Jonathon Welch

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.{{harvnb|Welch|Mundell|2009|loc=Chapter 1: Finding My Voice}} 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.{{sfn|Welch|Mundell|2009|loc=Chapter 2: Singing Through Silence}} 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).{{cite web | url = http://www.abc.net.au/talkingheads/txt/s2006720.htm | archive-url = https://archive.today/20121231154742/http://www.abc.net.au/talkingheads/txt/s2006720.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 31 December 2012 | title = Transcripts – Jonathon Welch | work = Talking Heads with Peter Thompson | publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) | date = 20 August 2007}}

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.{{cite web | url = http://www.icmi.com.au/jonathon-welch | title = Speaker Jonathon Welch | publisher = Speakers Bureau ICMI | accessdate = 26 August 2012 | archive-date = 25 April 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130425083902/http://www.icmi.com.au/jonathon-welch | url-status = dead }} 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.{{cite news | first = Dewi | last = Cooke | title = Finding Each Other Choir's Greatest Success | work = The Age | date = 9 June 2007 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/finding-each-other-choirs-greatest-success/2007/06/08/1181089329476.html | publisher = Fairfax Media | accessdate = 26 August 2012}} 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.{{sfn|Welch|Mundell|2009|page= 161 |ps= "As luck would have it, in 1997 half of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir was heading off to the Gay Games in Amsterdam–and I was invited to assist with rehearsals before the choir's departure, in order to look after the members who ... It was also a time of great exploration and activity; by the end of 1997, I was music director of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir;"}}

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.{{cite news | first = Catherine | last = Deveny | authorlink = Catherine Deveny | title = Choir Tugs at the Heartstrings | work = The Age | publisher = Fairfax Media | date = 26 May 2007 | url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/choir-tugs-at-the-heartstrings/2007/05/24/1179601574945.html | accessdate = 25 August 2012 }} In 2001 Welch formed the Sydney Street Choir{{cite news | url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/homeless-choir-sings-to-the-beat-of-city-street/2006/10/20/1160851138182.html | work = The Age | title = Homeless Choir Sings to the Beat of City Street | last = McManus | first = Bridget | publisher = Fairfax Media | date = 21 October 2006}} – to establish a choir of homeless people for a television project.{{ cite news | url = http://www.smh.com.au/handheld/articles/2007/11/18/1195321595443.html | title = The Emotional Journey | work = The Sydney Morning Herald | publisher = Fairfax Media | date = 18 November 2007}} 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:

{{blockquote|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.|"The Gift of Song", Compass, 25 December 2003|ABC Television{{cite web | url = http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s1015692.htm | title = The Gift of Song | work = Compass | publisher = ABC Television | date = 25 December 2003}}}}

During 2006 Welch was invited to be the choirmaster for the Choir of Hard Knocks by Jason Stephens It was funded by RecLink, a non-profit charity and welfare organisation.{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/choir-will-go-on-despite-knockers/story-fna7dq6e-1225705209990|title=Choir of Hard Knocks Will Go on Under New Banner|last=Magee|first=Antonia|work=Herald Sun|location=Melbourne|date=30 April 2009}} The process of forming the ensemble was televised on Australian Broadcasting Corporation during mid-2007 as a five-part documentary series.{{cite web | url = http://abc.net.au/tv/hardknocks/ | title = Opera House Special | work = The Choir of Hard Knocks | publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation |year = 2007 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20120923015339/http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hardknocks/ | archivedate = 23 September 2012}}{{cite web | url = https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1140903 | title = Welch, Jonathon Charles | publisher = It's an Honour – Government of Australia | date = 8 June 2009}} Also that year, Welch issued a solo album, With a Song in My Heart on ABC Records.{{cite web | url = http://shop.abc.net.au/products/with-a-song-in-my-heart | title = With a Song in My Heart | publisher = ABC Shop. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) |year = 2007 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://archive.today/20121231072423/http://shop.abc.net.au/products/with-a-song-in-my-heart | archivedate = 31 December 2012}}

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, [http://thechoir.com.au/ 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.{{cite web | url = http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/jail-birds-teaching-prisoners-to-sing/3084912 | title = Jail Birds: Teaching Prisoners to Sing | last = Turner | first = Steve | work = Breakfast | publisher = Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) | date = 17 November 2009}}

In November 2009, Welch created the inaugural national Social Inclusion Week "to connect people, encourage participation and form communities". [https://www.socialinclusionweek.com.au/ Social Inclusion Week], held annually since its inception, is in the last week of November each year.{{cite web | url = https://www.socialinclusionweek.com.au/ | title = Jonathon Welch AM | publisher = Social Inclusion Week | accessdate = 5 January 2021}}

