Early on Thursday 4th August, our Senior Choir assembled in Farnham ready to head west to beautiful Cornwall. This was the first real tour for the choir for three years, after our planned trip to the World Choir Games in 2020 had been COVID-cancelled. The tour bus stopped en route for the choir to sing a lunchtime concert in Exeter Cathedral, before continuing their journey to Falmouth. Singing in Exeter Cathedral was the first real experience of singing in a large venue for those of our singers who joined the choir after 2019, and it was certainly memorable for performers and audience alike.

The choir’s first Cornwall concert was on St Michael’s Mount on Friday. After some splashing about on the beach at Marazion, the singers climbed up the Mount to the chapel that crowns it. It was a very warm day and views from St Michael’s Mount were stunning. Somehow, all the stars aligned and the choir not only sang beautifully in the chapel, but their performance was live-streamed across the world. Our first live-stream! Our audience stretched from Farnham to Florida.

Saturday began with shopping and a picnic lunch in Falmouth, followed by ice cream and a busking concert in aid of the local RNLI.

There was more beach time on Sunday, followed by a magical joint workshop and concert with Cornwall County Choirs. We are so grateful to Angela Renshaw and her team for assembling 30 or so of their singers and for teaching ‘Cornwall My Home’ to our singers. Mylor church was such a welcoming venue and we were delighted that it was packed to the rafters for the evening concert.

Monday was a marathon singing day, as the choir busked around the far west of Cornwall. They started at the Minack Theatre, moved on to Land’s End and finished the day at Sennen Cove. Many of our Monday audiences weren’t expecting to hear a choir while sightseeing, but we definitely made some new fans along the way.

Tuesday was going home day and we bid a fond farewell to Falmouth. Again, we broke our journey by stopping off on the way, this time at Lyme Regis, where the choir sang ‘Sea Shores’ to the newly unveiled statue of Mary Anning. ‘Sea Shores’ is part of the ‘Herstory’ song cycle that we commissioned this year from our composer in residence, Russell Hepplewhite and librettist, Helen Eastman.

Our whole tour was made possible by the kindness and welcoming generosity of our various hosts: Exeter Cathedral, St Michael’s Mount, Falmouth RNLI, Mylor Church and Kay Deeming, Angela Renshaw and Cornwall County Choirs, the Minack Theatre, Land’s End and The Beach Bar, Sennen Cove and we extend our thanks to each of them. It was great to meet you all and none of us will forget our trip to Cornwall in 2022.

On Tuesday 6th August, Farnham Youth Choir topped off an outstanding year by representing Farnham and the United Kingdom at the European Choir Games and Grand Prix of Nations in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Having also appeared on the X Factor Live Final on ITV1 last December, FYC continued its high profile season with Gold medals in both categories it entered, with storming performances in the Youth Choir category before going on to excel against adult choirs in the Sacred Music category.

With a repertoire that included choral works by Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert and Maurice Durúfle - as well as contemporary composers Janet Wheeler and Oliver Tarney, FYC stunned judges as the 40 strong choir took centre stage at the event. With members ranging between 12 and 18 years of age, the choir was accompanied by Matthew Rickard and a dedicated team of supporters and staff whilst hundreds of followers cheered them on in real-time via social media.

Bear Crawford, a longstanding member of the choir, said: ‘I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved, and we’ve all worked so hard to have this amazing experience in Gothenburg.’

Jess Miller said: ‘I’m so proud to be able to call myself a senior leader of such an incredible choir! We have worked so hard this year and everyone has pulled together amazingly to achieve the best results we could have hoped for! We never expected to win anything in such challenging categories but our hard work is clearly reflected in our shiny gold medals!!

Artist Director Joanna Tomlinson said: ‘This has been an incredible experience for the choir and its supporters and shows the exceptional talent and professionalism our young singers put into every performance. We have a long tradition of competing strongly in competitions, but this was an exceptional achievement, especially when competing against adult choirs from across the world.’

In addition to their gold medal winning performances, the choir also connected with choirs from Denmark, Italy and the USA as part of the Grand Prix of Nations - giving impromptu performances and a ‘Friendship concert’ in Vasakyrkan as part of the event.

With Training, Junior and Youth Choirs made up of over 150 young singers, Farnham Youth Choir is ranked in the top 50 Youth Choirs in the world by Interkultur and will be going on to perform John Rutter’s ‘Mass of the Children’ at the Sion Music Festival, in Switzerland on 18th August 2019.