After many weeks of planning, the inaugural FYC Singing Spree took place on Tuesday 28th June 2022 at the Farnham Maltings. 120 year two schoolchildren from Farnham were treated to performances by FYC’s Senior, Junior and Training Choirs and they also enjoyed participating in singing workshops with all three of FYC’s music team: Patrick Barrett, Margaret O’Shea and Claire Robins. The event ended with a roof-raising performance of Comet Crazy, a new song commissioned by FYC from Helen Eastman and Russell Hepplewhite. The song is all about pioneering astronomer, Caroline Herschel and is intended for young voices.
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.’
Bright future for the Training Choir
During the pandemic, our Year 3 and 4 children found it difficult to rehearse online. After a break, they are back again! With the opportunity to rebuild came an opportunity to recruit in a different way: conductor Claire Robins is taking FYC’s musical approach into the community with a programme of workshops for local schools. We couldn’t do any of this without the generous funding we’ve received from the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust. This support is helping us in so many ways, and will mean that we can make a proportion of Training Choir places available to children whose financial circumstances would make it difficult to pay a subscription.
Anyone who knows of a school which would welcome one of our workshops for this age group is warmly invited to contact Liz at info@fyc.org.uk.
The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2021
From 30th November, for seven days, FYC will be running a campaign to raise funds for a bursary scheme we’d like to develop, so that children who’d like to join/remain in FYC can do so even if their financial circumstances make it difficult.
FYC applied to take part in this year’s Christmas Challenge and not only were we accepted, but we’ve also received a pledge of £2500 from one key supporter, with which to kick-start our campaign and additional backing from the Lakehouse Charitable Foundation. This means that if we can raise £5000 for our bursary scheme ourselves, this will be matched by a further £5000 - so a £10,000 total.
Our campaign goes live on 30th November, so to receive a reminder (so you can donate!) follow this link.
REHEARSING IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS
We are proud to have been able to rehearse during the summer term even though Covid regulations meant that it was only safe to do this outdoors. The search was on for covered space, and Blacknest Golf and Country Club came to our rescue.
Hayley Bench, the Events Manager there, said, “It was a pleasure to host Farnham Youth Choir in our tipi for their rehearsals. Our members enjoyed being serenaded for their evening golf and our staff enjoyed getting to know all the children and their parents.”
Sakura, a member of our Junior Choir, told us how much she preferred singing in the tipi to rehearsing on Zoom: “Rehearsing in the tipi was so much fun because it felt like singing in nature - and I could go outside and play with my friends during the break.”
FYC members raise £6,550 in Music Marathon !!
Like so many arts organisations, our choir has suffered financially over the last 12 months with the loss of concert ticket money, venue cancellation costs and the additional costs of running COVID-secure rehearsals. Each term under COVID restrictions results in a £6,000 loss for FYC!
We all really miss our choir rehearsals - the joy of singing together and our friendships - and we can't wait until we can all sing together again.
Our members challenged themselves to make as much music as they could during December 2020 to raise money to help fund our choir - congratulations to all as they raised a whopping £6,550 !!