National Youth Choir of Scotland
 | |
| Founded | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Christopher Bell |
| Headquarters | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Website |
www |
The National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) is a youth arts organisation, dedicated to providing high-level singing opportunities for Scotland’s young singers aged 0–25. Led by Artistic Director, Christopher Bell, NYCoS provides a national infrastructure for young people, teachers and choir directors to support and develop choral singing in Scotland.
NYCoS activities currently include four National Choirs, a growing network of Area Choirs across Scotland, Mini Music Makers classes and a broad range of educational projects. NYCoS also commissions and publishes a range of publications, songbooks and educational resources.
Background
NYCoS was founded in 1996 by its current Artistic Director, Christopher Bell and the then Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Richard Chester. It was felt that, whilst Scotland had national youth ensembles for orchestra, strings, jazz and brass, there was a lack of opportunity for young singers in to participate at a national level and standard.
National Choirs
NYCoS National Choirs comprises a total of four choirs for young people aged 10–25:
- National Youth Choir of Scotland (singers aged 16–25)
- NYCoS Training Choir (singers aged 16–19)
- NYCoS National Boys Choir (singers aged 10–16)
- NYCoS National Girls Choir (singers aged 12–16)
Membership for all NYCoS National Choirs is granted by annual audition and is open to singers who are born, resident/studying in Scotland, or of Scottish descent. The basis of the Choirs' activities stems from a residential course where time is split between individual vocal coaching, musicianship sessions and sectional/full rehearsals.
NYCoS became the first youth organisation to win a coveted Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) award when its flagship National Youth Choir of Scotland won the 2012 Ensemble prize.[1] The Choir has toured to Ireland (2000), Sweden (2001), USA (2004), Hungary (2007), Germany (2010), Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia (2013) and the USA for a second time (2016). NYCoS tours internationally every three years, with those in the touring choir being offered a two-year membership. In the tour year, a second group is formed named NYCoS Scotland.
NYCoS Training Choir, formed in 1997 trains singers aged 16–19 who need more experience in a wider repertoire, and receive vocal and choral and individual coaching.
The National Boys Choir was formed in 2002 for boys with unchanged and changed voices. Entry is by audition and is open for boys aged 10–16. Structured in three sections, Junior Corps, NBC and Changed Voices, the choir meets annually around Easter time for a residential course, followed by concerts. The choir has performed in Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Linlithgow, Londonderry, Paisley and Stirling. In 2007, NBC toured to Kendal and Dumfries giving concerts in Kendal Town Hall and the Crichton Church in Dumfries. The Choir has a repertoire including classical, sacred and Scots songs. Recent commissions include Tom Cunningham's Saga of the Seven Days and Sheena Phillips Sea Shanties.
The National Girls Choir was formed in 2007. 80 singers between the ages of 12 and 16 were selected by audition from Scotland. The daily timetable was a mixture of vocal coaching, musicianship training and full choir rehearsals. They performed their first concert in the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh in April 2007. In 2010, the choir formed another section, the National Girls Training Choir. It offers girls who audition successfully, but whose voices are not yet ready for National Girls Choir, places on the National Girls Choir course.
Area Choirs
In 1998 NYCoS formed two Children's Choirs (now known as Area Choirs), one in Livingston, West Lothian and one in Edinburgh. Each choir had approximately 60 members. Members were recruited from Primary 3 pupils (with some Primary 4 to make up numbers). Both choirs met for one hour each week and members received musicianship training for 30 minutes and sang as a choir for the remaining 30 minutes. At present there are 14 Area Choirs: Aberdeen, Angus, Dumfries, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Inverness, Isle of Lewis, Midlothian, Perth, Renfrewshire, Stirling and West Lothian - with a membership of over 2,000 children. The set-up of the Area Choirs is still the same with members receiving musicianship training and singing as a choir. End of term concerts are given at Christmas and Summer.
Education
NYCoS has an educational remit and runs Kodály Musicianship Training weekends for teachers, choir directors and music specialists. They run in-service days and singing workshops for schools. They also run Mini Music Makers classes across Scotland, which are musical sessions designed to introduce babies, toddlers and nursery age children and their parent/carer to music.
NYCoS also produces song books and educational resources.
Christopher Bell
Belfast-born Christopher Bell is the Artistic Director of NYCoS. Alongside that he currently holds posts as Chorus Director of the Grant Park Chorus, Chicago, USA, Chorusmaster of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus and of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. In 2009 he became Associate Conductor of Ulster Orchestra.
Christopher was educated at Edinburgh University and held his first post as Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra between 1989 and 1991. Since then he has worked with many of the major orchestras in the UK and Eire, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, London Concert Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Christopher enjoys working with young people. Before his current posts with the RSNO and NYCoS, for six years he directed the TOTAL Aberdeen Youth Choir, undertaking touring and recordings with them as well as many concerts in the North East of Scotland. He was the first Artistic Director of the Ulster Youth Choir between 1999 and 2004, a group which he developed and moulded into a critically acclaimed ensemble. Between 2001 and 2008 he was Artistic Director of the highly successful Children's Classic Concerts series.
It was his work as Chorusmaster of the RSNO Chorus between 1989 and 2001, alongside his time with the Aberdeen Youth Choir, which led Christopher to form the National Youth Choir of Scotland, as a way to encourage young singers to develop their skills. Since then, the organisation has grown, not only as a choral group with 4 national choirs and 14 area choirs across Scotland, but as a provider of educational training and resources for teachers and choir directors.
Christopher has received the following awards: a Scotsman of the Year 2001 for Creative Talent, the Charles Groves Prize in 2003 for his contribution to cultural life in Scotland and the rest of the UK, an Honorary Masters Degree from the Open University for Services to the Arts in 2009 and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2012 for his contribution to the performing arts in Scotland. In 2013, Chorus America awarded Christopher the Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art. In 2015, he received the degree of Doctor of Music, Honoris Causa, from The University of Aberdeen.
References
- ↑ National youth choir scoops prestigious award (Herald Scotland). Retrieved 10 November 2014.