Aussie choir's praises sung, as golden voices claim top gongs at world championships (2024)

For the Festival Statesmen Chorus, music is a craft of passion and precision.

The Adelaide all-men's a cappella singers have just returned from their first overseas trip where they won big at the world's largest choir competition.

The group was crowned world champions at the World Choir Games in New Zealand — taking home two gold medals and two championship trophies.

The competition, in Auckland, brought together 250 choirs from 40 countries to perform and compete.

The Festival Statesmen Chorus entered two categories: "sacred a cappella" and "pop ensemble".

"We sort of threw our hat in the ring for both of those categories and we ended up winning both of them, which blew our minds," musical director Jonathan Bligh said.

Mr Bligh attributed the group's success to its eclectic repertoire.

"I think what separates Festival Statesmen from a lot of groups is our contrasting repertoire — we'll do pop covers, original compositions and classical music," he said.

"The sacred music competition was one of the biggest categories in the competition and there were two days of heats running and we got to hear some of the other artists.

"They were incredible so we sort of thought if we could place top four that might be nice. But we ended up winning."

Mr Bligh said he was "immensely proud" of the group.

"It was an absolute honour for us to represent Australia, a huge amount of pressure, but we're just really keen to share with the world what we do," he said.

Humble beginnings

Mr Bligh formed the Festival Statesmen Chorus in 2009.

"I was working at a local high school and I found that when the kids finished school, they didn't really have anywhere to sing, and so I formed the Festival Statesmen to give them the opportunity to continue exploring music," he said.

That year, the group went to Hobart for their first interstate competition.

Then in 2018, they won the national title for a barbershop competition in Adelaide, snaring the highest score in the history of the competition.

COVID-19 derailed plans for the chorus to represent Australia and compete in the United States, but when the location for this year's World Choir Games was announced, the group was all ears.

"It was pretty special," Mr Bligh said.

"This is the first time that the World Choir Games have been in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand being across the ditch was pretty convenient for us to take the opportunity and really get in there and show the world what we can do."

Passion and practice

For founding member and singer Mitre Khammash, singing is more than just a hobby.

"We create art together," he said.

"The minute you get in a room with other like-minded individuals that are all about what we've set out to do, it's just easy and it makes sense."

Mr Khammash has been part of the group since its inception.

"Singing together is part of the human experience," he said — a sentiment echoed by Mr Bligh.

"There's this beautiful symbiotic relationship between the music, and who's written the score, the sheet music, us as singers and artists, and then we get to include the audience as well," Mr Bligh said.

"It's just such an incredibly thrilling experience to have a group of guys who wouldn't necessarily know each other, come together and just make music together — it's just really special."

Mr Bligh said song had long been an important storytelling device throughout history and across cultures.

"The beauty of a cappella singing is that we all have a voice, and its very portable — you get a few people in the same room together and you can start making music," he said.

The men said their experience in Auckland was "a bit of a 'pinch me' moment", despite the "huge amount of pressure".

"For 15 years, we've been doing workshops and concerts in the community, and we thought, you know what, let's try to see what happens if we go overseas," Mr Bligh said.

"It was an absolute honour for us to represent Australia … but we just were really keen to share with the world what we do."

For now, the Festival Statesmen have got their sights set on celebrations closer to home, with a 15th birthday concert planned at the University of Adelaide's Elder Hall on August 10, featuring other local and interstate singing groups.