Serbian Choral Society (Srpsko Pevačko Društvo) is an independent Serbian community choir based in Melbourne, Australia. The group has members from many different cultural backgrounds and regularly performs throughout metropolitan and regional Victoria, both for the Australian public and Serbian community.
The choir was founded by its conductor and artistic director Sanja Drljaca in February 2000. At the time, it was born as a female octet under the name of Balkan Voices (Balkanski Glasovi). They had many performances within the Serbian community, with most notable being their first annual concert in September 2003.
The new chapter in life of the choir began in September 2013, when the choir incorporated under the new name Serbian Choral Society Inc. The choir set new goals for themselves:
- to continue bringing Serbian culture to a wider audience in Australia,
- to encourage the practice of choral singing within the Serbian community,
- to promote Serbian choral music through performances and
- to collaborate with other ethnically based choirs in Australia in an exchange of cultural heritage.
With new ambitions and new purposes, the choir attracted new members and prepared the new repertoire. Serbian Choral Society performs a variety of Serbian music – sacred and secular compositions by Serbian composers, traditional and folk songs, but the repertoire is not confined only to Serbian music; it includes influences from other nations which shared the same geographic space in the Balkans, and beyond.