Sydney Street Choir

Sydney Street Choir is a long-standing community choir for people with lived experience of homelessness and disadvantage. Suze’s work with the choir brings together musical leadership, community connection and the shared power of singing.

Music, Support and Community

SYDNEY STREET CHOIR

Sydney Street Choir is a long-standing community choir supporting people affected by homelessness, mental illness, addiction and other forms of social disadvantage. Through singing, rehearsals, performances, workshops and public events, the choir creates opportunities for connection, expression and community participation.

Running since 2001, Sydney Street Choir is the longest-running choir program of its kind in Australia. Alongside its regular rehearsal schedule, the choir has toured interstate and regionally, recorded multiple CDs, developed original theatre projects, and appeared in a wide range of community and public settings. Its work reflects a strong commitment not only to music-making, but to dignity, encouragement and belonging.

To learn more about the choir, its story, its programs and ways to support its work, visit the official Sydney Street Choir website.

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Suze Pratten smiling outdoors in a red Sydney Street Choir shirt

A musical and community role

Suze Pratten: Co-Director

In mid 2024, Suze was invited to be the Choir’s new co-director. She’s been excited to share in the life of the choir and build the musical confidence of it's members ever since.

'I just love what the Street Choir does,' she said. 'I think it’s incredibly inspirational and I'm humbled to work with such an amazing bunch. Each person is an inspiration and the fact that together we find so much joy and energy in song lifts my spirits every time we meet. It's also great that members can access community services through the choir...so many of them have been helped with things like housing and health...I see community singing benefit everyone I work with but in this setting, it is at it's most powerful.'

Outreach

Dillwynia Women's Prison Singing Program

Dillwynia Women's Prison
Singing Program

Sydney Street Choir also raises funds for outreach programs such as the one at Dillwynia Women's Prison lead by Suze and Rachel Harding. This program has brought so much joy to the inmates of the prison. When the women leave Dylwinia, they are encouraged to come along to Sydney Street Choir to continue singing and enjoy the unique support of our choir community.

Suze brings an extraordinary combination of musical skill and genuine warmth to everything she does. She has an instinct for meeting every singer exactly where they are, whether they’re a seasoned performer or someone who hasn’t sung in years. Her empathy is real, and our members feel it every single week. Suze walks into every rehearsal with an energy and joy that’s infectious. Under her direction, our choir has grown in confidence, in skill, and connection. For a community choir like ours, the right director isn’t just about musical talent, it’s about building belonging. Suze does both brilliantly.

Anna Dear

Chair, Sydney Street Choir Foundation