Sam Allchurch

Sam Allchurch has been Artistic Director of Sydney Chamber Choir since 2019. Since then, he has established a strong relationship with the choir and its audiences, directing the choir in a wide range of concerts and collaborations.

Sam’s repertoire spans the works of Bach and Handel to the music of contemporary Australian composers such as Paul Stanhope, Joseph Twist, Brenda Gifford and Brooke Shelley. Recent highlights with the Sydney Chamber Choir include the premiere of Espoir by Elizabeth Younan, Winter Nights, a collaborative program with jazz singer and director Naomi Crellin and a studio recording of Twist’s An Australian Song Cycle.

Sam is also Director of Music of Christ Church St Laurence, where he conducts the choir which dates back to 1845. This choir sings music of the Anglican choral tradition within the services offered each week at this historic church. In addition to weekly choral services, he has conducted the choir in performances of Bach’s St John Passion with The Muffat Collective and recently completed residencies at Westminster Abbey and the Thomaskirche, Leizpig.

Sam is Associate Artistic Director at Gondwana Choirs, where he has prepared choirs for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia and played a key role in presenting the Gondwana World Choral Festival.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne, where he was a choral scholar at Trinity College. Sam was awarded a Gates Scholarship to complete a Master in Music (Choral Studies) at the University of Cambridge where he studied with Stephen Layton. In 2023, he participated in a week-long masterclass with the Berlin Radio Choir led by Simon Halsey, supported by the Sydney Symposium Choral Foundation Scholarship.