Finchley Children's Music Group

Last updated

Finchley Children's Music Group (FCMG) is a UK youth choir based in North London for children aged 4 to 18.

Finchley Children's Music Group (FCMG) was founded in 1958 after a group of singers and instrumentalists came together to give the first amateur performance of Benjamin Britten’s Noye's Fludde . Some members participated in the London Boy Singers choir organized by Britten. [1]

To this end, FCMG holds weekly rehearsals for all its choirs and creates opportunities for public performance of choral music. FCMG is regularly invited to perform in professional concerts with major orchestras such as LSO, LPO and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and with other children and adult choirs. The main performing choir of upper voices and the SATB Chamber Choir sing regularly in major London venues, a recent appearance being at the BBC Proms in September 2008 when the Senior Choir performed La damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under James Levine. FCMG makes regular appearances at the BBC Proms and has performed at the premier of two works commissioned by the BBC: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ A Little Light Birthday Music for the Queen’s 80th Birthday in 2006 and Alex Roth’s Earth and Sky in 2000. The choir performed in Britten’s War Requiem in the 2004 series and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in 2005. The Finchley Children’s Choir was involved in Malcolm Singer's 70th Birthday Concert on 13 July 2023 at the West London Synagogue, celebrating his contributions to contemporary music. [2] On Sunday 12th November 2023, the Finchley Children’s Music Group (FCMG) presented a captivating concert at St John’s Church, Friern Barnet. [3] The Finchley Children’s Choir was involved in The London Handel Festival 2023 masterclasses with Laurence Cummings about composer George Frideric Handel. [4] Several singers from the Finchley Children’s Choir participated in Gabrieli Roar’s A Grand Georgian Christmas concert at Norwich Cathedral on 28 November 2024, in a celebration of historic English “Gallery Music” under Paul McCreesh’s direction. [5]

FCMG offers training and performance opportunities for singers aged between 4 and 18. At present there are over 150 members. The Beginner and Intermediate Choirs are open to all, whilst admission to the Senior and Chamber Choirs is by audition. FCMG has no core funding: running costs are met entirely from members’ subscriptions. The children are drawn from a wide variety of social, cultural and economic backgrounds and financial support is available for those of necessitous financial circumstances so that as many children as possible may benefit from being part of the Group. This support derives from local authority grants or from our own bursary fund which is sourced mainly by voluntary donations from parents.

Since its formation, FCMG has pursued an ongoing commitment to the commissioning of new music for children's voices which was one of the objectives of its founding. Composers who have written for the Group in the past include Brian Chapple, Judith Bingham, Elizabeth Maconchy, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Alex Roth, Malcolm Williamson, Piers Hellawell and Christopher Gunning. Many of these works are now prominent in the established canon of choral music that is available for upper voices. FCMG continues to perform these works regularly; for example, Aunt Vita by Christopher Gunning was premièred at St John's, Smith Square in 2002 and was showcased again at the East Finchley Festival in 2003. Brian Chapple's two works Songs of Innocence and its companion Songs of Experience have become an integral part of the repertoire of the Choir; the former was performed in 1994, 1995 and 2003 and the latter in 2002.

In 2008/2009 FCMG celebrated its 50th anniversary and this celebration was marked by further commissions: Two song cycles for children's choir from composers John Pickard (Songs of Rain and Sea with text by Sigrún Davíðsdóttir) and James Weeks (Hototogisu, a setting of 17 Haiku written by the great Japanese post Basho). These were premiered at St Pancras New Church, London, in July 2008 and were given their second performance the following January at Kings Place.

In 2008 FCMG also commissioned composer Malcolm Singer and poet Nick Toczek to create a new children's opera for the same forces as Benjamin Britten's children's opera Noye’s Fludde – 3 adult roles, children's choir and soloists, strings, piano and percussion. The result was The Jailer’s Tale, which was premiered by three professional adult soloists (Steven Jeffes - tenor, Jimmy Holliday - bass and Rebecca Lodge - mezzo-soprano) together with some 170 young people, aged 5 to 18 years, from FCMG with the orchestra from the Yehudi Menuhin School conducted by Grace Rossiter in February 2010. The Jailer’s Tale received its premiere staged performances at the Pentland Theatre - artsdepot, Finchley on Friday February 26 and Saturday February 27, 2010. Prior to this it received a concert performance at The Menuhin Hall, Stoke D’Abernon, Surrey on Sunday February 7, 2010.

