New recording: Herstory out 1st March

We are very excited to announce the release of our latest recording: 'Herstory', coming out on 1st March. This mini-album consists of the three songs written by our composer in residence team for 2022, Russell Hepplewhite and Helen Eastman. The three songs each feature inspiring women scientists from history: Mary Anning, palaeontologist, Caroline Herschel, astronomer and comet-finder and Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan, the so-called 'human computers' who calculated NASA's missions to the moon in the 1950s. The songs are: ‘Sea Shores’ about Anning, ‘Comet Crazy’ about Herschel and ‘In the Numbers’ about the NASA mathematicians.

Senior Choir singing ‘Sea Shores’ to Mary Anning’s statue

The whole period of Russell and Helen’s residency has been extremely enriching for our three choirs. Composer and librettist both came to meet our singers and answered some really thought-provoking questions about writing music and words. The three songs had their world premiere at our summer concert at the Menuhin Hall back in June 2022 and ‘Comet Crazy’ featured in our inaugural Singing Spree in the same month. Then all three choirs worked hard on the recordings in the weeks that followed. The Senior Choir had the added joy of being able to sing ‘Sea Shores’ to Anning’s recently unveiled statue in Lyme Regis back in the summer as part of their summer tour. We hope you’re going to enjoy these songs as much as we do and hope that you will add them to your playlists from 1st March on Spotify and YouTube.

We would also like to warmly thank Alton School for the loan of their drama studio as a location for these recordings. Without their generosity, the recording of these songs would have been impossible. www.altonschool.co.uk

Tesco Community Grant

We’re in the customer vote for a Tesco Community Grant. It’s a scheme which gives community projects like ours grants of up to £1,500. Tesco customers will now vote in:

• Aldershot, GU11 1SQ

• Fleet Ancells Farm, GU51 2XF

• Fleet Express, GU52 6AB

• Farnborough Cove Road, GU14 0EU

• Ridgeway Road Farnham, GU9 8NN

• Hale Farnham, GU9 0LA

• Ashvale Lysons Avenue, GU12 5QL

stores during October-December 2022 to decide how much funding we get, so please support us the next time (and every time) you shop at Tesco!

Funds from our current fundraising will go towards supporting our Senior Choir to compete at the International Choral Competition in Hull in 2023. This will be the choir’s long overdue return to competition, after their double gold medal winning appearance at the European Choir Games in Gothenburg in 2019.

School workshops a roaring success

Since the autumn term, our Training Choir conductor, Claire Robins, has been visiting local primary schools and conducting workshops. The children have been singing extraordinary songs, having fun and learning about some key musical concepts, including pitch, tempo and dynamics.

By Easter 2022, Claire had delivered singing workshops to over 1000 Farnham primary school children.

Claire said, ‘it’s great to see the enthusiasm for singing and music-making among the pupils. They seem to have really missed the opportunity to make music over the last couple of years when these activities weren’t possible.’

Summer Gala Concert 2017

The concert held on 8th July at Farnham Maltings had the usual celebratory feel, bringing all the choirs together on the stage and summing up what has been achieved during the past season. It is always lovely to see singers from age 6-18 performing with joy, directed by their various conductors and all ably accompanied by pianist Matthew Rickard.

The concert opened with a set from the senior FYC choir, directed by Jo Tomlinson, who sang several sacred pieces from the sixteenth century up to the present day, including the dramatic piece To Agni with text taken from the Hindu Rig Veda. The final piece in this first set was a World Premiere of And then we knew Peace by Janet Wheeler, commissioned by FYC.

Next to the stage came the crowd-pleasing Trainers Choir who despite their young ages performed wonderfully, with clear diction, good intonation and smiling faces! Conductor Sarah Burston has them well trained!

After the interval we were treated to songs in English and in French from the Junior Girls Choir, conducted by Jo McNally, followed by songs performed jointly by the Girls and the Junior Boys Choir, directed by Patrick Barrett. Both these choirs had enjoyed the opportunity to perform together this year in a new work, Dies Irae, by Ian Assersohn at Dorking Halls. As a thank-you for their dedication, Ian composed a setting of the words Silver by Walter de la Mare, and this was given a World Premiere performance with the composer present in the audience at the Maltings.

Patrick Barrett then directed the Boys Choir with songs in Congolese and Hebrew, followed by Panis Angelicus, ably assisted by the senior boys from FYC.

Jo Tomlinson conducted a set of lighter pieces from FYC to close the concert, including the quirky and demanding piece Wah Bah Dah Doo Bee! by the Swiss jazz composer Ivo Antognini and a charmingly choreographed version of Paloma Faith’s Upside Down, arranged by Michael Higgins who was present in the audience.

All choirs rose together to perform the final piece Goin’ Up a-Yonder which has been a favourite in the FYC repertoire for some time and brought tears to the eyes of the leavers!

Laura Brown

Singing Together: A joint concert with FYC Junior Choirs and Taplow Children's Choirs

Photographer: Jeremy Smith

On Saturday 25th March, both FYC Junior Choirs and the Training Choir joined with Taplow Children’s Choir to provide a wonderful evening of singing at St Andrews Church.

The choirs first came together last year when FYC Junior Boys and Girls choirs travelled to Taplow and this time the invitation was returned and family and friends of all choirs packed the Church.

The repertoire was the usual mix of styles that we have come to expect from FYC concerts including traditional folk songs from across the globe and gave each choir the chance to sing alone and to showcase their joint pieces.

The concert started with a first outing of their rendition of Cantate Domino by the FYC Boys and Girls Junior Choirs followed by a trilogy of Benjamin Britten songs.

Then the Girls choir sang three accomplished pieces -Bon Di and I Dance to the Stars and the Moon around their debut performance of The Bird’s Lament by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Rugby followed and was the humorous offering from the Junior Boys with actions to match, followed by Hine Ma Tov to which there was notable toe tapping from the audience!

We were then treated to all choirs coming together - after a magnificent feat of stage management to get everyone in place.  Two rousing pieces filled the church with over 100 voices perfectly in time and you would not have guessed that they had only had a few hours’ rehearsal together - a tribute to the work of the conductors as well as the singers.  The choirs began with Kusimara by Jim Papulis- with enthusiastic drum accompaniment from the Taplow Conductor Lucy Joy Morris -followed by the moving Hashivenu - an Israeli folk song.

FYC trainers clearly enjoyed their chance to perform in front of family and friends.  They sang and marched through The Zulu Warrior, and their ecological version of 10 Green Bottles was not quite the one we may have remembered from childhood car journeys but all the better for its modern twist.  Add to these a Canadian song - the Land of the Silver Birch -and The Lighthouse and their quartet of songs were complete.  The smiles said it all!

Taplow Children’s Choir then took to the stage to provide a lively set of four songs.  The uplifting Marvellous Song was followed by Ken Johnston’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley.  We were then treated to a well-choreographed duet of songs - Bye Bye Robin and Engine Engine - arranged by FYC’s Jo McNally.

The evening was finished by bringing everyone back together again to sign the Ghanaian playground song Sansa Kroma, that was a fitting end to a delightful evening that more than lived up to its name of Singing Together.  We were treated to a high standard of choral singing by two talented and dedicated choir families.

Reviewer: Lynn Marlow