time, once again at the Sydney Opera House. With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Chorus performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with its infamous Ode to Joy.
In the preceding two years Symphony Chorus performed Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and Rodgers & Hammerstein – Showstoppers at Sydney Town Hall, as well as Handel’s Samson and choruses from the great musicals in The Golden Age of Broadway at the Sydney Opera House. With SSO, they have performed in Duruflé’s Requiem, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Eumeralla JS Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Schoenberg’s Gurre-lieder.
