Lyn Adrienne Williams, AM (born 1963) is an Australian choral conductor and the founder and artistic director of the Gondwana Choirs. She has been recognised for her significant contribution to the development of

choral music A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

for young people in Australia.

Career

Williams was born in France and her family returned to Australia in 1969. She attended the

Conservatorium High School The Conservatorium High School (colloquially known as Con High) is a public government-funded, co-educational, selective, secondary day school that specialises in music education. It lies on the western edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens, o ...

in Sydney, and studied the harp. She later studied at Oberlin College, Ohio. Williams founded the Sydney Children's Choir in 1989, and since then has developed further ensembles known as the Gondwana Choirs, including Gondwana Voices, Gondwana Chorale, Gondwana Indigenous Choir, Marliya and

Spinifex Gum Spinifex Gum is an Australian musical collective based in Cairns, a collaboration between the Indigenous ensemble the Marliya Choir, Felix Riebl and Ollie McGill of the Melbourne band The Cat Empire, Lyn Williams, and Deborah Brown. The perfor ...

, a musical collective based in

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. Under her leadership, the Gondwana Choirs have commissioned new choral works, many of which involve Australian composers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

Awards and honours

In 2017, Williams was awarded the Don Banks Music Award. She received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2004 and was promoted to

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AM) in 2019. In 2021 she received the

Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is an Australian music award. History and description The award was inaugurated in 1982. It honours the memory of Sir Bernard Heinze (1894–1982), who for 31 years was Ormond Professor of Music at the Unive ...

for her 30 years' leadership of the Gondwana Choirs. She was nominated for the 2021 NSW Australian of the Year, and was honoured with the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the 2024 Art Music Awards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Lyn 1963 births Choral conductors Australian conductors (music) Living people Members of the Order of Australia