The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain

The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain (NYCGB) have been awarded the David Bedford Education Award in December 2013 for their New Music Programme 2014.

The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain New Music Programme 2014 includes:

• commissioning Simon ‘Shlomo’ Kahn to write “She lost my crossed heart” for the combined forces of the NYCGB Training Choirs, numbering 180 teenagers
• working with folk music experts Will Lang and Niopha Keegan who are creating four new arrangements for choir and folk band which focus on traditional music from Cumbria and the North West of England
• premiering a new work by Northumberland-based composer John Casken at Sage Gateshead

They told us:

‘We’re thrilled and delighted to have been awarded the David Bedford Music Education Award for our 2014 New Music Programme which comprises commissions by Shlomo, Will Lang, Niopha Keegan and John Casken. NYCGB has been commissioning new music since its foundation 30 years ago and as a result our members have experienced a phenomenal range of new music influences.

Our goals are to create exceptional performance experiences, to enthuse young people in the joy of singing and to demonstrate outstanding national relevance and our desire to commission new works is essential to us achieving these goals. We are very grateful to the PRS for Music Foundation for allowing these compositions to become a reality for our members, collaborators and audiences; they form the backbone of a very exciting season of choral music.’

About the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain

The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain actively upholds its mission of nurturing the exceptional musical talent of the young people of Great Britain by offering the very best musical provision from the country’s greatest vocal tutors, collaborators and directors.