KEY POINTS:
Tenor Jonathon Welch has done a lot in his 30-year musical career, but it wasn't until he teamed up with a group of alcoholics, drug addicts and the homeless that he became a household name.
Welch is the director - and face - of the Choir of Hard Knocks, which started life as an ABC TV show but has gone on to put out a platinum CD, perform at the Sydney Opera House and win an ARIA fine arts award.
Now he hopes some of that success will rub off on his own career.
At 49, he's just released his first solo album, With A Song In My Heart.
"It's quite a dream come true for me," Welch says from Brisbane, where he's rehearsing with the Queensland Symphony for a Christmas concert.
But he's keen to point out that although the television series boosted his profile, he's been toiling away as a professional singer, conductor and teacher for 30 years.
"The profile the Choir of Hard Knocks has had has helped the general public know a little more about me as a person," Welch says.
"But I'm hoping with this CD it will help them to know a little bit more about me not just as a conductor but as a singer. Because that's where I've spent most of my life."
Welch grew up in Caulfield and attended Melbourne High School, where he joined the school choir. (The current Melbourne High Singers appear on With A Song In My Heart.)
He joined the Victoria State Opera in 1984 before studying in Queensland, Germany and London.
In 1988 he joined Opera Australia, making his debut with Dame Joan Sutherland in The Merry Widow.
Ten years ago Welch tasted the stardom that's now come his way with recording artists Tenor Australis.
He says his mother - "a very good singer and accompanist" - provided his initial inspiration. "I grew up with her friends coming over a couple of times a week and singing around the piano."
It's that music that has appeared on to his solo "mixed tape". "I've had this song list in my head for over 20 years."
Tunes from My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha and Hello Dolly are included, with Stevie Wonder's Lately also thrown into the mix.
Only songs with "a beautiful melodic line" made the cut - and that ruled out most modern pop, Welch says.
The CD has given him the chance "to focus back on my own music".
But he's still devoting a lot of time to the Choir of Hard Knocks - which just released its second album, Songs of Hope and Inspiration.
The director is now paid three days a week by RecLink Australia, which helps the choir members in their daily lives.
"I'm being paid for three days but I'm actually doing 70 hours a week. So it's still really a labour of love."
Singing is definitely a labour of love for the choir's members - who don't get paid a wage despite the group's runaway commercial success.
"We've talked about this with the choir a lot," Welch says. "They don't want the money. What they want is for the choir to keep on going and for them to have that weekly, regular [contact]."
The choir has been a "catalyst" for members to change their lives, with many now eating better, looking healthier and "taking up part time work or study". Welch says any profits go towards the choir's running and expanding RecLink's programmes.
That includes setting up new Hard Knocks choirs in Hobart and Launceston in the past weeks, with Brisbane to kick off next year.
But Welch wasn't always driven to help those less fortunate than himself.
He set up the Sydney Street Choir in 2001 after being inspired by a news item on the Montreal Homeless Men's Choir.
Though he's never been down and out himself, Welch says he empathised with those in that situation because he'd lived away from Melbourne "for many years ... without family and immediate support".
The Choir of Hard Knocks' popularity came at a time when people were disillusioned with the lack of compassion shown by the nation's leaders, he says.
"I think the Howard Government became very out of touch with the man on the street."
THE HIGH NOTES
* Jonathon Welch, 49.
* First solo album released: With a Song in My Heart.
- AAP
