Tuesday April 9, 2024, was a red-letter day in Sydney Eisteddfod’s history as the organisation welcomed guests to launch its new home.
Sydney Eisteddfod Moves to New Home at Chippen Street Theatre
Sydney Eisteddfod has now moved to 45 Chippen Street, Chippendale, continuing an exciting path of renewal and development after celebrating its 90th birthday last year. The new premises not only has office space and rehearsal rooms but boasts the Chippen Street Theatre, a fully equipped, fifty-seat black box theatre! This will be used for many of this year’s performance events, as well as small concerts, workshops and masterclasses. The venue is also home to arts partners Australian Youth Orchestra and Australian Haydn Ensemble.
The event was celebrated with industry representatives, board members, donors and distinguished guests. The evening concluded with a performance by Australian pianist Winnie Su, winner of the 2022 Sydney Eisteddfod Kawai Senior Piano Scholarship, also gearing up for an upcoming Masterclass and concerts with Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Sydney University Symphony Orchestra.
The evening launched the first ever five-year international residency program and the first Sydney Eisteddfod String Quartet, who represent our vision to nurture the next generation of Australian musicians and to connect across the world with international festivals, ensembles and artists. They will travel to the Orvieto Musica Festival and perform a new Australian work at the Sydney Opera House by Daniel Rohjas at our Dance Scholarship. The SE Quartet was represented by Noah Oshiro performing on the cello.
Young ballet dancers Lauren Li and Tallulah Calvert represented the Sydney Eisteddfod dance community, with Lauren delighting the audience with an impromptu performance.
Sydney Eisteddfod Chair Max Holzner said: “Today marks the beginning of a brand-new exciting chapter in this historic organisation. We are celebrating this afternoon quite a few firsts in our 91-year legacy.
This is the first permanent home the Sydney Eisteddfod has had, the first time we have developed a multi-arts centre as a creative hub, and the first time we have been able to offer a space to resident arts companies.
The roots of today’s Sydney Eisteddfod were planted at the Sydney Town Hall just down the road in August 1933. From here we will be running and organising over 350 events in the ninety-first Sydney Eisteddfod Festival from May to September, one of the largest festivals in the southern hemisphere.”
Chief Executive Officer Annette Brown was beyond excited for this next step and said: “Sydney Eisteddfod at the Chippen Street Theatre will give many young performers valuable intimate public performance experience, where they can interact with their audience, peers and mentors. I look forward to providing a space to foster many more performers, dancers, singers and musicians for years to come”.
Only a short 10-minute walk from Central and Redfern stations, Chippen Street Theatre is available as a venue for hire, with Sydney Eisteddfod seeing it as a much-needed additional accessible arts venue in Sydney.
Book now by contacting us on [email protected]
