The Choir of Hard Knocks

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'The Choir of Hard Knocks' is a choir consisting of homeless and disadvantaged people formed in Melbourne, Australia. It came to prominence as the subject of a five-part Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary television series broadcast in 2007 ^[1]

1 Creators
2 CD
3 Award
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Creators

Jason Stephens ^[2] was the creator behind the ABC documentary series the Choir of Hard Knocks coming up with the original idea to form the choir in Melbourne.^[3]. The choir's singing Director is former Opera Australia tenor Jonathon Welch and singer Jimmy Barnes is the choir's patron.

After Googling for ideas about how to put a choir at the centre of a television series, Jason Stephens happened upon Montreal's homeless choir and came up with the show's concept. Stephens convinced Welch, who had started a similar choir in Sydney, 'Sydney Street Choir', in 2001. ^[4] , to establish a choir of homeless people for a television project. ^[5]

Recruiting was by word of mouth and through community organisations. As at May 2007, it had about 50 members. ^[6]

The name is a reference to the School of Hard Knocks, i.e. learning by experiencing life, not through classrooms.

[edit] CD

The choir raised money to record a CD through busking in city streets. They also hold fundraising concerts at venues such as the Melbourne Town Hall^[7] and the Sydney Opera House.^[8]

A self-titled companion CD to the series was released containing traditional songs such as Amazing Grace and Silent Night as well as pop songs such as Flame Trees by Cold Chisel and Hallelujah written by Leonard Cohen. ^[9] It was their first experience in a recording studio.

The CD debuted at number 28 on the ARIA album chart in late May 2007. ^[10] It has now sold almost 100,000 albums.

[edit] Award

The choir received the award for best original soundtrack at the 2007 ARIA Fine Arts Awards at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on October 15. The choir won over nominees such as David Bridie and the popular Sydney ensemble Monsieur Camembert. Hosted by the Australian Recording Industry Association, the awards celebrate the achievements of musicians outside the dominant genres of pop and rock. They precede the 2007 ARIA Awards, which will be held at Acer Arena on October 28.^[11]