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.[http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/bravo-cruise-performing-arts "Bravo! A Cruise of the Performing Arts"], Stage Whispers

In addition to the information above, Welch has founded:

• Melbourne Festival of Choirs between 2010 and 2012. This became the [https://www.playitforward.org.au/events/misf Melbourne International Singers Festival] from 2013. This Festival is held annually over the Queen's Birthday Weekend in June.
• Sing For a Cure, cancer fundraising concert series launched 2011
• [https://www.upbeatarts.org.au/ School of Hard Knocks], launched September 2012 and now known as Upbeat Arts
• Only Women Aloud, formed September 2012
• Melbourne Eisteddfod, launched in 2013
• Brisbane International Singers Festival in 2016
• [https://www.playitforward.org.au/ Play It Forward] in September 2018. Play It Forward provides a unique range of tailored inclusive arts programs, events and projects for all Australians.

Welch finished as artistic director with Choir of Hard Knocks in December 2018, after 13 years in the role. Danielle Matthews and Adam Przewlocki have taken over as the choir's co-artistic directors. Welch is now a Patron of the choir.{{Cite web|url=https://choirofhardknocks.org.au/our-history|title = Our History}}

In 2020, Welch competed in the television singing competition The Voice.[https://9now.nine.com.au/jonathon-welch Jonathon Welch], Nine Entertainment Boy George picked him for his team in the blind auditions where Welch sang "This Is the Moment". He then lost in the battle where he sang "Stand by Me".

Welch is an openly gay performer,{{sfn|Welch|Mundell|2009|page= 72 |ps= "I'd also decided to take my newly found outward confidence and tell my brother Glenn, and his new wife, Annette, and my sister, Andrea, that I was gay."}} 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),{{sfn|Welch|Mundell|2009|loc=Introduction: A Call from the Blue}} on the Pacific cruise ship Regal Princess, where Welch was on a working holiday with Tenor Australis providing on-board entertainment.{{sfn|Welch|Mundell|2009|loc=Chapter 8: Sounds of the Street}} As of September 2007 the pair were living in Yarraville, and had been together for six-and-a-half years.{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/with-a-song-in-his-heart/2007/09/07/1188783486927.html?page=fullpage|title=With a song in his heart|last=Munro|first=Peter|work=The Age|location=Melbourne|date=8 September 2007}}

On April 28, 2009, it was reported in The Age{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/strange-feud-ends-on-a-blue-note-20090428-ge7tum.html|title=Strange feud ends on a blue note/ The Choir of Hard Knocks takes its final bow with a concert of Billie Holiday songs. Andra Jackson reports.|date=28 April 2009|publisher=The Age}} that Jonathon Welch decided to break away from Reclink, the very organisation that created the Choir of Hard Knocks TV show. The Age reported that the breakup was a result of “legal action, threats, the expulsion of one member and the suspension of four others, and a very public tiff between Welch and RecLink.” The spokeswoman for the four suspended choir members, Tess Lawrence, stated that their suspension was "devastating" and she was "endeavouring to console them." The Sydney Morning Herald on November 1, 2012, stated that a “few choristers, upset at what they saw as an injustice, sought legal advice and even turned on Welch.”

In July 2021 Jonathan Welch filed documents in the Federal Court of Australia claiming that the stand-up comedy school, School of Hard Knock Knocks, has lost "Mr Welch potential business opportunities and income. The Respondents are deliberately and knowingly using the intellectual property of Mr Welch for their own commercial gain.”.{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/fiona-byrne/choir-creator-claims-hard-knock-knockoff/news-story/22fbf465be89bc921e259452e7222b4b | title=Choir creator claims Hard Knock knock-off|date=31 July 2021|publisher=Herald Sun}} The respondent has since "lodged a counterclaim, saying that Welch's School of Hard Knocks is in itself a breach of Fremantle Media's trademark for the Choir of Hard Knocks."{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/scrawl-order-anti-lockdown-spray-hits-home-for-afl-boss-20211019-p591cy.html|title=Trading Marks|date=19 October 2021|publisher=The Age}} The matter did not go to court, but rather settled with a deed of settlement.{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/lord-mayoral-candidate-s-house-pops-up-on-rival-greens-election-flyer-20240916-p5kaz8.html|title=Wherefore Art Thou?|date=17 September 2024|publisher=The Age}}

