MOUTHTRAP is anything but a traditional choir.

Twenty years ago, Tanya Sparke founded the children’s choir Cicada in Newtown. Following the silence of the COVID lockdowns and the global pause on communal singing, she reunited many of those original singers to create MOUTHTRAP.

Today, those children are young adults, many having sung with Tanya since they were just six or eleven years old. Built on years of musical trust and friendship, MOUTHTRAP is a choir with a distinctive sound, fearless creativity and an unmistakable identity.

Tanya has a passion for discovering independently released music that rarely finds its way into the choral world. Every arrangement is crafted specifically for these singers, while original songs are created and developed collaboratively within the choir. Their performances showcase a remarkable collection of soloists and feature rich vocal harmonies, accompanied by cello, double bass, percussion, guitars and moments of pure a cappella singing.

Bold, innovative and deeply expressive, MOUTHTRAP continues to redefine what a choir can be.

About Tanya Sparke
Tanya Sparke is a Sydney-based visual artist, composer, singer, and choral director whose practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and music. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts from Newcastle University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Painting from Sydney College of the Arts, and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Newcastle University — a triptych of training that has shaped a career of rare breadth and depth.

Over four decades, Tanya has performed and exhibited across Australia, led choirs from the Sydney Opera House to community halls, composed for film, and held residencies at Bundanon. As a vocalist she has performed with the Australian Art Orchestra, supported Tim and Neil Finn, and appeared on recordings for Jane Campion and the ABC. Her voice — described as "treasured, deep, intoxicating" by filmmaker Jane Campion — has remained a constant thread through a practice that refuses easy categorisation.

 Her visual work engages with landscape, sacred geographies, mythology, and the spirit of place. In 2025 she won the Urunga Small Sculpture Prize and presented the solo exhibition Wild Cathedral at 60 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills. As Musical Director she has led MOUTHTRAP Choir for multiple years, including a 2025 Vivid Festival performance with Nigella Lawson, and has directed choirs for Sydney City Council, Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, Carriageworks, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and beyond.

Her songs have been called some of the best written in this country — poetry set to music with a depth of heart and originality that defies the ordinary.

"Listening to her is a totally original experience. Treasured, deep, intoxicating."

— Jane Campion, filmmaker