As we reflect on the last year, we are so proud of the fabulous progress that has taken place. The choir continues to grow and develop at pace, even with the limited resources that we have at our disposal, and increased numbers of children and young people are benefitting from the work of the organisation. At the heart of all of this great work are the volunteers, who continue to work tirelessly and selflessly. They are truly extraordinary and give so much to ensure that children in Barnsley have the best possible opportunities. The BYC volunteer team is stronger than ever, with around 70 volunteers involved in supporting the delivery of high-quality weekly provision.
Alongside the volunteer team, the Music team continues to grow in terms of numbers and skill to accommodate the growing numbers of choirs and singers involved. Whilst we are always keen to recruit skilled music leaders from outside the organisation, we have made a commitment to develop members and provide them with opportunities to develop their skills as musical leaders by providing leadership roles. 10 Senior Choir members (all over 20 years old) now have significant volunteer roles supporting younger choirs, and an additional 13 now play key roles as part of the music team, leading rehearsals with our Children’s and Junior Choirs. In addition, 23 members have mentor roles with these younger choirs, supporting and guiding children in rehearsals. This means that 46 young people involved in the Senior Choir now help to lead younger children, and pass on their skill, experience and expertise. Seeing these young people lead with such assurance and skill is fantastic. They bring so much to the work that we do and help to develop a self-driving culture.
Recruitment has been strong since September with many new members joining our choirs, overseen by our excellent Join BYC team led by Lynne Veal. We took steps to support younger children in the South of Barnsley in November, adding our 10th choir and our fourth Children’s Choir. Children’s Choir South, based at Hoyland Common Primary School, has already had a wonderful start. Around 50 children have signed up and are now rehearsing each week on Wednesdays, alongside similar Children’s Choirs (7-12 yrs) in Penistone, The Dearne and our Town Centre. These 4 area bases in the Town Centre, The Dearne, Penistone and now in Hoyland ensure that geographical barriers for younger children and their families are removed and that there is an equity of opportunity for children in the East, South and West of our borough. We have around 700 members involved in total, and anticipate some new members joining the ranks in January 2025.
We continue to engage with outstanding organisations, and 2024 provided some wonderful opportunities for our children. In May we welcomed the outstanding Soprano, Claire Herzog, from Missouri, USA to deliver workshops, masterclasses and to lead a recital with some of our most able singers. Later that month we welcomed Harry Christophers and his superb group, The Sixteen, to Barnsley for a development weekend that had a profound impact on everyone that took part. It was such a special weekend and we received generous feedback from Harry and his team about our young people and their experience in Barnsley. In June we welcomed the wonderful Dr. Darius Lim and the Voices of Singapore to Barnsley for a series of workshops, rehearsals and concerts in addition to legendary Soprano, Charlotte Mobbs for workshops in September. The Drakensberg Boys Choir from South Africa arrived later that month for a series of superb concerts and workshops with our choirs ahead of a reciprocal visit by members of the Senior Choir on an 11-day tour of South Africa in October.
Earlier in the year during March we made a commitment to take 160 of our 10–16 year olds on a residential weekend away at an outward bounds centre. It was a weekend packed with fun and great activities such as abseiling and archery, and highlights included some of the singing sessions, a dancing competition across the teams and bad taste fancy dress! Weekends like this take a huge amount of organisation and support from a large team, but create life-long memories and closer bonds between our children which impacts on not only their welfare, but the
collective sound that they make when they sing. Thanks goes especially to Karen Davis who worked so hard to make this weekend possible, and to the volunteers that gave up their weekend, yet again, unpaid to support our children.
Luke Mather and Eleanor Wright delivered over 100 workshops in schools across Barnsley, free of charge, and provided resource packs for them all as part of our Primary Partnership Project. It has been a significant project fueled by moral purpose, ensuring that many thousands of children were exposed to high quality singing experiences and it’s been wonderful to develop partnerships with great schools. Further support and materials were provided for teachers to continue this work in their schools which have been used extensively. We’re so pleased that many of the schools have subsequently established school choirs and have used the resource pack as an important part of their music curriculum.
Trustee Charlie Brammer developed a specific programme in The Dearne with a number of Primary Schools from the Astrea Academy Trust, which involved sharing resources, workshops and performances for parents. This was yet another example of the innovative ways that BYC has strived to develop pertinent and meaningful relationships with schools and communities across Barnsley and we are grateful to Astrea for working so closely with us. BYC funded the entire Primary Partnership programme, and Eleanor and Luke could not have worked harder to ensure that as many children as possible in Barnsley were exposed to great singing opportunities.
