Danny Benn is a choir conductor who runs three choirs at Southern Lights Vocal Academy in Wollongong. Since the very first singing lesson at age nine, he’s been belting out tunes every day.

Spending seven days a week conducting and providing singing lessons to all age groups makes life both challenging and interesting for Mr Benn. Every rehearsal is different, just like every individual voice is unique. Though when voices collaborate well in a choir, it’s an empowering experience for all.

“Within the choirs it’s about the energy and togetherness as a group. It’s such a powerful thing and I’m just one part of it. People come in to the choir and don’t really understand until they’re in there, on what it actually means. It’s really something special,” he says.

Mr Benn’s choir, “Southern Lights” won the Melbourne Eisteddfod last week with the song “My Heart Will Go On”. For such a heartbreaking number, the conductor is impressed by how much meaning the younger singers projected through their voices.

“Although there were kids who can’t overly relate to it, they did have some type of concept of it, and put their own measure and thoughts into how they sung it.”

Mr Benn also conducts a ladies choir which forms a more mature group. He says the intention is to get women with busy lives to take some time out and sing. The songs they work on range from theatre numbers from Wicked, to Mandy Moore’s, “Only Hope” from the film, A Walk to Remember.

And finally, there is the boys’ choir of about 20 students, which Mr Benn finds musically interesting as a conductor.

“I’m taking notes and studying on the trend their voices are travelling, depending on whether the voice changes from an upper register to a lower and the patterns these come in.”

Mr Benn’s skills are self-taught, noting tenor Jonathon Welch as a major influence. For the future, he looks forward continuing his musical career and helping his choirs grow. They are all, he says, like tight knit families getting stronger as a team after each performance.