In conducting, timing is everything. But the appointment of Carlos Alvarado as Musical Director of the Illawarra Choral Society in 2019 meant the maestro had to skip a beat: the interruption of Covid delayed him showing audiences just how much of a difference his style of leadership has made to the ensemble.

Now, there is a distinct buzz among the singers about Alvarado. Excitement about not just repertoire, but about his expansive style of communication, new standards and energy in performance. Veteran ABC broadcaster Margaret Throsby, who moved to the Northern Illawarra during Covid, recently joined as an alto. “Carlos brings exceptional and sophisticated musicianship to his role but manages to relate, on a deep level to what is after all a grassroots community choir,” she said. “He is incredibly inspiring.”

The Society, founded in 1947, gives just three concerts a year, each intended to show off a distinctive aspect of its repertoire. The next one is a celebratory feast called Crowning Glories, pairing Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Vivaldi’s Magnificat to set the mood for Christmas.

Covid is only the most recent of many disruptions that Alvarado has experienced in a cosmopolitan and unusually turbulent life. A native of Colombia, (ask him about coffee and he waxes almost as lyrical as he does about music), he was raised in Boston where his father was an academic at Harvard University. His musical talents earned him the opportunity to study with some of the great names in classical music in the Soviet Union. He was also present for its collapse, returning to his home country to find it riven by drug wars.

The violence hit his family directly, resulting in the assassination of his cousins, both humanitarian activists, and his uncle. At which point his Russian wife, violinist Alexandra Loukianova, decided it was time for them to emigrate with their two young children.

Colombia’s loss was Wollongong’s gain and Alvarado threw himself enthusiastically into the musical life of the city at the Conservatorium and at the helm of the Wollongong Symphony Orchestra, which he directed for six years.

“We had many outsiders in the orchestra, but 20 per cent were locals,” he says, proudly.

A resident of North Wollongong, Alvarado is a natural ambassador for the city. “I don’t think we always appreciate what we have here, from the Con, to the amazing history of the steelworks, the rich input of migration… even the coffee is good!”

Asked what frustrates him, he is diplomatic. Having seen the extremes of regimes buckling under corruption, he says: “I avoid politics. What I really need is more sopranos and tenors!”

Crowning Glories: Nov 25, St Mark’s Anglican Church, www.illawarrachoralsociety.com