Established in 2003, the Hallé Youth Choir is recognised as one of the country’s leading mixed-voice youth choirs. Rehearsing on Sunday afternoons during term-time, membership is for talented young singers, aged 13-19 years, across the North West region. As well as appearing with the Hallé and a variety of other ensembles, the Youth Choir also performs independently. Each summer, members enjoy a residential course and tour with visits in recent years to Italy, Dublin, Belgium, Scotland and Paris.
The Youth Choir’s 17-18 season featured a performance of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in York Minster as part of the Ryedale Festival, three appearances at the celebrated Hallé Carol Concerts at the Bridgewater Hall and also joining forces with the Hallé Choir in Mendelssohn’s glorious setting of Psalm 114. Also this year, the Hallé Youth Choir performed live on BBC 1 with indie-rock band Snow Patrol as part of the 2018 Sports Relief campaign, and have recorded with Mercury-nominated artist C Duncan on his latest album.
Since its creation the Youth Choir has covered a wide range of diverse repertoire. Recent highlights have included being part of the Hallé’s Elgar Festival, singing the music of Star Wars, the Lord Mayor’s concert at Middleton Arena to mark the launch of the Lee Rigby Foundation, the Rotary International Conference at Manchester Central as well as appearances at the BBC Proms.
The Youth Choir has taken part in several recording projects on the Hallé’s own label including A Christmas Celebration, Colin Matthews’ Crossing the Alps and the Gramophone award-winning recording of Elgar’s The Apostles. The Youth Choir sang on Elbow’s album Build a Rocket Boys and subsequently performed with the Manchester band on Comic Relief and Later…with Jules Holland.
The Hallé Concerts Society is very grateful to Help Musicians UK, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Oglesby Charitable Trust, The Radcliffe Trust, Elbow and many individual benefactors for their continued support of the Youth Choir.
Free recital (retiring collection)