Farnham Youth Choir take the top spot!

Farnham Youth Choir Named Highest Ranked UK Choir with Interkultur

Farnham, 2nd August 2025 — It’s official! Farnham Youth Choir, has been recognised as the highest ranked UK choir with Interkultur (interkultur.com). This incredible achievement places the choir among the best in the world, according to Interkultur’s official World Rankings, which can be viewed here.

This milestone is a huge accomplishment for our tiny charity and a testament to the dedication, talent, and hard work of our singers, both past and present. Their commitment has helped us earn medals at numerous international competitions including two golds at the World Choir Games in 2024 in Auckland, New Zealand, double golds at the European Choir Games in Gothenburg in 2019, and twice winning First Prize in the Sainsbury Youth Choir of the Year competition.

Quotes from the Leadership: “Achieving the highest UK ranking with Interkultur is a momentous milestone for Farnham Youth Choir,” said Patrick Barrett, Artistic Director. “It reflects the extraordinary talent and commitment of our singers and our team’s passion for excellence in choral music.”

Melanie Hancox, Chair of Trustees, added, “We are incredibly proud of our choir’s achievement. This recognition inspires us to continue fostering a love of singing and developing young talent.”

Quotes from Singers: 14-year-old Sakura said, “Being part of Farnham Youth Choir and achieving this ranking makes me so proud. It’s amazing to see our hard work pay off!”

15-year-old Ruby shared, “This achievement motivates me to keep improving and inspires me to pursue my passion for music even further.”

Another singer, 15-year-old Dandan, remarked, “I love singing with the choir, and it's fantastic to see us recognized on such a big stage. It’s a real team effort!”

We are immensely proud of this achievement and grateful for the support of our community and supporters. It is a proud moment for Farnham Youth Choir and reflects our ongoing passion for excellence in choral music.

Farnham Youth Choir are on tour with the National Youth Orchestra, performing at Birmingham Symphony Hall on 6th August, Snape Maltings on 8th August and will appear in the BBC Proms on Saturday 9th August.

FYC Senior Choir triumphs in Hull!

On 27th April, Farnham Youth Choir’s Senior Choir (FYC) arrived in Hull for the first ever Interkultur International Choir Competition to be held in the UK. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was also the choir’s first international choral competition since 2019. The choir competed against choirs from as far afield as Finland, South Africa and Turkey. In total, 27 choirs from 10 countries took part.  

Led by their artistic director Patrick Barrett and accompanied by Matthew Rickard, FYC competed - alongside adult choirs - in the ‘Sacred Choral Music a cappella’ category and came away with a silver award. They also competed in the ‘Youth Choirs of equal voices’ category, winning the category trophy with gold!

After nearly 40 years of choral excellence, Farnham Youth Choir has developed into a family of choirs that supports children to achieve extraordinary things through a shared love of singing. FYC has previously won international competitions from the World Choir Games (2006, China) to double gold medals at recent European Choir Games (2015, Germany and 2019, Sweden). The choir were delighted to uphold their reputation as one of the UK’s leading youth choirs and also to have the opportunity to meet other choirs from all over the world.

Singer, Freya, said, ‘Competing in Hull was so much fun. The reward of winning the youth choir category after working hard all term made me feel on top of the world.’ 

Co-Chair of Trustees, Melanie Hancox said, ‘watching this group of singers, some of whom have been in FYC for years and others, only months, work so hard and raise the level of their performance was inspirational. There is no doubt that events like these change lives – none of our singers will forget what they achieved this weekend.’

Artistic Director, Patrick Barrett said, ‘the International Choral Competition in Hull was an inspirational experience. Seeing the incredible talent from across the globe helped us to raise our game and celebrate the brilliant voices of Farnham on the world stage.’

The next date in FYC’s competition calendar is the Concours Choral International taking place in Provence in July 2023. Local people can support the choir’s competitive efforts, by making a donation at fyc.org.uk/donate or wishing us luck at our Facebook page, facebook.com/farnhamyouthchoir. Without the support of many local people and organisations, we wouldn’t be able to give our young singers such transformative opportunities.