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.

Day Six in Auckland - Sightseeing Sunday 21st July

Volcanic caves.

The Sky Tower

St Matthew in the City - Sacred Music competition

Auckland Town Hall - Secondary Schools competition

Our hotel!

At the top of the Sky Tower

Our last day in Auckland was a well earned day off, sightseeing. We caught the ferry over to Rangitoto Island - a dormant volcano - and then our singers raced each other to get to the top. We also enjoyed exploring the caves and several geographers among us were fascinated by the black volcanic rock.

Everyone was hungry when we arrived back in Auckland and the singers enjoyed finding their own lunch and doing some shopping, while the tour adults enjoyed an excellent lunch in an Italian bakery.

We met up at 4pm to go up the Sky Tower from where we enjoyed amazing views over Auckland and also seeing our competition venues & hotel from the sky.

Day Five in Auckland - Awards Ceremony! Saturday 20th July

FYC WON 2 GOLD MEDALS!!! What an exciting day!

The day started with an early coach transfer to the Spark Arena, for the awards ceremony! All of the choir’s hard work paid off, and we couldn’t be happier with our achievement. Patrick and senior leader Freya went up to the stage to collect our gold medals, while the choir celebrated from where they were sat. Once everyone had calmed down a little from the excitement, we headed off to Howick (30 minutes on the coach from the city centre) for the final friendship concert of the World Choir Games. Finally, we ended the day at the Spark Arena once again for the closing ceremony.

Day Four in Auckland: Second competition Friday 19th July

This morning we managed to scramble together a last-minute rehearsal space and piano so the choir could add some finishing touches to their repertoire for the Secondary Schools competition. The space was a dance studio with mirrors along a wall - very useful for seeing everyone’s performance faces! We’re very grateful to KBB Music for the piano & Dynasty Studios for their space.

We went on stage for the competition performance at about 5pm, after dodging the showers in some very stylish ponchos. There are some pictures here from the warm up room and then from the performance itself. Melanie was photographing from the wings, so couldn’t get good angles on every singer, but we hope there will be more pictures from Interkultur. The choir performed brilliantly, including all of the last minute performance details that had been worked out in the studio in the morning. The audience response was huge with lots of congratulations as they walked off stage.

There was a well deserved group hug as Patrick and Matthew congratulated the choir on their performance, before dinner and soiree (an FYC tradition where the singers entertain each other and the tour adults with fun cabaret acts). Details of what happened in the soiree performances will, according to tradition, remain within the choir, but there were tears of laughter and tears of joy. A very memorable evening!

Day Three in Auckland Thursday 18th July

Today was busy with a friendship concert and rehearsals. We also managed to sneak in a little time for swimming and shopping. Not loads of pictures today - although it was a beautiful day in Auckland. We also got the chance to watch some of the performances in the second part of our category - our senior singers were watching intently, making copious notes & trying to predict the winners. A couple of these photos were from yesterday’s competition performance - thanks to the Interkultur Facebook page.

Second day in Auckland & Competition Time! Wednesday 17th July

Today started with rehearsals in a church just up the road and finished with a very impressive performance in the Sacred Music category that everyone could be extremely proud of. It’s late & has been a very busy day. I’ll let the pictures do the talking!