Ballarat, Vic

Sweet Mona's bring sweet sound of success to Ballarat

A powerful sound is flooding the air of Ballarat in Victoria and it’s coming from the Sweet Mona’s, a choir that began as a part of a TAFE course more than a decade ago, and is now one of the most respected choirs in the country. In fact Australian choir maestro, Tony Backhouse, who has run workshops with the Sweet Mona’s, describes it as one of the best community choir’s he’s ever heard.

More than 100 people have been part of the Sweet Mona’s choir since it began 13 years ago and there are now several spin-offs, including three Mini Mona Choirs for Ballarat’s younger singers, and a women’s multicultural choir.

The Sweet Mona’s perform contemporary music – gospel, African, blues, world music – often a capella and with lots of hand clapping, rhythmic stamping and body grooving. They have played at increasingly major gigs including the Apollo Bay  Festival, Bendigo Gospel Festival , Melbourne International Arts Festival, and the Echoes of Freedom World Music Festival, staged in Ballarat in 2004, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade.

Sweet Mona’s founder, Verity Higgins, said she came up with the idea for the choir as a way of giving students attending her theatre course at Ballarat TAFE some practical experience and to build some team spirit.

“There were only 40 hours of voice in the two year course and you can’t properly teach voice for theatre in that time. So I started the choir and it just took off. And after a couple of years, we extended it to the broader Ballarat community,” explains Higgins.

The choir has 30 members and a 50 song repertoire.  “When I sing, I go off into a whole other place,” says choir member Dani Fry. “I just get so involved with the song and the execution of the song. And when I see people smile and how they enjoy it, it just makes me feel warmer and I feel overwhelmed emotionally,” she says.

The choir has people of all ages and Verity Higgins, who is now a Regional Arts Development Officer with Regional Arts Victoria, says the Sweet Mona’s and its associated choirs are attracting members from the area’s newest arrivals, such as refugees from Toga, Ethiopia and Sudan.

The story of the Sweet Mona’s will be told across Australia this year on ABC TV in a documentary called The Big Sing.

Hear the sound of the Sweet Mona’s choir at www.sweetmonas.dw.com.au