ABOUT

South of the River is a community choir celebrating diversity and harmony through a shared passion for singing. Under the direction of Annemarie Sharry, the choir explores the music and rhythms of Africa, traditional African American gospel and original Australian compositions.

Since forming in 2002 the 40 voice a cappella ensemble has inspired audiences at a diverse range of venues across Victoria, including Melbourne Town Hall, Crown Casino's Grand Palladium Ballroom, Federation Square, The Royal Melbourne Show, The Seymour Cup, Grape Grazing in the Yarra Valley, Dame Phyllis Frost Women's Centre and numerous Melbourne pubs and community events.

South of the River love to go out into the community. Some of the festivals include: St Kilda Festival; Stringybark Festival; Eltham Jazz and Blues festival; Queenscliff Music Festival; Apollo Bay Music Festival; Williamstown Music Festival; Bruthen Music Festival; Dandenong Ranges Music Festival and many more. In addition, the choir has created successful collaborations with other artists including The Prayerbabies, Tony Backhouse, Geoff Achison; Daryl Braithwaite, and award winning composer Burkhard Dallwitz.

One of our greatest public performances to date was the 2006 ABC Classic FM National Choir of the Year Awards. In July 2006, South of the River won a place in the Victorian State Final of this national "Sing Out" competition. Of the 40 Victorian choirs who participated in the state wide audition process South of the River were one of four finalist selected to "Sing Out" at the Melbourne Town Hall for a place in the national final. This performance was broadcast live across Australia on ABC Classic FM radio on Monday 31st July 2006.

South of the River were thrilled with their place in the finals and enjoyed the rigor and discipline that was required to progress to such a high level in a fierce and highly contested competition.

During the Sing Out competition, choir member and documentary film maker, Linette Etheredge, had her film crew follow the choir for weeks. The result of this became the documentary Wade in the Water . It is the story of South of the River's desire to win a national singing competition and our choir founder, Debi Candlish's determination to live through breast cancer. To find out more about Wade in the Water go to: www.wadeinthewater.net

Wade in the Water DVD cover

SOTR dresses up for the National Launch of “Wade in the Water” Feb 2008