Moving forward: National Youth Choirs of Great Britain

First of all, where do the members of NYCGB come from?

At any one time, the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain have around 800 active members aged 9 to 22 across its five choirs – as well as eight 22 to 25-year-old singers in our Fellowship Programme, a remunerated professional training programme. Singers come from around the UK, including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, although we must work hard to ensure diversity of representation. This is where our widening access and engagement work is key: two county-level partnerships we've run in Cornwall and Cumbria since 2013 have driven enduring strength in membership from those regions, and strength out of proportion to the population density. We're excited to see the same effect following our current and forthcoming partnerships in Nottinghamshire and Sunderland. As for background, it's one of our most pleasurable expenses that one in five of the young singers we work with is supported by our financial assistance scheme.

How do you choose singers?

This year, auditions will be brought forward to early September to accommodate a new year-round programme but the boys, girls and training choirs’ auditions will happen in October and November as usual. Booking for senior National Youth Choir auditions will open on 4 June, and for the other choirs – the National Youth Training Choir, Girls’ Choir and Boys’ Choir – on 27 September.

How do teachers get pupils involved?

Teachers can sign up on our website to receive auditions alerts, and elsewhere on the site they can read everything they need to know about the audition process. Teachers and prospective members can also visit a course open day, or come to a concert.

How important is outreach work?

One of the biggest changes to our daily life as an organisation has been the development of our widening access and engagement programme. NYCGB is not just for its members; this year we're expecting to work with about 4,000 children and young people in schools and other settings, facilitated by music hubs, Music for Youth and individual schools. We offer one-off workshops and multi-year partnerships. Currently we're having great success with Nottinghamshire Music Hub, helping them develop choral music in state secondary schools.

Why are you changing the timings of some of your courses?

Our flagship ensemble, the National Youth Choir, is moving to a year-round programme from this autumn so that the choir can get together more often. Members have told us how much they can commit and afford, which will influence the final structure. It isn't for change's sake – it's partially driven by the members who see that there's far more on offer now than there was when NYC was founded in 1983.

How does your Fellowship Programme work?

Annually we recruit eight outstanding young choral musicians who aren't just interested in becoming great performers but who also want to lead and educate. This academic year will see our fourth octet, and for the first time they'll have the option to become section leaders in the National Youth Choir through the full, year-round programme. They'll continue to get work experience on our widening access and engagement programme, on junior choir courses, as well as performance and professional skills workshops.

What does your new composers’ scheme involve?

Since I joined in 2012 I've wanted to set up a programme which teaches and nurtures young composers to write creatively for voices. This scheme seeks out young writers from a broad range of backgrounds to share their talents, styles and approaches to create refreshingly new and interesting works for singers. It offers support and guidance every step of the way, from exploring possibilities right through to the finished product, which will include live concert performances, a recording release with our digital partner NMC and the possibility of publishing scores. They'll work with choir members on residential courses, our professional composers-in-residence and myself, as a published composer.

What do the singers feel about next month's Prom?

Everyone is hugely excited. Concerts like this stay with you for life and it's wonderful that the Proms wants to give our young singers that thrill and the responsibility of premiering new music on a world stage. MT

The National Youth Choir of Great Britain premieres Anna Meredith's Five Telegrams at the first night of the Proms on 13 July.

www.nycgb.org.uk/for-schools-and-hubs

www.bbc.co.uk/proms