FYC announces partnership with Surrey Music Hub

Farnham Youth Choir is delighted to announce a new partnership with Surrey Music Hub. 

Farnham Youth Choir’s dedicated team of professional musicians, led by Artistic Director, Patrick Barrett, provides high-quality choral training and exceptional performance opportunities. Our core offer is the provision of three choirs for children in the Farnham area: a training choir for children in school years two to four; a junior choir for children in school years five to seven/eight and a senior choir for children and young people in school years seven to thirteen (upper voices only). In addition, we run an annual singing morning in Farnham which is free for Year 2 children to attend (funded by Farnham Town Council), as well as offering free singing workshops to local primary schools. 

Surrey Music Hub is responsible for delivering the National Plan for Music Education. They act as an advocate for music education, and encourage young people to take part in music. They support high-quality delivery across Surrey and work closely with partners to deliver a rich programme of activities, both in-school and out-of-school. These are designed to give children and young people the opportunity to sing, learn to play musical instruments and progress with their music making.

Farnham Youth Choir’s Chair of Trustees, Melanie Hancox, said, ‘we are delighted to be working with Surrey Music Hub. This new partnership offers both of us the opportunity to benefit from each other’s considerable experience of inspiring young people to new heights of musical excellence. This strategic partnership will see FYC board members contributing to the development of music education in Surrey and FYC benefitting from improved communications with local schools.’

Join Us!

The next open rehearsals for all three FYC choirs will be Wednesdays 23rd and 30th April 2025 (Training Choir Years 2-4, Junior Choir Years 5-7 and Senior Choir Years 7-13).

All rehearsals take place at Farnham Maltings at 5.15pm.

We’d love to see you there! Please go to fyc.org.uk/joinus to register.

Junior Choir through to final of National Choir Competition

We are so proud of FYC’s Junior Choir, who are through to the final of the Barnardo’s National Choir Competition!

The final takes place in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on Tuesday 4th March 2025. The National Choir Competition is the largest schools and community choir competition in the UK and has been running for over 17 years. For the preliminary round, the choir sent in their performance of Bee! I’m Expecting You! by Emma Lou Diemer and The Bat by Andy Beck, conducted by Margaret O’Shea and accompanied by Susan Norman. The judges received over 70 entries from all over the UK and only a handful were chosen for the grand final. Well done and good luck in March, Junior Choir!

Christmas season 2024 - that’s a wrap!

It’s been a busy week for the singers, parents, conductors, accompanists and volunteers of Farnham Youth Choir! 

The combined choirs of Farnham Youth Choir

On Wednesday, 4th December FYC’s Senior Choir performed in Farnham Town Council’s annual Civic Christmas Carol Service, hosted by the Mayor of Farnham, Councillor Brodie Mauluka. The service began with Once In Royal David’s City including the traditional treble solo verse beautifully sung by Max Wilson. In addition to the readings and audience carols, the varied programme included ‘Wolcum Yole’ from Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, the much-loved Carol of the Bells, a great new arrangement of Gaudete by FYC alum Suzzi Vango and Errollyn Wallen’s haunting Peace On Earth. The choir, who were expertly led by their Artistic Director Patrick Barrett and accompanied on the piano and organ by Matthew Rickard, were delighted to receive compliments from the Mayor and audience on their impeccable performances.

Next up was the gala concert featuring all three FYC choirs - Training Choir, Junior Choir and Senior Choir - on Saturday 7th December at the Medici Theatre, Weydon School. The packed house was treated to brilliant performances by Junior Choir, conducted by Margaret O’Shea and accompanied by Susan Norman, of the evocative songs The Bat and The Firefly by Andy Beck as well as an extremely joyful rendition of Oh Come All Ye Faithful arranged by Masa Fukuda.

Junior Choir

FYC’s Training Choir, conducted on this occasion by Sally Hollyer, were not to be outdone and their performance of A New Star was equally joyful, followed by two slower and atmospheric songs about snow, with an impressive performance in Italian of the carol Dormi, Dormi to finish their set. The singing was interspersed with readings by young people and adults in keeping with the concert’s theme of ‘Peace on Earth’. One of the many highlights of the evening was John Williams’ Somewhere In My Memory (from the film Home Alone) sung by the combined choirs, followed by an exuberant rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas with actions, to round off an evening of high-quality music-making.

Training Choir

The final performance of the Christmas season was given by the Senior Choir on Monday, 9th December at Farnham Castle. This event, for invited guests including the Mayor of Farnham, raised money for The Vine Centre who support adults and families that are socially isolated, long-term unemployed, homeless or poorly housed, suffering with mental health, addiction or learning difficulties. Derek Carpenter, Chair of Farnham Castle Charity & Trust, said: 

The good the FYC does for our community goes a lot deeper than simply a happy smiling audience on the night. A lot of disadvantaged people will benefit indirectly, and for some time, from the choir’s wonderful performance. 

We wish all our singers, families and supporters a wonderful Christmas and peaceful New Year.

