Stephen Leek

Freelance Australian Composer/Conductor Stephen Leek is a major and important figure in the development of choral music, music in the community and educational music in Australia. He has had long associations with some of the finest and most innovative choirs around the world including Gondwana Voices (Australia), the Tapiola Children’s Choir (Finland), Kamer…Choir (Latvia), The Formosa Singers (Taiwan), and his own choirs, vOiCeArT and The Australian Voices, that he co-founded and conducted for 16 years until 2009. As a conductor, Leek continues to work as guest conductor and adjudicator around the globe.

As a composer he established his own distinctive contemporary style back in the 1980’s. His works have broad appeal and are performed regularly by a wide selection of choirs throughout the world and has been commissioned by some of the leading choral groups. Having written 13 operas, numerous orchestral and chamber works, music for education and dance, yet, Leek is often credited as the “founder of Australian choral music” through his commitment to the innovative development of Australian choral music over the past 4 decades and through his composition of over 700 innovative choral works which explore a uniquely “Australian” colour and texture – paving the way for future generations of Australian composers to capture the sounds and energies of their own country.

A Churchill Fellow, Leek has received numerous national and international awards including the highly prestigious “Robert Edler International Choral Prize” for his contribution to the development of global choral music presented to him in Darmstaat, Germany. He has held many national and international positions including Vice President of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) from 2011 – 2017, and 2012/13, Artistic Director of the Shanghai Youth Choir and in 2015, Conductor of the Asia Pacific Youth Choir. From 2016 until 2022, he was Artistic Director / General Manager of the Young Music Society – an awarded, self-funded, non-profit, community-based organisation that celebrated 50 years in 2019, whilst lecturing in Choral Direction at the University of Melbourne School of Music and Composition at the Australian National University School of Music in Canberra. He is exclusively published by Morton Music and currently lives in Brisbane Queensland.