One of the organisations we have teamed up with in 2018 is Young Voices. This made a lot of sense, mainly because Craig has been Musical Director of Young Voices since the year 2000, and his arrangements for school choirs have gone a long way towards the astonishing growth of the phenomenon that is YV.

Young Voices is the brainchild of one David Lewis, a former Glamorgan cricketer and entrepreneur who was appalled at the lack of singing at a Wales rugby match in 1992. He phoned 8 choirs before the next match, they all said yes, sang their hearts out and it was a huge hit. Soon after the first World Choir concert took place in Cardiff Arms Park with 10,000 singers accompanying Tom Jones, and a second event was led by the indomitable Shirley Bassey.

Lewis was spurred on to try a similar thing in America but for all sorts of reasons it flopped and he lost everything. Luckily a conversation with his friend Donald Woods, the South African journalist and anti-apartheid campaigner, pushed him back on course, and his tenacity  resulted in a 6,500 strong children’s concert at Lansdowne Road in Ireland in 1996. The first UK series of 4 concerts was held the following year. Today the series is 24 nights long and will feature 160, 000 children from nearly 4000 schools.

At a time when school music seems to be on the decline Young Voices is providing a much needed service of quality music participation and education, culminating in a world class arena event where the children are the stars of the show. Those of you who have either taken your choir to be part of one of these events or if you are a proud parent of a performing child will know how special these nights can be.

We are proud that some of the YV back catalogue is exclusively available as a series of resource packs on ChoirCommunity and we plan to feature much more in the coming year. Just like the concerts these arrangements always seek to provide a memorable musical experience for those taking part. Backing tracks are high quality and medleys are skilfully designed to flow like a single piece. Find out for yourself by browsing the Young Voices page and watch out for more releases soon.

The 2019 season is now in full swing with concerts in the Sheffield Arena, Birmingham Arena, Manchester Arena and finishing up at the O2 in London for 7 dates! You can follow along with the excitement as it unfolds on facebook, twitter and other social media channels.