The girls from Oz

Melbourne music teacher Judith Curphey challenged the patriarchy when she started Australia's first all-girls choir. Forty years later that bold vision has 6500 members, life-changing programs and a new branch of the sisterhood in Singapore.

- JULIET RIEDEN

There’s a rustle of tulle in the wings of Sydney Opera House as a neat line of little girls in white dresses and pink ribbon sashes files into place on its iconic stage. Once the front row is complete a second falls in behind and then another, like tiers on a wedding cake. These tots are adorable and when they start to sing and dance, wide eyes fixed on their effervescent choir leader, a chorus of spontaneous sighs fills the auditorium.

It’s Sunday night and the Opera House is packed to the rafters; filling the seats a melange from the very young to ... well, the considerably older. Many are previous generations of choir alumni who are now nervous parents mouthing the words as their offspring sing out, excited siblings mimicking dance moves or grandparents beaming when they spot their grandchild’s jazz hands wave perfectly on cue. Others have no personal connection to the 650 or so girls who are about to set this stage on fire but are musical theatre tragics who can’t get enough of the highly choreographed song and dance numbers in the program. And then there are the VIPs in the premium ‘Circle, A row’, a posse of corporate and private angels, vital financial supporters of the extraordinary enterprise that is the Australian Girls Choir (AGC).

On this particular night – the choir’s 40th anniversary concert, one of 19 shows across six cities – that final group includes two dynamic cheerleaders. Sitting side-by-side are a couple of girl power role models who rightly attract their own applause – Australia’s first female Governor General, Dame Quentin Bryce, and the second, current Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn.