Choir boy/girl of the year

[ardcarp]

Did anyone see the slightly cheesy Songs of Praise last Sunday? Aled played footage of previous winners and caught up with them today, including a young woman currently playing a lead role in Phantom. (Not sure her excellent performance of 'Wishing you were somehow here again' was entirely relevant to Songs of Praise.) I watched this because my own daughter was a finalist in the first ever Choir Girl of the Year, 25 years ago. All the finalists were indeed CHOIR-girls...ie good straight choir voices...except the winner, Victoria Mc Laughlin (lovely girl) who was definitlly 'young budding operatic soprano of the year'. St Barry was then one of two adjudicators, the other (I forget her name) was from the stage musical set. By co-incidence, my daughter and another finalist ended up as choral scholars in the same Oxbridge college choir, having retained their straight voices. However, Victoria is obviously a lovely person and doing sterling work with young singers. Good on her.

The boy and girl winners of thsi year's competition had, I thought, fantastic voices and sang a duet arrangement of Lord of the dance, which I thought was entrancing. Have a listen om i-player...if you can stick with all the razz-ma-tazz.

[DracoM]

Excellent heads-up.
Got to say that I see the title Songs of Praise and I just loook the other way.
How prejudiced is that?

[Magnificat]

lovely person and doing sterling work with young singers. Good on her.

The boy and girl winners of thsi year's competition had, I thought, fantastic voices and sang a duet arrangement of Lord of the dance, which I thought was entrancing. Have a listen om i-player...if you can stick with all the razz-ma-tazz.

I thought the winners were excellent too.

Few of the boy ex - winners seemd to have carried on singing or to have made names for themselves like some of the girls. To be expected I suppose but I thought there would have been more than the single young man shown.

VCC

[decantor]

I thought the winners were excellent too.

Few of the boy ex - winners seemd to have carried on singing or to have made names for themselves like some of the girls. To be expected I suppose but I thought there would have been more than the single young man shown.

VCC

Yes, this programme curled the toes less than some others from that stable. And those choristers and ex-choristers really could sing a bit. I too much enjoyed the Lord of the Dance duet - my thanks to ardcarp for inducing an iPlayer trip I never expected to take.

The boys came late to the CotY party, and so there are fewer ex-winners to display. And their absence from this SoP may be no more than coincidence. For example, Nicholas Kilsby (2009) is still singing solos for Tewkesbury's Schola Cantorum, and I believe Harry Sever (2002) went on to cause quite a stir with his mature treble-voiced interpretation of Schoene Muellerin in both UK and America, and is currently an Oxford choral scholar. I doubt there's any need to take a glass-half-empty view of the boy-winners' subsequent progress.

[DracoM]

A previous winner came form the Temple choir who do CE next Wednesday.

[Magnificat]

Although the winners in the boys' section are always very good and often outstanding I sometimes wonder whether as a competition Chorister of the Year ought to have more finalists from cathedrals/ college chapels to be really worthy of its name.

Malcolm Archer when he was at Wells always used to get boys into the last stages but I wonder how many other cathedrals bother to enter their boys into the competition? St Albans, for example, never does despite having had several first rate soloists in recent years. (The parish church just up the road, which is of cathedral standard, did, however, have a winner in 2000.) I expect the commitments involved make it difficult to do so and no doubt this will apply elsewhere too.

On the other hand the head chorister of Carlisle had great success in Britain's Got Talent. This would have been fleeting of course and a better accolade while his voice lasted, in my opinion, would have been Chorister of the Year.

VCC

[DracoM]

Very recently St Paul's and the Temple Church have each had winners.

[Phoenix]

The boys may have come late to this particular party but they were present at a much earlier one. Rediffusion sponsored Choirboy of the Year from 1975 to 1984 and the candidates tended to be from non-cathedral institutions. This was probably to encourage the many school and parish church choristers who were about at that time. Perhaps cathedral boys were not expected to take part. In 1985, Britains Toys sponsored a Young Cathedral Chorister of the Year competition but this did not survive. Until 1991 BET sponsored the competition and, although in 1986 the BBC started the Choirgirl of the Year, BET seems to have had both boys and girls in their competitions. The boys' competition then seemed to vanish for a while but returned in 1998 as part of the BBC enterprise which was much as it is today. I hope I have that approximately right.

[ardcarp]

Phoenix. Thanks for that, because when my daughter entered the first ever choirgirl of the year competition, I was sure that choir BOY of the year had been going for some time...in fact I knew it had because one of my choristers entered it and got as far as the regional finals. My memory is faulty, but presumably it must have been the Rediffusion one.

[Isn't the glitch where you get a word of your messages repeated at the start of a new line annoying!]

[decantor]

Thanks for that, Phoenix. All the winners and most of the finalists are listed on the site linked below, and the pattern of sponsorship - and, indeed, entrants - that you describe emerges clearly:-

http://www.boysoloist.com/boysoprano-coty.asp

It must surely be the case that some major choral foundations do not encourage (or permit?) their choristers to enter the current competition: time and logistics would be reason enough. But a further thought occurs to me. A chorister is, by definition, principally a team player, and a strong team may well wish to avoid the publicity that surrounds an individual solo winner. A parish choir may well be nurturing an exceptional voice that deserves its chance of fame, but a cathedral or college choir can provide other opportunities for recognition in context - broadcasts, concerts, CDs, tours, etc.

[DracoM]

If anyone wants to hear a candidate [only IMO] for choirboy of the year 2011, then catch the New College Oxford webcasts from thgeir website and listen to the Leighton 'Evening Hymn' and the Britten anthem 'Amo ergo sum'.

[DracoM]

Incidentally, on the same two CEs from NCO, some truly terrific organ playing too - stay on to listen to the voluntary on the Britten CE.

[Nick Armstrong]

If anyone wants to hear a candidate [only IMO] for choirboy of the year 2011, then catch the New College Oxford webcasts from thgeir website and listen to the Leighton 'Evening Hymn' and the Britten anthem 'Amo ergo sum'.

Great tip, Draco What an excellent feature, v good to be able to navigate through the service. And yes, lovely solo singing in the pieces you highlight.

Thanks for flagging it - one of the great use of this forum is for posters to point others to gems on the radio, tv, internet and of course live music schedules, which might otherwise escape attention