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.

FYC Autumn Concert

St Peter’s Church, Old Woking - 13th October

After saying goodbye to long-standing FYC members and welcoming a new intake of singers (15 this September), the autumn concert provides the first opportunity to hear a newly-blended choir. The venue this time was particularly special because St Peter’s in Old Woking is the local church of FYC’s accompanist, Matthew Rickard. It also dates back over nine hundred years, making it contemporary with Hildegard von Bingen whose O virtus sapientiae made a hauntingly beautiful opening to the concert as the choir processed through the church. 

The first half of the concert showcased some of FYC’s sacred repertoire. In the interval, the large audience was able to enjoy drinks served by some of the team of volunteers who ran the evening so well. The second half of the programme then mixed contemporary pieces with music influenced by folk traditions.

Highlights included the choir’s first performance of Schubert’s Gott ist mein hirt (which required the singers to memorise a lengthy German text!) and what might well have been the first performance anywhere of The Silver Swan by Oliver Tarney, from the newly-published collection As You Sing editedby Neil Ferris and FYC’s Joanna Tomlinson. Three very accomplished solos by Megan Holmes, Charlotte Gill and Jessica Miller completed an evening that hinted at wonderful things to come as the choir begins to prepare for the European Choir Games next summer.   

Review by Helen Cole

FYC Summer Gala Concert

It was a beautiful Summer’s evening for an equally fabulous concert featuring all three FYC Choirs, the Trainers, the Juniors and the Youth choir who are starting their journey towards the World Choir Games in 2020.

Directed by the wonderful Jo Tomlinson, the Youth Choir opened the concert and their first set of sacred music with two FYC favourites: the dramatic Joshua and the contrasting sweet sounding Lift thine Eyes. Then we moved into two pieces by the French composers Faure and Poulenc, giving the Youth Choir the chance to show off their linguistic prowess and their vocal control, right to the very last note of Poulenc’s Ave Verum Corpus. The set drew to a close with the still waters and beautiful melody of Todd’s The Lord is My Shepherd and ended with the wonderful harmonies of Steal Away.

The audience then welcomed the young training choir, led brilliantly by Lucy Morris, onto the stage looking and sounding angelic. They sang four pieces, all contrasting and wonderfully sung. Kenny the Kangaroo was full of the required energy and “boing” and won the prize for best ending pose. In the Training Choir’s finale, Lemonade, the children brought the movement and lyrics together to great effect. What a complicated ending with multiple parts and movement. Wow!

The combined voices of the Trainers and juniors combined forces to tell us all Why we sing – a wonderful reminder of why singing is so fantastic whatever your age.

This Gala concert significantly marked the retirement of FYC Chairman Graham Noakes who has given his full commitment to FYC over the last decade. He has steered the choirs through a period of extraordinary change and under his stewardship FYC has become an exemplar for other youth choirs. Graham was presented with a fabulous framed Platinum FYC vinyl disc to say thank you for all he and the Noakes family have contributed to FYC.

Next it was the turn of the Junior Choir who have flourished under the leadership of Patrick Barrett. The energy that these youngsters have on stage is infectious and was very palpable in their opener Feel Good. They lowered the tempo with Child of Peace, their expressive faces showing how strongly they believed in the words they were singing: “Let us be children of peace, bringing light and love instead of darkness and hate”. This contrasted with Britten’s modern and rather witchy sounding The Ride by Nights, which was breathtaking in its complexity and brevity. The Juniors finished with Bernyanyi Bersana by Jim Papoulis, a wonderful rhythmic piece accompanied at short notice by two youth choir members on bongos and descant.

In the final set the Farnham Youth Choir showed us just how versatile they are. They started with a new arrangement of Scarborough Fair by Michael Higgins for upper voices, this the first time it had been performed. It was extremely beautiful; The lilting melodies flowed and the words were crystal clear.

A stark contrast then followed with the Poison Tree – the piece’s dissonance and wrath were dramatically displayed by the choir. Sweet Georgia Brown had us all toe tapping, and the beauty of the Seal Lullaby came across so effortlessly. Two further FYC favourites, Yo Le Canto and Paloma Faith’s Upside Down demonstrated the perfect blend of effective choreography, tight harmonies and a well-rehearsed choir.