In July we held our first ever ‘Barnsley Sings’ festival and celebrated 15 years of BYC in style. The partnership work with Primary Schools culminated in a 5-day festival including 3 performances by 900+ children from Primary Schools across Barnsley, and a fantastic BYC 15th Anniversary Gala Concert by around 600 BYC members. The weekend ended with a special 15th Anniversary Party attended by around 1000 people from the BYC community with some great live music by members of the choir. All of this took place at the Metrodome Arena and we are indebted to Barnsley Council Pride of Place and The Arts Council for their support in helping to fund this really special event. To see 900 children performing in such a professional way with a live band, videography, fantastic quality sound and lighting and brilliant soloists was really moving. For many, this will have been the first time that they will have ever performed in public, certainly in an event on this scale, and we are so indebted to Eleanor, Luke and project manager Jude Wright as well as the wider volunteer team and our fabulous partner schools for making this happen.
In August we took part in the 10th and, possibly, final ever ‘Underneath the Stars Festival’ where our Children’s Choirs and some members of the Senior Choir performed in the main tent to over 2000 people. It was a wonderful platform for our children to share their talent, and the audience really loved listening to them and enthusiastically joined in with some of the songs. We would like to thank Kate Rusby, Alison Povey and Eddie Barcan for providing such wonderful opportunities for children from BYC to perform on such a professional and spectacular stage over the years. Hosting 150+ children and young people is daunting for any venue or event, and they couldn’t have worked harder to make this possible for us. We only hope that this is a temporary pause and that the festival will resume again in the future.
We were thrilled to welcome His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh to Barnsley in October for a private performance with the Senior and Intermediate Choirs in St. Mary’s Church, following a tour of our wonderful new town centre. He provided such kind and generous feedback to the choir and it was a really special day for BYC. We are grateful to Dame Hilary Chapman DBE, Lord Lieutenant and Philip Barraclough, Clerk, for facilitating and supporting this visit so wonderfully.
The 11-day tour to South Africa at the end of October with a party of 90 was a project that was 18 months in the making. It was such a huge investment in terms of time, energy and effort but was a truly life-changing experience for all that went. We cannot possibly do justice to the tour in this short summary, but performing with 7 world class
choirs (4 of them previous World Champions), working with world class choral leaders and visiting places such as the Aparthied Museum had a huge impact on our young people. The tour focused on Johannesburg, Pretoria, the Drakensberg Mountains and Durban with fabulous opportunities to learn from world class leaders and understand about the complex history and rich heritage and culture of this vibrant country. The selected members performed superbly throughout the tour and were such a credit to our town and their families. I must thank and pay tribute to those that worked tirelessly to raise money, including the members themselves, and made this possible. Without the support of the community, it really wouldn’t have been possible and the whole team at BYC, led brilliantly by Ann Wroe and Debbie Hobson, made the seemingly impossible, possible.
2024 also featured key annual events in our calendar including the wonderful Gala Dinner led by Dan Jarvis MP and Christa Ackroyd, 4 fantastic Spring Concerts featuring over 500 children and a whole host of other special events including patron’s evenings and a performance at the newly refurbished Dearne Playhouse by Children’s Choir East. In November our Intermediate and Senior Choirs took part in the ‘Proud of Barnsley Awards’; always a highlight of the year and such an important event for the town. We welcomed visitors throughout the year to see the work taking place at BYC, and also supported other significant choral organisations beyond our town, willingly sharing resources and information and providing support.
4 Christmas Concerts took place at Horizon Theatre in early December, featuring around 500 children aged 4 – 24 years old and a 9-piece professional band. They were fabulous and we were so proud of all of our singers that took part. The concerts were more popular than ever, with one of them selling out in under 4 minutes! Our final Christmas concert was a charity ‘Unplugged’ Concert on December 21st with the Senior Choir at St. Mary’s Church, raising money for the homeless and vulnerable. There was really high-quality a cappella repertoire, singing by candlelight and plenty of home-made mulled wine and mince pies for audience members. It was a really special evening that not only supports the community, but also celebrates Christmas in a traditional and very authentic way. Over £1700 was raised for the church and we are so grateful for the generosity of audience members that evening. We also held a ‘Family Christmas’ event earlier that day, where our younger members met Father Christmas, watched performances and took part in activities with their parents and carers. The Family Christmas event is always such a wonderful opportunity to relax with our younger members and their families and have some fun.
2024 has indeed been a really busy but exciting year. We are indebted to so many for their support. Firstly, significant thanks go to venues that recognise the important work that BYC does for their local communities, and support us significantly. Thank you, first and foremost, to Barnsley College for continuing to offer fantastic support of BYC, as they have done for many years, both as our major sponsor and also by providing a wonderful venue for our central choirs at Barnsley 6th Form College for rehearsals and workshops. Penistone Grammar School continues to offer a great venue for Children’s Choir West and Hoylandswaine Village Hall has kindly stepped in to provide a lovely venue for Little Singers West and Junior Choir West after refurbishment work has been taking place at St. John’s Community Centre. Astrea Academy Dearne offers a wonderful space for Children’s Choir East to rehearse and we continue to use Emmanuel Church for central Little Singers sessions. Hoyland Common Primary School has worked so hard to help set up Children’s Choir South and provides a great space for us to work in. St. Mary’s Church and Horizon Community College have become really important venues for us for performances, but a challenge we continue to face is that the choir has outgrown many of the local performance venues in our town. Without the support of these venues, BYC would not be able to operate properly and we are so grateful for all that they do.