An interview with composer Gareth Treseder

Gareth Treseder works regularly with the Monteverdi Choir, Polyphony, the BBC Singers, the Eric Whitacre Singers and London Voices. He composed the carol, ‘En Natus Est Emanuel, Dominus’ for Joanna Tomlinson which was premiered by Farnham Youth Choir in 2022 and which the Senior Choir performed again at their Christmas concert on 7th December 2024.

Gareth Treseder

Singer and choral composer

How did you come to compose ‘En Natus Est Emanuel, Dominus’’?

When she was Artistic Director of FYC, Joanna Tomlinson was kind enough to programme several of my works for the Senior Choir. I was keen to write a piece as a thank you to Jo, and also to showcase FYC's extraordinary musical talents. I wanted to write a joyful piece that celebrates Christmas and that I would have enjoyed singing when I was a teenager.

Why did you choose this text?

‘En Natus Est Emanuel, Dominus’ tells the story of Christ’s birth with joy, rather than solemnity, and this was my objective in writing this piece. I want the singers to feel as though they are having a party when they sing it! Also, the English translation scans almost identically to the original Latin text, so choirs singing this piece have a choice between the two languages.

What was your journey towards becoming a choral singer and composer?

I was lucky enough to sing in Swansea's St Paul's Parish Church choir for twelve years, starting as a six-year-old chorister. The choir's director, the late Dr Ian Graham, taught me music theory, piano and singing, which in turn provided lessons for numerous life skills like organisation, preparation, and hard work. I then went to the University of Bristol to study music and continued singing with choirs there, as well as being a Lay Clerk at Bristol Cathedral. (Lay Clerks are professional singers in cathedral choirs). That’s really where I learned about the importance of writing music that choirs would be able to pick up and sing quickly. There is rarely enough time for rehearsal for a choral evensong, so I really learned to write music that could be easily sung.

Which composers inspire you?

I love Stanford, J.S. Bach (obviously), Haydn, Mozart, and Poulenc - their music seems to me to be divinely inspired. Their sound worlds are extremely focussed, but nonetheless each produces a musical language that is easy to access.

Do you have a favourite Christmas tune?

While I love the famous version of ‘Away in a Manger’ by William Kirkpatrick, there is a setting arranged by Reginald Jacques of a traditional tune from Normandy in France that I love. I can hear it over and over again - a valuable thing in a Christmas carol.

I also love ‘The Angel Gabriel’, more for nostalgic reasons. I remember opening the associated carol book as a child - they were always covered in wrapping paper to protect them - and I remember singing this one with a smile.

What will your Christmas look like?

I’ll be working - singing - nearly every day in December. I am fortunate that several of my works will be premiered this Christmas. One of which will involve me singing in the premiere itself. ‘Shepherds in the Fields Abiding’ will be performed in Swansea's Brangwyn Hall by the BBC National Chorus of Wales - a choir with whom I once sang as a Choral Scholar whilst studying at Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The performance will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Christmas Day itself will be a family occasion as I will be celebrating with my wife and three children.

You can find out more about Gareth here: www.garethtreseder.com

FYC win two gold medals at World Choir Games

Farnham Youth Choir wins two gold medals at World Choir Games

On 15th July, Farnham Youth Choir’s Senior Choir (FYC) arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, to represent the UK at the 13th World Choir Games. The event is based on the Olympic ideals, which aim ‘to peacefully unify people and nations connected by song in a fair competition. The idea is to inspire people to experience the power of interaction by singing together’. In total, 250 choirs and groups from 42 nations took part. 

Led by their artistic director Patrick Barrett and accompanied by Matthew Rickard, FYC competed – alongside adult choirs – in the ‘Sacred Music’ category and came away with gold. They also competed in the ‘Secondary School Choirs’ category, winning a second gold medal!

These results were especially significant as this year Farnham Youth Choir celebrated its fortieth anniversary. FYC has previously won double gold medals at recent European Choir Games (2015, Germany and 2019, Sweden). The choir were delighted to uphold their reputation as one of the UK’s leading youth choirs and also to have the opportunity to meet other choirs from all over the world.

This really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our young singers, aged 11–18. Singer and FYC senior leader, Freya, said, ‘it was amazing being at the World Choir Games in New Zealand surrounded by singers from all over the world. We all loved the new friendships we made. We got to learn about their cultures through song, whilst sharing our own. Winning gold was just another amazing thing to add to such an incredible trip.’

Chair of Trustees, Melanie Hancox said, ‘just getting all our young singers to Auckland for the World Choir Games was a huge achievement, so to also come away with double gold medals was the cherry on the cake. This was a huge team effort on the part of our singers, their parents, our musicians and the whole wider FYC family.’

Artistic Director, Patrick Barrett said, ‘our young singers worked so hard to prepare for this competition and each and every one of them brought their A-game to the performances. I’m extremely proud of all of them.’

FYC are so grateful to tour sponsor QuadConsult as well as the plethora of local supporters and donors who contributed to our fundraising campaign. Without the support of many local people and organisations, we wouldn't be able to give our young singers such transformative opportunities.

If you know a young person aged 6-18 who would like to join this award-winning family of choirs, we are holding free open rehearsals in central Farnham on 11th and 18th September. Go to www.fyc.org.uk/joinus to register.