Jonathon Welch

Biography

Welch grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea. His father, Kenneth Welch, was an engineer born in Sydney to English parents Thomas Archibald and Ella Thrale Welch. His mother, Olive Margaret Hando, was the daughter of Charles and Florence Amelia Hando, farmers from Charlton in rural Victoria. Kenneth and Olive married in 1948 and settled in Melbourne, where Olive worked as a legal secretary. Welch's older sister is Andrea (born c. 1951) and his older brother is Glenn (born c. 1953). They have an adopted younger sister, Elizabeth. Welch attended Ripponlea Primary School. His first job, at eight years old, was selling newspapers directly to motorists. Olive and Andrea sang and played the piano at home, while Kenneth enjoyed listening to opera and Gilbert and Sullivan.

At the age of seven or eight, Welch crafted his first public performance – on the stairs to his school's library – a self-adapted version of Winnie the Pooh and charged his fellow school mates sixpence each. In October 1966 he started piano lessons with Valda Johnstone. As a boy soprano, Welch sang at the local Presbyterian Church, St Margaret's. His parents separated in 1969 and subsequently divorced – the four children remained with Olive. He completed his secondary education at Melbourne High School and commenced a teaching course at Melbourne State College (which later became a faculty of the University of Melbourne).

By 1980 Welch left his teaching course and became a member of the Victoria State Opera chorus as a tenor, making his professional debut in 1981. Olive died of lung cancer when he was 23 years old. He performed in the Victorian State Opera's first production of The Pirates of Penzance (1983). He followed with four years (1984 to 1988) in Brisbane, where he became principal tenor for the Lyric Opera of Queensland while also studying at Queensland Conservatorium of Music. In 1988 Welch joined Opera Australia as a tenor and sang alongside Joan Sutherland at the Sydney Opera House. By 1994 he had founded Tenor Australis with fellow tenor, Gerry Sword. In 1997 he worked with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir and by year's end was their musical director.

At the end of 1999 Welch travelled to Canada for a holiday. While there, he read a magazine article about Montreal's Homeless Men's Choir. In 2001 Welch formed the Sydney Street Choir – to establish a choir of homeless people for a television project. He also formed or has led other choirs including Geelong Pop Choir and Pop Kidz, Australian Pop Choir, and Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus. In 2003 Welch explained his motivation:

Music I think was given to me as a gift. And I believe it was given to me not just for myself but in my ability to perform and teach is to give enjoyment to others. I believe that's why I was put on this earth ... [the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir] in many ways were a catalyst for me, making a very big career change from just singing to go back to teaching and conducting. And the joy I got from that really inspired me to go on to create the Street Choir and Pop Kidz and the Australian Pop Choir.

In September 2006 Welch created The Choir of Hard Knocks, which is made up of homeless and disadvantaged singers from Melbourne, "Welch was compelled to form the choir after reading an article about a choir for homeless people in Montreal". It was funded by RecLink, a non-profit charity and welfare organisation. The process of forming the ensemble was televised on Australian Broadcasting Corporation during mid-2007 as a five-part documentary series of the same name. Also that year, Welch issued a solo album, With a Song in My Heart on ABC Records.

From June to August 2008 Welch was a judge on TV talent competition, Battle of the Choirs. In March 2009 he had a falling out with RecLink and The Choir of Hard Knocks was replaced by Choir of Hope and Inspiration in April. He also started a new community project, THECHO!R, that year. Welch developed another choir, Voices from the Inside, for the November 2009 TV series, Jail Birds, with female inmates of HM Prison Tarrengower.

In November 2009, Welch initiated the inaugural Social Inclusion Week "to connect people, encourage participation and form communities".

Welch was the music director for the KwaYa Uganda project in September 2012 and April 2013.

Beyond Hard Knocks, a "where are they now" documentary on the journey of the original Choir of Hard Knocks members and their founding director, was released in September 2013 and shown on GEM TV in November 2014.

The inaugural Australian cruise of the performing arts on the MS Radiance of the Seas in November 2014 included Welch as well as, among others, Cheryl Barker, David Hobson, Colin Lane, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Simon Tedeschi, Elaine Paige, and Marina Prior.

Welch has founded:

Personal life

Welch is an openly gay performer, and has led both the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir and the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus. In late December 2000 Welch met his future domestic partner, Matt (an electrical engineer from Orion, Illinois), on the Pacific cruise ship Regal Princess, where Welch was on a working holiday with Tenor Australis providing on-board entertainment. As of September 2007 the pair were living in Yarraville, and had been together for six-and-a-half years.

Awards and accolades

In 1999 Welch won the Australasian Choral Championships at the City of Sydney Eisteddfod. South Sydney Council, in 2002, presented him with a community services award. In 2007 he won the John Campbell "Mo" Fellowship Award. Welch was the 2008 winner of the Australian Local Hero Award – a part of the Australian of the Year awards. The award was in recognition of his work with The Choir of Hard Knocks. The National Australia Day Council stated that he had "touched the heart of the nation when he demonstrated the power of singing in building and renewing promising lives that had been saddened and defeated by circumstance". Also in 2008 Welch was awarded with an honorary doctorate from Griffith University. In June 2009 on the Queen's Birthday he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia with the citation, "For service to the arts as an operatic performer and vocal coach, and to the community as the founder and musical director of the Choir of Hard Knocks".