FYC put Farnham on world stage with double gold medals at the European Choir Games 2019

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.

The charity is aiming to continue to gain support for its ambitious plan to compete in the World Choir Games in Belgium in 2020.

More information about joining one of FYC’s choirs in September 2019 onwards can be found at www.fyc.org.uk/joinus

Spring Concert: An evening with Farnham Youth Choir, St Andrew’s Church, Farnham

Hard on the heels of the ‘Sounds of Spring’ concert at the Anvil the previous weekend, the senior choir returned to the more familiar surroundings of St Andrew’s Church to show off their sacred and secular repertoire in front of a large audience. This concert was generously supported by the Lions Club of Farnham whose President, Phil Alexander, was in the audience for the occasion. We were also delighted to welcome Councillor David Attfield, Mayor of Farnham, as a guest at this event.

A spring storm was rattling the windows but there was a striking stillness inside the church, the audience noticeably holding its collective breath at times. This was particularly the case during the account of Adoramus Te by Orlando Lassus which opened the concert. FYC rose to the challenge of singing this while positioned in small groups around the church, conjuring a beautiful sound that set the tone for the rest of the evening. The concert perfectly showcased the choir’s versatility across different languages and musical idioms. Added to this, there were opportunities to hear the solo voices of FYC ‘veterans’ Jess Miller and Izzy Cole, and a welcome chance for the first time to hear a solo piece beautifully sung by Bear Crawford. 

Review by Helen Cole

Sounds of Spring - with the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra

Sounds of Spring: A Combined Concert, Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra and Farnham Youth Choir at the Anvil, Basingstoke

It’s a while since the Youth Choir has sung with a full orchestra and Saturday evening’s concert provided a very welcome reminder of what this feels like, as ‘Sounds of Spring’ was a combined concert with Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra. Working with the BSO under Stephen Scotchmer was clearly a great pleasure.

The venue was a relatively unfamiliar one, the Anvil in Basingstoke, and this was a useful chance to perform in a large concert hall. If the venue influenced FYC’s performance, this wasn’t surprising. Accompanied by Matthew on the piano, the choir’s programme was sung with focus and precision (Croce, Cantate Domino), maturity (Schubert, Gott ist Mein Hirt) and an exquisite sound (everything – but perhaps especially Fauré, Cantique de Jean Racine, with a harp threading its way through the orchestral part). The relatively intimidating setting may have made it trickier than usual for the singers to access their exuberant side, yet Kerry Andrew’s Charm was especially captivating and Ivo Antognini’s Wah bah dah bah doo bee! notably well-received.

In the first half of the concert, FYC had the chance to perform two pieces from Vaughan Williams’sFolk Songs of the Four Seasons with the orchestra, the combination producing some soulful colours. The centrepiece of the orchestral concert was Dvorak’s Symphony no. 7 which made up the second half, giving the young singers a chance to relax in the auditorium and soak up the BSO’s fine performance.

Review by Helen Cole

Christmas Gala Concert

Farnham Maltings, Saturday 15th December 2018, 6pm

There was an excited buzz rising above the hubbub from a packed house for the FYC Christmas Gala. The warmth, light and welcome of the Maltings was a welcome refuge from a windswept and rain-soaked December night.

The concert began with a haunting opening solo and some beautiful harmonies during Once in Royal David’s City, followed by a sequence from Benjamin Btitten’s ‘A Ceremony of Carols’, during which the Youth Choir exhibited great blended tones; dramatic flourishes; clear articulation; and wonderful control of the down note at the end of the first piece. The closing Deo Gracias was a particular joy.

The Training Choir took to the stage next. Their singing was lovely and the foot stomping during Amani Utupe was perfectly syncopated. It was delightful to see every individual following their choir director’s lead with such intensity throughout Orange and Yellow and Brown. There was Christmas magic in seeing their upturned faces reflecting the stage lights so brightly as the lyrics of Walking in the Air echoed around the room with such clarity.

The Junior Choir also opened with some dramatic Benjamin Britten pieces before moving on to Hushabye Mountain. Their voices carried this peerless tune beautifully, while their animated faces reflected the sentiment of the lyrics delightfully.

When the Youth Choir returned it was to sing Joubert’s Torches - with exact emphasis on all the appropriate stresses. Rutter’s Star Carol had an uplifting brightness and In Dulci Jubilowas hauntingly lovely – blended tones, great enunciation and articulation and a sense of awe-filled sacred worship, entirely appropriate for a carol which I’ve since discovered translates as Sweet Rejoicing. Jolliffe’s On This Day was similarly joyful.

The evening culminated in the three choirs combining for The Holly and the Ivy – with the parts sung beautifully; the definition of the echo kept crisp; and the harmonies a delight - before leading a crowd-pleasing rendition of Twelve Days of Christmas – featuring some very enthusiastic participation from various sections of the highly appreciative audience.