The choir has created more capacity to manage the increased demands and risks associated with the growth of the organisation. Neil Sexton (Strategic Finance and Systems), Nicola Ellel (Safeguarding Lead and Welfare) and Debbie Hobson (Operations and Volunteers) have become trustees of BYC this year, joining Karen Davis (General Secretary),
Ann Wroe (Chair and President) and Charlie Brammer (NAVE Project Lead). It’s a really positive, skilled and supportive team, and they do so much behind the scenes in their roles as guardians of Barnsley Youth Choir. Kirsty Harding and Yvonne Worsley work incredibly hard to manage finances and the vast administration that sits with this work, ensuring that the weight of responsibility and pressure does not fall at the feet of already busy volunteers. We have great leadership at many levels, with volunteers taking a strong lead in general areas across all 10 choirs including Uniforms, Patrons, 100 Club, Library, Staging and Catering. Alongside this, all 10 choirs have Managers and Registrars who lead their teams, ensuring that dedicated groups of volunteers really know their choirs well and take a pivotal role in developing the choirs them alongside the music teams. It is an ecosystem that is built on kindness and selflessness and is focused at all times on the welfare of young people. There’s a culture that is really special and we are incredibly grateful to those who work tirelessly to ensure that our members have the best possible opportunities.
Plans for 2025
2025 will provide so many more opportunities to develop relationships with fantastic organisations and individuals. We hope to work with more world class choral leaders and have made initial plans to work with Marit Bodsberg-Weyde from Norway, a phenomenal conductor and choral leader. We will also work with the exciting young composer and choral leader Tracy Wong, from Canada, who is one of the world’s finest talents. Both will work with BYC prior to the choir taking part in the Hull International Choir Competition in May that will be a stunning event. We have agreed to welcome over the fantastic choral leader Cristian Graces from the USA. Cristain hails from Venezuela and was involved in the famous ‘El Sistema’ system. He will bring South American Latin choral music to BYC which is a mouthwatering prospect. Harry Christophers and The Sixteen are keen to continue working with BYC and there are other UK based choirs and choral conductors that we hope to work with.
We have fixed dates for the Spring Concerts and the Gala Dinner, and we hope to welcome over the New Zealand Youth Choir and the Aurin Choir from the Kodaly School in Hungary if we can make the dates work; two choirs of exceptional calibre who will really inspire our young people. We are looking into an international competition for the Senior Choir and are in touch with many other organisations and individuals about how we can work together. We have initial plans for a residential event for our 10-17 year olds and a separate one for 18+ year olds, ensuring that young people have opportunities to forge strong bonds. A new Primary Partnership Programme is already underway, and Resource Pack 3 is almost ready for distribution. Around 40 workshops are already booked for Primary Schools, and we hope that many more will be delivered in the coming months. We have recruited an outstanding new Musical Director to lead the Intermediate Choir from January 2025, and will continue to add talent to the team, as well as nurture our own young leaders and provide them with leadership opportunities. We currently have 43 new members signed up to join in January 2025, and we hope that this number will grow in the coming weeks as our partnerships grow stronger.
Perhaps the biggest step change in BYC’s history will be the development of the NAVE (Northern Academy of Vocal Excellence). We hope that this should be completed by the end of 2025. As with all capital projects of this nature, there are significant challenges, but the support and expertise of Barnsley Council and the wider professional team that is engaged will ensure that this is delivered for the town and the region. This development centre is a huge statement, and will bring a world-class facility to our town, enabling not only BYC to thrive but also many other community groups and organisations. It will attract the very best people to work in our town, and enable BYC to unlock so many more opportunities for its members and young people across Barnsley as well as regional and national beneficiaries. The NAVE will become a Hub of Excellence and we are so grateful to those who are working so hard to overcome inevitable challenges to make this happen.
Sincere thanks go to sponsors, patrons and supporters. Without their generous support BYC would not be viable. Our commitment to children and young people to provide fantastic experiences and opportunities comes at a significant cost, and we are indebted to so many who continue to support our mission. We believe that children in Barnsley deserve the very best - whatever their background - and, with continued support, will do everything we can to continue this important work. We will strive to deliver world class experiences for our members and do everything in our power to ensure that children in Barnsley have access to great choral provision.
Thank you again for all that you continue to do.
Mat Wright MBE
Artistic Director
Links:
Christmas Eve Barnsley Carol Christmas Eve - Barnsley Carol
Publications, newletters and Programmes Publications & Archive | Resources | BYC (barnsleyyouthchoir.org.uk)
Interkultur Programme Book, Hull International Choir Competition Hull International Choir Competition 2023 - Program Book (yumpu.com)
Photographs https://www.facebook.com/BarnsleyYouthChoir/photos_albums
Videos (1) Barnsley Youth Choir - YouTube and https://www.facebook.com/BarnsleyYouthChoir/videos
