Conductor: Christie Anderson
Accompanist: Jamie Cock

Rehearses 5.00pm – 8.00pm on Thursdays in the school term
Halls of Burnside City Uniting Church

(Includes) Musicianship 7.30pm – 8.00pm
Musicianship: Margaret Lange OAM and Stephanie Eaton

Head Choristers: Michaela Eaton & Sarah Cusack

Young Adelaide Voices First Concert Choir is the flagship youth choir of the YAV organisation. Choristers have a high vocal and musicianship standard and enjoy singing, socialising and promoting Australian music for youth choirs to a wide range of audiences. They are proud of their teamwork, common goals, friendships and the contribution they make to the South Australian community through music and participation in iconic events and professional collaborations. YAV 1CC is led by Artistic Director Christie Anderson, accompanist Jamie Cock and a peer leadership team from within choir. They also bake incredibly well!

YAV 1CC is an internationally renowned youth choir, having completed ten overseas tours to Canada, Europe, UK, America, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. In July of 2024, YAV 1CC travelled to France and Italy and participated in the International Choir Competition in Provence, France. They achieved:

• 1st place in the Youth Choir category
• 2nd place overall in the final Grand Prix (with a mere 0.8 point margin!)
• 2nd place in the Sacred Music category
• 3rd place in the Folk Music category

See their Grand Prix concert set here, featuring some of their Aussie choral favourites; a modern version of Waltzing Matilda and ‘Kondalilla’ by Stephen Leek. You can see why Christie and the choir received a special award for the ‘Most Creative Performance’!

In the 2016 European tour, YAV participated in youth music festivals in Salzburg, Bratislava and Verona. It was in Bratislava that they won three gold medals and Artistic Director Christie Anderson was awarded for Best Conductor of the Festival.

The choir has previously represented Australia in the 2005 World Festival of Children’s Choirs and at the European Youth Choral Festival in Neerpelt, Belgium where they have twice won First Prize with Honours, the 2012 World Choir Games in Cincinnati and the 9th International Golden Gate Youth Choir Festival in San Francisco, where they won three First Prizes.

1CC also tours nationally, most recently to Hobart in 2022 for the Festival of Voices – Australia’s premier celebration of the voice. The festival welcomed many choirs and musicians from across Australia for a week of music-making and connectivity. 1CC enjoyed representing and celebrating South Australia and had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the nations best choirs.

In Adelaide, Young Adelaide Voices has performed and collaborated with the International Fringe Festival, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the State Opera of South Australia, and Adelaide Chamber Singers, singing in orchestral classics, opera, music theatre, film, and album recordings. 1CC is proud to be involved in iconic annual Adelaide Community events, such as Carols by Candlelight, the National Pharmacies Christmas Pageant, and Neo at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Other highlights include:

• 2022 – Recording of Our Flying Boys for installation of historic Vickers Vimy at Adelaide Airport

• 2022 – Rissman What Do You Do with an Idea? album recording with ASO (Connecting the Dots in Music)
• 2022 – Festival of Voices

• 2021 – Nativity by Richard Mills (2021)

• 2021 – Orff Carmina Burana (ASO, Festival of Orchestra)

• 2019 – Britten Saint Nicholas (ASO)

• 2019 – Glyn Lehmann’s Space Race (ASO)

• 2019 – Gondwana World Choral Festival

• 2019 – The Project (Channel 10)
• 2018 – Rissman What Do You Do with an Idea? (ASO)
• 2017 – Film music for Slingsby Theatre Company’s theatrical silent movie of Emil and the Detectives, with music composed for YAV by Quincy Grant.

• • This won a Helpmann Award in 2018 and the choristers voices are being heard around the world with this show

• 2017 – ABC Classics Recording of Stan and Mabel by Paul Rissman (ASO)
• 2015 – The Moon’s a Balloon (Patch Theatre Company)
• 2013 – Britten War Requiem (ASO)
• 2012 – Howard Shore The Lord of the Rings (ASO)
• 2012 – Bernstein Mass (Adelaide Festival)
• 2010 – Mahler Symphony no.8 Symphony of a Thousand (Adelaide Festival)
• 2010 – Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel (ASO/State Opera)

1CC also hosts the Watu Youth Choir Festival, last held in July 2022. Hear the uplifting choral anthem, ‘Rise in Song’ by WATU Composer in Residence Paul Jarman, who also conducted the below performance.

As part of YAV’s 30th anniversary in 2018, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra commissioned composer Paul Rissman to write a work, What Do You Do with an Idea?, for youth choir and orchestra based on the New York Times best-selling book by Kobi Yamada. Composed for the entire YAV Choir School and the ASO, this work celebrates creativity, taking risks and unleashing your imagination into the world! In 2021, 1CC and other YAV choirs recorded What Do You Do with an Idea? with the ASO for the 2022 launch of the Connecting the Dots in Music website and resource. You can listen to us here!

1CC’s annual rehearsal camp is an integral part of the choir’s development. Each year, choristers come together for an intensive weekend of music learning that prepares the group for upcoming events. It is also an opportunity to build and strengthen relationships with one another through our games night and other fun activities.

Musicianship is an incredibly important part of our musical development at Young Adelaide Voices. This depth of education is rare in our state and although singing is extremely valuable and important, 1CC encourages more than just the repetition of practising pieces. With the support of our wonderful musicanship tutors, choristers build an internalised orientation and development of skills and knowledge through a vocal-aural approach which shapes them into well-rounded musicians. Our curriculum follows the Australian Kodály Certificate, a Kodály-inspired system of education. Musicanship tutor, Stephanie Eaton, was recognised for Outstanding Service and Contribution to Kodály SA as Vice President and Lecturer on World Teachers Day 2021.