This was a wonderful start to the Christmas season for an audience of all ages. Tom (14) from the group seated beside me was clearly dismayed that the concert was over – “Oh. Is that it?” David (42) had most enjoyed the closing 12 Days of Christmas and Ceremony of Carols from near the beginning, but when Sheila (73) was asked for her highlights she could only respond “to be honest, all of it. I thoroughly enjoyed everything.”

Review by David Fowler

FYC Junior Choir concert with Brockham Choral Society

St Nicolas, by Benjamin Britten 

On 1 December a packed attendance at St Martin’s Church, Dorking heard – for many of them possibly for the first time – a performance of Britten’s early cantata, St Nicolas. Appropriately, since Britten had composed it in 1948 for amateur musicians, except for the tenor solo and a small string ensemble, it was performed by members of the Brockham Choral Society and the Junior section of Farnham Youth Choir (FYC), both under the direction of Patrick Barrett, with the support of the British Sinfonietta String Ensemble. 

The cantata tells the legendary story of the life and travels of St Nicolas, who became Bishop of Myra in Palestine and performed many “marvellous works”, including the miraculous restoration to life of three boys who had been killed, “pickled” and served up on an inn menu. To guide us through this saintly life’s journey Britten’s music progresses through a striking variety of instrumentation, vocal style and musical feature, with the personal narrative of the Saint himself interspersed with contrasting choruses, of differing balance, sonority and texture, by the two choirs. The weight and gravity of the experienced Brockham adult choir contrasted with the vibrantly fresh response of the eager young voices of the FYC sopranos and altos. The substantial role of Nicolas as an adult was sung from the pulpit movingly and magisterially by the Welsh tenor, Rhys Batt, in an outstanding performance of which Peter Pears himself would have been proud. To complement this we were treated to the piercing vocal purity of a solo performance by Oliver Brelsford as the young Nicolas, and by Jaya Passington, Evelyn Keys and Molly Hunter as the three resurrected “boys”. Accompanying the choirs, soloists and accomplished string ensemble throughout on a single piano Brockham’s Marion Lea and FYC’s Susan Holmes brilliantly maintained the rhythm, atmosphere and pace of the narrative, not least in the storm scene which almost brought the wind and rain of the cold December evening right into the church itself. As a fitting and more familiar finale, and in no sense an anti-climax, the cantata finished with a combined choir-audience rendering of that old-favourite hymn, “God moves in a mysterious way”, accompanied resoundingly by Ben Giddens on the organ. 

After the interval both choirs combined in a welcome Christmas programme of well- known carols, in which the audience were allowed to participate and try to maintain the basic tune as the choirs soared into their respective descants. 

To allow the audience to draw breath Brockham choir also entertained with less familiar renderings of Away in a Manger, the Candlelight Carol and The Holly and The Ivy, while the FYC Juniors displayed their vocal and physical agility in three two-part songs by Benjamin Britten. 

It was a very successful evening, displaying the virtuosity of two well - rehearsed and contrasting choirs in an important but less familiar work, and with due respect to the first class professional performers, showing why Britten’s confidence in writing for amateur musicians was fully justified. 

Review by Brian Unwin (Brockham Choral Society)

FYC have The X Factor

On 1st December 2018, Farnham Youth Choir took to the stage at one of the biggest live televised events of the year as part of the Live Final of ITV’s ‘The X Factor’ at Wembley Arena.

Forty choir members sang alongside finalist Scarlett Lee as she performed Sir Elton John’s Your Song, also featured in this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert and popularised by Ewan McGregor in the Baz Luhrmann film, Moulin Rouge.

FYC on stage with Scarlett Lee at Wembley Arena

With only 24 hours’ notice, FYC’s senior choir raced to join forces with Thames TV, recording a full studio version of the performance at Metropolis Studios, Chiswick. The following day, Saturday 1st December, the choir piled on to a coach for Wembley Arena, rehearsing during the day and singing in the live final at 7.30pm.

Performing as part of the first hour-long series finale, FYC shared the billing with the contestants, series judge Robbie Williams, global superstar George Ezra, Emile Sande and former X Factor winner Leona Lewis. Despite the watchful gaze of the series judges and music business supremo Simon Cowell, the choir’s performance lit up the arena.

Choir member Elliott Keys (11) who only joined the choir this year, said, ‘this is such a surreal experience, standing on the X-factor stage was breath-taking.’

For nearly 40 years Farnham Youth Choir have performed at the highest levels of choral excellence, singing at both The Vatican and Notre Dame in the past two years. FYC will be entering the Grand Prix of Nations & European Choir Games in Gothenburg in August 2019.