“I invite you to dismiss all notions that young people are, in any way, lesser artists,” Gondwana’s Artistic Director and Founder Lyn Williams told the sell-out crowd in the Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall, gathered for the gala opening concert of the week-long Gondwana World Choral Festival which celebrates the organisation’s 30th anniversary. It’s a sentiment that has driven Williams’ work with choirs over the last three decades, and in this ambitious gala program, which saw some of Australia’s finest children’s and youth choirs performing music by some of Australia’s finest choral composers, Williams made sure it was an invitation impossible to resist.

While choirs from around the world will perform all week at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and in the closing gala, Sounds of the World, at the Opera House on Sunday, this concert put Australian talent in the spotlight, beginning with the Gondwana Indigenous Choir.

Eric Avery, Lara Miller, and the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir. Photo © Robert Catto

A gently pulsing, double-stopped drone from violinist Eric Avery, sustained with a loop pedal, opened musical proceedings – following an acknowledgement of the land’s traditional owners by chorister Lara Miller –...