Every Sunday morning, a quiet studio in Malaga is transformed as 45 unique young performers converge in a melting pot of song, dance, energy and passion that is the Variety Youth Choir.
With their distinctive sound and infectious zest for life, the Variety Youth Choir has been entertaining Western Australians for 12 years – and still their story continues to inspire.
Formed in 1998, the Choir has more than doubled in size since its inception, gaining wide-spread acclaim as one of WA’s and indeed Australia’s busiest professional young performance groups.
The Choir’s story began when children’s charity, Variety WA, established a series of scholarships for talented sick, disadvantaged and special needs children to pursue a career in the arts.
Wanting to showcase the development of the scholarship recipients, Variety WA Patron Keith Potger (of The Seekers) recommended Denise DeMarchi and Boyd Wilson to produce a special performance by the group at the Variety WA Heart Awards.
Although the show concept was originally designed as a ‘once off’, the performers were so outstanding and the show so successful that Denise and Boyd, together with the support of Keith and Variety WA, decided to form a more permanent group - and so began what would soon become the Variety Youth Choir.
“We had spent several years working with local young performers, through events such as the City of Perth Christmas Nativity shows, but we’d never encountered a group of performers as unique and genuinely eager to perform as the Scholarship kids,” says Denise DeMarchi, Variety Youth Choir Musical Director.
“Seeing the audience reaction at the Heart Awards started us thinking about a way of capturing and building upon that spirit, and so over a period of months we hand picked young people from local performance schools to join the scholarship recipients,” she says.
The end result is a truly diverse mix of disabled and able bodied youth who work together to produce entertaining and inspirational performances, not allowing personal challenges to interfere with their goals of bringing joy to others and becoming one of the greatest Youth Choirs in the World.
And they’re well on their way… with a showcase at the Variety International Convention in Chicago in 2003, a feature performance in Sydney in 2004 and a hit YouTube clip making them a viral sensation, the Choir is internationally renowned and believed to be the only group of its kind worldwide.
With a wait list of potential Choir members standing in the wings, auditions are usually held twice annually to fill any vacant positions.
“People join the Choir for many different reasons, and each member gets something different out of the experience,” says Denise.
“A few of our senior Choir members have been with us since inception… other Choir members can only stay with us for a shorter time due to school or work commitments, but each member is valued for their contribution”.
Although a Choir, Denise is quick to point out members are part of a professional performance group and as such commit to a hectic if sometimes challenging schedule of weekly rehearsals and up to thirty corporate, community and charity shows a year.
"The Choir performs for one reason and one reason only – they have an absolute ball whilst helping to increase the awareness of Variety and the great work it carries out in the community," Denise explains.
“Many of the Choir members also have aspirations of a career in the arts and they feel that the Choir provides them with outstanding experience and assistance in achieving such a career”.
Several choir members have gone on to further their careers and are now hugely successful in the industry both here and overseas. Some examples of these are Antoni Ginandjar – chorographer to many top acts in Sydney, Marco Panzic – top 20 ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ finalist and also one of Sydney’s top Choreographers, Nici Bradford – singer/ songwriter in Melbourne, Kristy Deller – of Green room entertainment. All original members of the choir - just to name a few!!
The Choir is supported by major sponsor, Killarnee, enabling all uniforms, tuition, musical direction and production facilities to be provided free of charge to members (with Variety WA underwriting the shortfall).
The groundbreaking sponsorship with Killarnee has also allowed the Choir to undertake many new projects over the years, seeing the Choir’s profile soar to new heights.
They recently released an album for Christmas, and had a feature track on a fundraising album for Parkerville Children’s Home alongside Courtney and Chris Murphy, Suze DeMarchi from Baby Animals and several other local legends.