FROM THE IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR

After ten years as Chair of the Australian Boys Choral Institute (ABCI) Board, I stepped down as Chair at the ABCI Annual General Meeting in May 2024. It has been a great honour to serve the Institute and the Choir community in this role.

On the day I attended my son Liam’s audition in 2010, I found a surprisingly prescient street sign outside Choir House. “Duffy Place” is named after Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), a lawyer and politician in the Parliament of Victoria who lived in a house called “Auburn” across the road from Choir House and the Auburn Uniting Church. It seemed like an omen for the Duffys’ involvement in the Australian Boys Choir.

Liam continued with the Choir, becoming a Chorister and eventually joined the Kelly Gang. I quickly became involved as a parent volunteer on Weekend Workshops and Summer Schools, which Liam and I both found rewarding and enjoyable. I joined the ABCI Board in October 2012 and became Chair in March 2014. One of my first duties was at the ABC 75th birthday exhibition, performance and celebrations at Federation Square. I am proud of the achievements of the Institute during my tenure. Key amongst these achievements was the appointment of a new and dynamic Artistic Director in September 2018. Mr. Dinopoulos has lifted the profile of the Choir and improved the artistic and musical standards at all levels of the Choir. We have outstanding and talented music and administrative staff, the latter led by Ms. Elizabeth Lindner. The ABCI Board has evolved over this decade and has a perfectly balanced mix of people and skills in its current form. Each of the Directors brings enthusiasm, knowledge and wisdom to their work for the Institute. We developed a new ABCI Constitution in 2017 to replace an out-of-date prior document. After winding up the V.J. Kelly Memorial Choir House Trust, the ABCI is currently in the strongest financial position in the twelve years that I have been on the Board, which places the Institute in a strong position for the future. We are now in control of the Institute’s destiny with a prudent and well performing investment portfolio as well as significant cash reserves for any unforeseen circumstances.

Renewal has been a theme I have written about on many occasions in my time as Chair. It was time for me to hand over to a new Chair who will bring fresh ideas and renewed enthusiasm to the role. Mr. Tim Staindl was voted in unanimously as the new Chair at our recent AGM. With his extensive knowledge of the Choir as a prior Head Chorister of the Australian Boys Choir, training in music, professional skills as a lawyer, as well as his keen intelligence and wisdom that belies his age, I am sure he will be an outstanding Chair of the ABCI. He has already made a great impression. I have agreed to stay on for a year or two at the Board’s discretion, in support.

I thank all the ABCI musical and administrative staff, volunteers, donors, men and boys of the Choir for their outstanding work for the ABCI over the last decade. Thank you for your support and ongoing commitment to the Australian Boys Choir, the nation’s “first and finest” boys’ choir.

Professor Stephen Duffy, Immediate Past Chair,
Australian Boys Choral Institute Board