The Music in Communities Network conducted an online survey between September 2012 and January 2013, open to any choir to complete. Over 200 choirs responded to the survey which was distributed through the Music in Communities Network with the help of the Australian National Choral Association and others. All of the choirs included in these results fall into what we consider ‘community choirs”. A small number of school and professional choirs were removed from the responses because there were too few to compare results (for example, between “community” choirs and “school” choirs) and because in some cases these results would alter the overall results (for example, directors’ fees for professional choirs).

The survey had 19 questions, listed in Appendix 2

As an indication of the field of responses, the largest categories were Classical (20%), Multicultural (14%), Folk / traditional (13%) and the group of choirs that indicated “many” or “various” (16%) (Figure 1). A very small proportion identify as a “musical theatre” choir, this may be the result of reaching fewer theatre groups than standalone choirs, or may be an indication that “musical theatre” is one of a number of genres that some choirs sing but not the primary genre.

We treat this result with some caution as an indication of the overall breakdown of genres chosen by choirs.

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