In September, 2021 Paulien George of the Voices of Casey{{cite web|url=https://berwicknews.starcommunity.com.au/news/2020-12-04/new-direction-for-voices-of-casey | title=New direction for Voices of Casey| date=4 December 2020|publisher=Star News}} challenged Jonathon Welch's registration of Voices of Casey Choir with ASIC at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/choir-name-dispute-sows-discord-in-casey-20210831-p58nmi.html|title=Choir name dispute sows discord in Casey|date=31 August 2021|publisher=The Age}} During the first hearing, Senior Member Anne O’Connell raised that Play It Forward is not a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission (ACNC). Jonathon Welch later apologised for "any confusion over whether his Play It Forward musical education company, which he has referred to as a charity, is in fact a registered charity."{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/choirmaster-sorry-over-charity-confusion-20211018-p590zn.html|title=Choirmaster sorry over charity confusion|date=18 October 2021|publisher=The Age}}

On September 21, 2021, Senior Member Anne O’Connell held a hearing in Jonathon Welch's absence asking him to provide written submissions explaining why he “should not be referred to the Legal Services Commissioner and the Attorney-General for making legal threats in the middle of tribunal proceeding” against Paulien George.{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/scott-morrison-s-night-to-remember-in-the-big-apple-20210921-p58tlp.html|title=Discordant Notes|date=21 September 2021|publisher=The Age}} Welch later lost the case on October 8, 2021, with the AAT Senior Member Professor Ann O'Connell ruling that "Welch's Play It Forward musical education business could no longer use the Voices of Casey Choir name."{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/choir-master-jonathon-welch-hits-bum-note-20211010-p58yrv.html|title=Choir master Jonathon Welch hits bum note|date=10 October 2021|publisher=The Age}} Jonathon Welch also withdrew his trademark application for 'Voices of Casey' saying that because of the "damaging media attention the Voices of Casey name and brand has now received, we are choosing to focus our energy where it should be, on the singers, and withdraw our trademark application as the goodwill it (the name) once had, has been irrevocably tarnished.”

At the beginning of 2024 Jonathon Welch took action for the second time in the Federal Court against "comedy training outfit the Hard Knock Knocks Comedy School and its founder Morry Morgan" alleging that Morgan did not honour an earlier deed of settlement and rebranding undertakings." The case, however, was delayed due to Jonathon Welch's "long-standing" lawyer, Stuart Gibson, suddenly taking leave days before the mediation.

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. Welch was the 2008 winner of the Australian Local Hero Award – a part of the Australian of the Year awards.{{cite web | publisher = National Australia Day Council | title = Jonathon Welch 2008 Award | accessdate = 26 August 2012 | url = http://www.australianoftheyear.gov.au/pages/page395.asp | archive-date = 5 April 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080405162118/http://www.australianoftheyear.gov.au/pages/page395.asp | url-status = dead }} 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 an honorary doctorate from Griffith University.{{cite web | publisher = Australian of the Year | title = Jonathon Welch 2008 Award | accessdate = 23 May 2013 | url = http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/news-and-media/news/article/?id=jonathon-welch-awarded-an-honourary-doctorate | archive-date = 16 December 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141216072510/http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/news-and-media/news/article/?id=jonathon-welch-awarded-an-honourary-doctorate | url-status = dead }}

The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Jonathon Welch won one award in that time.{{cite web|url=https://www.moawards.com.au/awardwinners|title=MO Award Winners|website=Mo Awards|access-date=16 March 2022|archive-date=11 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811130738/https://www.moawards.com.au/awardwinners|url-status=dead}}

{{awards table}} (wins only)

|-

| 2006

| Jonathon Welch

| John Campbell Fellowship Award

| {{won}}

|-

{{end}}

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".

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | title = Choir Man | last1 = Welch | first1 = Jonathon | last2 = Mundell | first2 = Meg | date = 1 April 2009 | location = Pymble, New South Wales | publisher = HarperCollins | isbn = 978-0-7322-8762-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rBlZ4oT05N8C}}

{{Commonscat}}

• {{Official website|https://www.jonathonwelch.com/}}
• [https://choirofhardknocks.org.au/ The Choir of Hard Knocks]
• [https://www.playitforward.org.au/events/misf Melbourne International Singers Festival]
• [https://www.playitforward.org.au/ Play It Forward]
• [https://www.upbeatarts.org.au/ School of Hard Knocks, now known as Upbeat Arts]
• [http://www.socialinclusionweek.com.au/ Social Inclusion Week]
• [http://www.thechoir.com.au/ THECHO!R]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, Jonathan}}

Category:Living people

Category:1958 births

Category:Australian choral conductors

Category:Australian gay musicians

Category:Musicians from Melbourne

Category:Members of the Order of Australia

Category:Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University alumni

Category:Voice teachers

Category:21st-century Australian conductors (music)

Category:The Voice (Australian TV series) contestants

Category:20th-century Australian LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century Australian LGBTQ people