FCMG has recorded regularly for radio, television, film and on the Hyperion, Naxos, Somm, EMI and Decca labels. Over the last two years the choir has been used extensively to record tracks for Sing Up, the UK government initiative to encourage singing in primary schools.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Chamber Orchestra</span> British symphony orchestra

The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra specializes in 18th-century music and was created to perform Baroque Music. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationally, and holds the distinction of having the most extensive discography of any chamber orchestra and being the most well-traveled orchestra in the world; no other orchestra has played concerts (as of 2013, according to its own publicity) in as many countries as the English Chamber Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Mackerras</span> Australian conductor

Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also specialized in Czech music as a whole, producing many recordings for the Czech label Supraphon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Sargent</span> English conductor, organist and composer (1895–1967)

Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated included the Ballets Russes, the Huddersfield Choral Society, the Royal Choral Society, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and the London Philharmonic, Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. Sargent was held in high esteem by choirs and instrumental soloists, but because of his high standards and a statement that he made in a 1936 interview disputing musicians' rights to tenure, his relationship with orchestral players was often uneasy. Despite this, he was co-founder of the London Philharmonic, was the first conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic as a full-time ensemble, and played an important part in saving the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from disbandment in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Baker</span> English mezzo-soprano

Dame Janet Abbott Baker is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.

The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.

<i>Noyes Fludde</i> 1958 childrens opera by Benjamin Britten

Noye's Fludde is a one-act opera by the British composer Benjamin Britten, intended primarily for amateur performers, particularly children. First performed on 18 June 1958 at that year's Aldeburgh Festival, it is based on the 15th-century Chester "mystery" or "miracle" play which recounts the Old Testament story of Noah's Ark. Britten specified that the opera should be staged in churches or large halls, not in a theatre.

Daniel John Taylor, is a Canadian countertenor, conductor and early music specialist. Taylor directs the Trinity Choir, the Theatre of Early Music and is Professor of Opera, Voice and Early Music at the University of Toronto. Daniel Taylor is the General and Artistic Director of the Toronto Consort.

The Leeds Festival Chorus is based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has 160 singing members in soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections. Presenting classical choral music of a professional standard in Yorkshire and elsewhere, including at the BBC Proms and abroad - for example in Venice. The Chorus is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crouch End Festival Chorus</span> Choir

Crouch End Festival Chorus (CEFC) is a symphonic choir based in north London which performs in a range of musical styles, including traditional choral repertoire, contemporary classical, rock, pop and film music.

Elin Manahan Thomas is a Welsh soprano. A specialist in Baroque music, she sang at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018.

The Philharmonia Chorus is an independent self-governing symphony chorus based in London, UK. Since its foundation in 1957 the Chorus has given over 900 concerts and made over 100 recordings. The Chorus Master is Gavin Carr.

Ross Pople is a New Zealand-born British conductor. He is the principal conductor of the London Festival Orchestra. He has worked with Yehudi Menuhin, Clifford Curzon, David Oistrakh, Kentner, George Malcolm, Sir Adrian Boult, Rudolf Kempe, Benjamin Britten, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michael Tippett, Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, George Benjamin, John Casken, Edwin Roxburgh, Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Malcolm Arnold, Pierre Boulez as well as many other major orchestras, choirs and soloists.

London Concert Choir (LCC) is one of London's leading amateur choirs. The choir was formed in 1960, and the full-time membership consists of ca 150 singers of a wide range of ages.

James Gilchrist is a British tenor specialising in recital and oratorio singing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New London Orchestra</span>

The New London Orchestra (NLO) is an English London-based orchestra specialising in rarely heard late 19th and 20th century music.

Bath Bach Choir, formerly The City of Bath Bach Choir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity. Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who also became a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival in 1950, the choir's original aim was to promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach via periodic music festivals. Bates – an amateur musician with a great love and understanding of this composer's works – was also the CBBC's principal conductor and continued in this role until his sudden death, in April 1980. This untimely exit pre-empted his planned retirement concert performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor, scheduled for July of the same year, and effectively ended the first period of the choir's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Parry (musician)</span> British musician, composer, conductor, singer, arranger and producer

Ben Parry is a British musician, composer, conductor, singer, arranger and producer. He is the director of London Voices and was formerly artistic director of the National Youth Choir.

The London Boy Singers were an English boys' choir which formed in 1961. It initially drew its members from the Finchley Children's Music Group. The choir was started at the suggestion of Benjamin Britten, who was its first president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton Festival Chorus</span> Musical artist

Brighton Festival Chorus is a large choir of over 150 amateur singers based in Brighton, UK. One of the country's leading symphony choruses.., and considered "one of the jewels in the city's musical crown", BFC performs in major concert halls throughout Britain and Europe, particularly in Brighton and London.

Malcolm Singer is an English composer and educationalist. He was Director of Music at The Yehudi Menuhin School between 1998 and 2017.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.