The unbound potential of our original instrument:
the human voice

Luminescence Chamber Singers is a vocal ensemble based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra, ACT). Led by mezzo soprano AJ America, Luminescence has emerged as one of Australia's most adventurous and dynamic ensembles, championing our original instrument: the human voice.

Comprised of six professional singers, Luminescence has built an enviable reputation as a uniquely versatile ensemble, performing repertoire that spans renaissance polyphony, folk song, and contemporary art music, and increasingly working across amplified and un-amplified forms. Recent highlights include sold-out performances at the Sydney Opera House (2025), Melbourne Recital Centre (2024/2025), and debut appearances in Hobart and Adelaide. 2025 marked Luminescence’s 10th anniversary and the beginning of numerous major projects, including a three year Gesualdo Tenebrae series and a Luminescence and the Machine, a new music project developed in collaboration with GRAMMY-award winning producer and composer William Brittelle (USA), GRAMMY Award-winning bass Cameron Beauchamp (Roomful of Teeth) and visionary sound designer Tilman Robinson. In June 2025, Luminescence appeared alongside Elena Kats-Chernin and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performing Kats-Chernin's original score for special screenings of Adam Elliot's Oscar-nominated film, Memoir of A Snail. In July 2025, the group premiered a new work by Kats-Chernin, commissioned in celebration of their milestone birthday, and in August 2025, Luminescence won the APRA AMCOS State Luminary Art Music Award for the ACT. In addition to an increasingly national touring schedule, Luminescence has performed extensively throughout Central West NSW, the Southern Highlands, and the NSW South-Coast, including numerous residencies at Four Winds, Bermagui. In November 2025, Luminescence worked with more than 150 community singers across New South Wales to perform Andrew Ford’s living songbook Red Dirt Hymns, a performance project premiered by Luminescence at the National Museum of Australia during the 2024 Canberra International Music Festival.

From the groups earliest days as a student ensemble, Luminescence has nurtured an extensive commissioning and creative development program and a wide array of outreach, music education, and youth arts programs, including Luminescence Children’s Choir, an acclaimed program for singers aged 10 – 17. Since 2015, Luminescence has commissioned more than 60 new works, often in close collaboration with Roland Peelman, a long-time collaborator, conductor, and artistic mentor for the singers.

During 2023-2024, Luminescence recorded and released their first studio recordings, including new music by Australian composers Dan Walker, Jess Green, and Leah Blankendaal. Luminescence’s debut album, Of The Body, was recorded in April 2024, and will be released with ABC Classics on 12 December 2025.