Grounded in Verona by a plume of volcanic ash, Farnham Youth Choir reached new musical heights and took the scenic route home.
The choir secured the Gold Award of the XXI Concorso Internazionale di Canto Corale as overall winner of the competition (Ottimo Oro), whilst David Victor-Smith won the prize for best conductor and best choice of programme (Premio Speciale). The competition attracted 1000 participants in 25 choirs from 11 countries around the world: Hungary, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France, England, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Brazil, and the United States. FYC was the only British representative.
You can see extracts from their performance (Pueri Hebraeorum, Rain Dream, and Yo le canto) in clips published by the organizers on YouTube. More about the tour in the Verona blog and in the choir’s look back.
Verona photo competition
The task for the choir members: Match any of your pictures of this year’s tour to Italy with an Italian musical term. And a great batch of entries went to prove that musicians are true artists at heart. The honours, in no particular order, went to Molly for Glissando (most off-the-wall) and Obbligato (best overall tour impression), and to Phoebe for Sul ponticello (most musically thoughtful).
Farnham Youth Choir was successful at the National Selection Stage of the 2010 Choir of the Year competition and will go through to the Youth Category Final at Birmingham Symphony Hall on Saturday, 6th November, joined by The Holles Singers, Lincoln Minster School Chamber Choir and St. Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls Choir. 45 youth choirs took part in the various audition days held between February and June this year. 16 choirs were successful at their auditions and went through to the selection round at which the final four were chosen.
Keeping it in the family
A thirty-strong alumni choir took to the stage at the Maltings in June, enjoying a 'trip down memory lane' when they performed two pieces at the Annual FYC Summer Concert. A beautiful rendition of the Swedish folk song 'Vem kan segla' in an arrangement by Robert Sund was followed by the old King's Singers classic 'Dayton Ohio' in a four-part arrangement, interestingly, by the grandfather of two of the singers, none other than the father-in-law of FYC's Chairman, Graham Noakes.
The next alumni choir day is on Saturday, 4th September 2010. Contact 01252-717173, leaving name and number for more details.
The rigorous first round of a two-part selection process for the youth choir identified twice as many possible recruits as there were spaces in the main performing group. However, by Sunday evening all the spaces had been filled and the choir looks set to start the new term completely full. Some hopeful singers were encouraged to spend another year with the Junior Girls and to offer themselves for audition again in a year's time.
Although the Junior Girls' Choir is now full, there are still spaces in the Junior Boys' Choir. Interested boys need to be 9 years old by September 2010 and should contact David Victor-Smith on 01252-717173.