North Suffolk Youth Choir: The story begins! When Vetta Wise came to the Waveney area having left a highly successful career in South Africa as choral director, singing teacher, national adjudicator and educationalist, she was soon struck by a need in the region for a vehicle to develop and promote enjoyment of the singing, musical and performing skills of the talented girls and boys from ages 12 to 22 that she was encountering in her work locally. A finely honed and challenging choral group would provide this for the talented young singers, and an opportunity to explore a much wider variety of musical styles, from Mozart to Gospel. The NSYC project was launched in February 2008 with the help of Valerie Walker. Called Sing!, it drew in youngsters from all over the Waveney and beyond. They completed questionnaires and provided valuable input, and it was decided that a system of 3-hour weekend rehearsal sessions every few weeks, interspersed with Training Days, would suit the members best. Vetta also invited a variety of people to form a committee, taking the unusual step of inviting three teenage members to be part of the process (ages 14, 17 and 18 at the time). The rest of the committee consisted of a parent and three professional musicians heavily involved in local musical, civic and educational activities. The first chairman was David Bunkell, an experienced and respected choral conductor, school inspector, journalist and music educationalist. The enthusiasm and dedication of the committee and the singers themselves has produced a wide-ranging repertoire of songs, all of which the group has performed from memory so far! Their first concert was as the guests of the Pakefield Singers at Kirkley Church, Lowestoft on July 7th 2008. This was followed by a concert at St Mark’s, Oulton Broad, as guests in a programme shared with Vox Jubilate and Aurora, on November 7th. Finally, they presented a programme on their own (December 6th) at St Edmund’s Church in Southwold, with some solos as well, also very enthusiastically received.
They held a concert on their own at St Mark’s, Oulton Broad, on March 28th 2009, and are honoured to have taken part in the opening Launch of new spaces at Snape Maltings, performing a new composition and sharing the stage with Exaudi and the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir, in May 2009.
The story continues!
In the Autumn Term 2009 the choir held a successful concert at the Methodist Church in Southwold with choral items and individual performances by choir members. In December the choir responded to an invitation from BBC Radio Suffolk to take part in the concert in support of Children in Need held in Snape Maltings Concert Hall, an edited version of which was broadcast on Christmas Day. Their three songs were greatly appreciated by the audience, as were their Pudsey Bear bandanas!
The choir contributed three songs to a celebration organised by Waveney District Council to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day (and particularly the part played by the local area in hosting children brought to England by the Kindertransport in 1938-9).
In March 2010 the choir held another concert of choral and individual items in Southwold and took part in their first festival. They entered three songs in the Youth Choir section of the Norfolk County Music Festival, choosing to sing in German, Latin and Sotho as well as English! The adjudicator, Lin Marsh, well known for her work with young choirs, praised their energy and focus, commenting "To sing unaccompanied at your first festival is great" and adding that there were exciting things to come.
New ventures for the choir took place in the summer of 2010, when first of all they sang at the wedding of one of their supporters in Beccles and later when they accepted an invitation from Aldeburgh Music to sing at Orford Church as part of the Aldeburgh Music Festival. In "Festival Chorus" they participated with Exaudi, the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir and the Abbey School choir in a collection of songs by Benjamin Britten and others. They demonstrated their facility with foreign languages by singing in Dutch and in their own item, a round sung in French.
The year was rounded off with a concert of vocal and instrumental items at St. Mark's Church, Oulton Broad, and a Christmas concert to a packed audience at Potton Hall, Westleton. Here the choir recorded some of the items for their forthcoming CD.
THE NSYC COMMITTEE
Chairman: Alan Zipfel Treasurer: Alison Evans Secretary: Shirley Smith Fund-raising Officer: Sally Minns David Bunkell Patricia Nicholson Stephen Hearn Lucy Walker Alan Zipfel Director of Music for NSYC: Vetta Wise |
