About us
Alchemy is a community choir of professional standards and quality, with about 12-14 choir members. We rehearse in Petersham, in Sydney's Inner West. This is 3.9km from Central Station, on the bus line near funky Leichhardt, happen'n Newtown, and groovy Glebe. It is just off Parramatta Road before Norton St Leichhardt, and about 750m walk down Crystal Street from Petersham Station.
Alchemy A Cappella (Alchemy A Capella is the USA spelling). We began in December 2003 as The Elemental Singers, an offshoot of choir which has been performing in Sydney since 1993, called The Elementals.
Ronelle Knowles, a longtime member of The Elementals, took over the musical direction of The Elemental Singers from Ian Lawrence who departed the original Elementals choir to reform his group with a different direction. The Elemental Singers mainly performed gospel classics inlcuding Precious Lord, Wade in the Water, Oh Happy Day and Seek Seek.
Under Knowles' leadership, the group expanded its repertoire to suit a broader audience. Songs chosen were required to be meaningful and uplifting- for example, Carole King's You've Got A Friend and Bill Withers' Lean On Me, both arranged by Knowles.
In 2005 the choir decided to include love songs in its direction in order to broaden its market further, eg When I Fall In Love (arranged by Kirby Shaw) and Till There Was You (by Willson, arr. by Knowles). Knowles and her husband, John were inspired by their pregnancy and co-wrote the song Let Love Shine, which Ronelle arranged.
In 2006 Alchemy became the choir's new name, to define their new identity. The choir was to retain some gospel songs, however, expand the repertoire to include folk songs, world music and humourous pieces as well. The choir is going to learn to SCAT as they learn Rogers & Hart's My Romance, arranged by Paris Rutherford. 2007 Repertoire includes I Can See Clearly Now and Throw Your Arms Around Me (arranged by Stuart Davis), Operator (Manahattan Transfer) and others.
The name Alchemy came from a nomination, elimination and voting process involving all choir members. The top six suggestions were:
6 alchemy
5 bella cappella
4 harmonics
3 singrays
2 voice activated
1 a cappella soundbox