The next open rehearsals for all three FYC choirs will be Wednesdays 8th and 15th January 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.
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.
Day Six in Auckland - Sightseeing Sunday 21st July
Our last day in Auckland was a well earned day off, sightseeing. We caught the ferry over to Rangitoto Island - a dormant volcano - and then our singers raced each other to get to the top. We also enjoyed exploring the caves and several geographers among us were fascinated by the black volcanic rock.
Everyone was hungry when we arrived back in Auckland and the singers enjoyed finding their own lunch and doing some shopping, while the tour adults enjoyed an excellent lunch in an Italian bakery.
We met up at 4pm to go up the Sky Tower from where we enjoyed amazing views over Auckland and also seeing our competition venues & hotel from the sky.
Day Five in Auckland - Awards Ceremony! Saturday 20th July
FYC WON 2 GOLD MEDALS!!! What an exciting day!
The day started with an early coach transfer to the Spark Arena, for the awards ceremony! All of the choir’s hard work paid off, and we couldn’t be happier with our achievement. Patrick and senior leader Freya went up to the stage to collect our gold medals, while the choir celebrated from where they were sat. Once everyone had calmed down a little from the excitement, we headed off to Howick (30 minutes on the coach from the city centre) for the final friendship concert of the World Choir Games. Finally, we ended the day at the Spark Arena once again for the closing ceremony.
Day Four in Auckland: Second competition Friday 19th July
This morning we managed to scramble together a last-minute rehearsal space and piano so the choir could add some finishing touches to their repertoire for the Secondary Schools competition. The space was a dance studio with mirrors along a wall - very useful for seeing everyone’s performance faces! We’re very grateful to KBB Music for the piano & Dynasty Studios for their space.
We went on stage for the competition performance at about 5pm, after dodging the showers in some very stylish ponchos. There are some pictures here from the warm up room and then from the performance itself. Melanie was photographing from the wings, so couldn’t get good angles on every singer, but we hope there will be more pictures from Interkultur. The choir performed brilliantly, including all of the last minute performance details that had been worked out in the studio in the morning. The audience response was huge with lots of congratulations as they walked off stage.
There was a well deserved group hug as Patrick and Matthew congratulated the choir on their performance, before dinner and soiree (an FYC tradition where the singers entertain each other and the tour adults with fun cabaret acts). Details of what happened in the soiree performances will, according to tradition, remain within the choir, but there were tears of laughter and tears of joy. A very memorable evening!
Day Three in Auckland Thursday 18th July
Today was busy with a friendship concert and rehearsals. We also managed to sneak in a little time for swimming and shopping. Not loads of pictures today - although it was a beautiful day in Auckland. We also got the chance to watch some of the performances in the second part of our category - our senior singers were watching intently, making copious notes & trying to predict the winners. A couple of these photos were from yesterday’s competition performance - thanks to the Interkultur Facebook page.