The grand finale – Juntos (meaning Stronger together), with its Latin American rhythms - was an uplifting and fitting conclusion to a wonderful concert that included so much young talent.

Review by Sara Acworth 

FYC Junior Concert with All Saints Choir, Marlow

On a glorious Summer’s evening, in All Saints Church on the banks of the river Thames, basking in the afterglow of the Royal Wedding, FYC Juniors and All Saints, Marlow Choristers treated us to an uplifting concert. In preparation, both choirs had an enjoyable rehearsal throughout the afternoon and even managed to find time for a riverside photo shoot moment before taking to the stage!

All Saints Choir, which has a lovely mix of girls and boys of all ages performed their mainly sacred choral pieces with professionalism and harmony. Their repertoire included Totney’s Magnificat from the Durham Service and Hutchings’ We are one Voice but perhaps the highlight of the All Saints repertoire was Waring’s piece, At night, which featured a young cellist, Thomas Bull. The combination of the mellow tones of the cello and the wonderful choral melodies was truly beautiful.

FYC Juniors were on fine form and brought their energy and charm to the stage and worked together to produce a wonderful overall sound.  They met the technical challenges of Kodaly’s Ladybird and literally sang their hearts out to Why we sing by Greg Gilpin. The choirs sang two joint pieces: the moving, A child of Peace by Wagner and the uplifting Feel Good by Tyson & Scott, both becoming firm favourites with the choirs and the audience.

All credit to the conductors: FYC’s Patrick Barrett and All Saints, Martin Seymour, the accompanists: FYC’s Susan Holmes and All Saints, Rhidian Jones and all the children for their hard work. Their commitment really showed.

Review by Sara Acworth

FYC Spring Concert with St Bartholomew's CofE Primary School Choir

The Spring Concert held on 10th March at St Bartholomew’s Church, Haslemere, had a new dynamic to it. The children from St Bartholomew’s CoE Primary School joined FYC and walked on poised, and with a great air of professionalism for such young singers. Together they opened with Festive Alleluia by Lyn Williams, with every performer transfixed on conductor Joanna Tomlinson.

The younger children then joined the audience to experience the most beautiful choral blend of O Virtus Sapientiae (Hildegard von Bingen) by candlelight. In stark contrast was Joshua (arranged by Kirby Shaw); the impact of such a powerful sound was dramatic and with such precision a sea of faces communicated so earnestly. 

And Then We Knew Peace was specially commissioned for FYC, and speaks of being “united by music” as these singers certainly are! It was especially moving. The Seal Lullaby (Eric Whitacre) was performed with the most beautifully exquisite lilting phrases, and its effect was spine-tingling and full of emotion.

The finale was Alleluia Jubilate by James Whitbourn and was sung by both the school choir and FYC. They made a rousing sound. What a wonderful experience for these young singers!

By Carolyn Smith

Christmas Gala Concert

The Gala Concert at the Maltings in Farnham is a memorable occasion each Christmas that brings together the girls’ choir, the boys’ choir and the main youth choir. When the three join forces, for the first few moments the youngest singers at the front are often visibly startled by the wall of sound behind them! The stage is always brilliantly lit, and thanks to the stage decorations the effect is very festive – although unknown to the audience, the heat from the lights presents a challenge for the singers and there tends to be a casualty or two (expertly gathered up and spirited away by volunteer first-aiders). Things like this demand professionalism from the choirs and they always cope extremely well. Jo Tomlinson, Jo McNally and Patrick Barrett led the singers through a varied programme that showed their range, supported throughout by accompanist Matthew Rickard.

Two soloists opened the concert from the auditorium, getting proceedings off to a traditional, spell-binding start with the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City. When the audience rose to join in with the rest of the carol, the gentleman sitting next to me had to be coaxed to his feet – ‘do I seriously have to sing?!’ – but as the concert went on he found his confidence and relaxed into his new performing role. By the time Jingle Bells came around at the close and everyone was asked to shake their keys in time to the music, he was reluctant to sit down again. His party had come to the concert out of curiosity to see what Farnham Youth Choir was like. His verdict? ‘I think they must do a serious amount of work to achieve all this’, he said. 

Review by Helen Cole