Video: Young singers through to finals of National Choir of the Year

Monday 11 July 2016

They only rehearse together once a week but two young Jersey choirs who specialise in singing contemporary classical music have made it to the finals of the National Choir of the Year competition.

Both the teenage Musical Originals choir and the younger Musical Originals Training Choir are among four youth choirs and four childrens' choirs through to the category finals later this year.

The young choirs are led by former professional Opera Singer Imogen Nicholls and were among about 200 choirs battling it out in auditions across the country.

Ms Nicholls said: “The Musical Originals are 22 teenagers aged 12 to 18. 21 competed on the day as one of the girls was ill. They performed Orpheus by Dominick Argento, it’s fiendishly difficult, they performed it a cappella, and then they sang a Virtuosa arrangement of Bobby Shafto.

“The little choir is 20 members, aged 7 to 12. The Juniors also sang a cappella, unaccompanied, they sang the Family Tree which is actually about refugees by Stephen Hatfield and then they sang Give us hope by Jim Papoulis.

"We specialize in contemporary classical music but I don’t teach all the children in the choirs, they don’t all have singing lessons, there are five or six who I don’t teach. The choirs are un-auditioned so anybody who wants to join and enjoys singing can join.

“They are just normal kids who happen to like singing. We only rehearse once a week for two hours. The children and girls work on their home on their own and learn their notes at home.

“There’s real team spirit among the choirs, it’s great to see the young people working together for a common goal.

“We’ve won international competitions before but this is the biggest thing they’ve ever done, it validates all the hard work they have put into it. They are awesome young people, anything I ask them to do, they do it.

The category finals are being held in the Symphony Hall in Birmingham on 16 October and if they win again, and their coach is confident they can, then they'll go through to the Grand final at the Millennium Hall in Cardiff on 3 December.