First full day! Tuesday 16th July

Today we had our stage rehearsal for the Secondary Schools competition in the town hall. This just involves working out where we will stand, walking on and off and having a quick sing to hear what the acoustic sounds like. After that we had the huge privilege of singing in a flashmob for the World Choir Council. We sang alongside two other choirs, one from New Zealand and another from China. It was great to meet these other singers and to learn a Maori song alongside them.

After lunch, we headed down to Quay Street for the parade of nations. Again the singers mingled with singers from choirs all over the world - China, the USA, and India - to name a few. The atmosphere was fantastic. There were also a few impromptu rehearsals, including in the local park, before a well-earned early night.

Arrival day! Monday 15th July - Auckland!

And we’re all here! It was great for the FYC advance party - Patrick, Melanie and Anna to greet the choir members and adults as they arrived at our hotel at lunchtime. Once rooms were sorted out, some went for a nap while others went for a swim (and created a synchronised swimming routine!). We went for a delicious dinner at Elliott Stables, before returning to the hotel for a quick stretch of the vocal chords and bed. The adults are so impressed with how maturely the singers have dealt with the long and stressful journey. Everyone was happy to go to bed.

Farnham Youth Choir bags £1000 from Tesco’s community grant scheme

Farnham Youth Choir will receive £1000 that we will use to support our young singers to compete at the International Choral Competition in Hull in Spring 2023.

Co-Chair of Trustees, Melanie Hancox, said, “this grant helps to ensure that all our young singers can compete in the Interkultur International Choral Competition. FYC is a proudly inclusive choir that works hard to make sure that all young people with the interest and drive to become world-class choral singers, are able to achieve their ambitions. We’re extremely grateful for this boost to our fundraising.”

Singer, Lily, said, “winning gold medals at the European Choir Games in Gothenburg felt like winning the Olympics. It was an experience I’ll never forget.”

Claire de Silva, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Tesco Community Grants help support local good causes like Farnham Youth Choir and especially those projects supporting young people, those providing food, and local causes close to our colleagues’ hearts.”

Tesco Community Grants is run in partnership with community charity Groundwork, who has awarded grants to thousands of local community projects every year.

Tesco’s Community Grants scheme – previously Tesco Bags of Help - has already provided over £100 million to more than 50,000 projects across Britain. Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/communitygrants.

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.

Successful Cornwall Tour, August 2022

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.