March 2006
March 2006 (2)
March 2006
New Conductor 'test-drives' the cream of Northern Ireland's young singers.
The Ulster Youth Choir is embarking on its annual search for Northern Ireland's best singing talent but not before announcing the appointment of its new Conductor – Greg Beardsell.
Greg Beardsell is one of the most dynamic young choral directors in the UK and in huge demand. He is Assistant Conductor of UYC's sister choir, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Music Director of the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Conductor of the Manchester Boys' Choir.
Throughout March, Greg and the UYC Manager, Majella Hollywood, take to the road in a series of Test-drive UYC workshops throughout schools and universities.
Test-drive offers young people an opportunity to experience what it's like to be a member of UYC for a day. It will give Greg his first opportunity to meet Northern Ireland's young singers at first-hand and he is keen to make 2006 a record-breaking year for the number of people he then auditions in April.
Province-wide UYC auditions that month will identify 100 of Northern Ireland's best young singers.
Speaking of his appointment, Greg Beardsell said, "I'm delighted to take on the challenging role of leading UYC through the next stage of its artistic development. It's already well-established as a hugely successful artistic and educational organisation".
The Ulster Youth Choir was founded 8 years ago to provide Northern Ireland's young singers aged 16–24 (or 26 for boys) with the opportunity to train with some of the best professional choral and vocal coaches from throughout the UK and Ireland in an intensive, but fun-filled, summer residential course and to perform throughout the province.
To date, UYC has given performances throughout Northern Ireland, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Paris as well as live on TV with the Ulster Orchestra in the 2004 BBC Proms in the Park, and to an estimated audience of 30,000 with the Ulster Youth Orchestra in Monster Mash as part of the annual Belfast City Council Hallowe'en celebrations in 2005.
In 2001 the UYC Training Choir was established for younger singers (aged 15–18) to train during the same summer course as a springboard to membership of the Ulster Youth Choir in future years.
Whether you sing in the shower or are a performing veteran and think you have what it takes to join UYC, Northern Ireland's national youth choir, or its Training Choir, telephone the UYC office today for an application form and more information – 028 9023 1414 or email admin@uyc.org.uk.
Key dates for your diary are:
Closing date for applications - 24 March 2006
Province-wide auditions - 10–13 April 2006
Summer Course - 23–28 July 2006
Concerts - 1–3 September 2006
Ends
Notes:
Further information from Majella Hollywood.
028 9023 1414
07714 251 327
manager@uyc.org.uk.
March 2006 (2)
No more playing in the sand pit…
Teenage songbirds are in for the thrill of a lifetime when dynamic new conductor of the Ulster Youth Choir, Greg Beardsell, picks up his baton. Rathcol met him.
Greg Beardsell is in Belfast on a nondescript weekday afternoon at a deserted Waterfront Hall. A quiet introduction to Belfast, perhaps, but the young musician has already entertained and challenged the students of a local school and he's about to make quite a stir with singers everywhere. Indeed, he's expecting much from young Ulster as he prepares to take control of a soon-to-be re-energised Ulster Youth Choir.
It turns out Beardsell is in town to spread the word, to get people talking about singing and choral music and, ultimately, to persuade people that they want to join him in the adventure he's promising. The Ulster Youth Choir is auditioning for new talent in April and Greg Beardsell wants the best of new recruits.
What exactly does he have in mind? It's quite a radical vision, in fact, and one that will excite prospective singers as much as it terrifies the old guard. "With regards to what makes me tick, I'm looking forward to a more progressive programme," he says. "Looking towards collaboration, into dance music, things like that, things that aren't just the run-of-the-mill, unaccompanied choral music."
It seems that the UYC may well be Belfast's avant-garde before long. "I don't want to completely blow all the classical repertoire away," Beardsell continues, "but there's a combination I want to make. Taking the old and combining it with the new. But for a reason. Saying, ‘Right, this is where we were 500 years ago and this is where we are now – and how do we get from one to the other?' It's an experiment for me, but I'll know when I get it.
"Imagine choral singing sent through mics and various bits of wizardry and through eight speakers positioned around a wonderful church like St Anne's. I think that's what the youth of today are up for. Times are a changin' and we have to look toward further methods of musical stimulation.
"It's the programming that's really important – not only does it get the choir interested but it also gets the audience interested. From there you either succeed, or you don't."
Beardsell has been unstoppable of late. From an early stint as a school teacher after graduating from university he soon found that the choral world couldn't live without him. He now works full time with choirs. And it's an impressive weekly tour: he is associate conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony chorus and the Wooburn Singers, and conductor of the Manchester Boys' Choir. And Ulster's young singers are next in line to experience the charm and energy of the man whose optimism and attitude are as much part of his armoury as the musical talent.
One of Beardsell's formative experiences was a trip he took with the Manchester University Chamber Choir. "We went to St Mark's in Venice," he recalls, "and the Duomo in Florence in 1996. These were venues the likes of which I had never seen before. But it wasn't just the fact that we were performing in amazing buildings, it was the fact that we weren't just doing a concert, we were doing evensong – part of the daily routine there – it was the look on the faces of the Venetian men. One man camp up to me and shook me by the hand and said, ‘You made me cry with that' and I thought, ‘Wow' What an impact'."
Beardsell's first hands-on job as the UYC's new conductor will be at the forthcoming auditions. Who is he hoping to see there? "I want people that have intelligence and musicality. They don't have to be the best sight reader in the world of even have the best voice in the world. They've got to be willing to take risks and ready to go for it."
Some singers may be worried that they are not ‘classical enough'. Beardsell doesn't see a problem there. "The only thing that pop music has done which has been harmful is generate a culture of singing in the chest voice. What is missing is the head voice; there are another two octaves there and it's there in everybody. Hopefully we can find people that have a love of pop, but also have the training to ping out a bit of Mozart or a hymn tune with a wonderful, pure tone."
There is an undeniable alchemy that takes place when the right choir meets the right director; the results can supersede all expectations. Where does Beardsell see the secret lying? "The amateur choir is fuelled by enthusiasm," he says. "Working with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the Bournemouth Symphony, these are two very big choruses. You have to be larger than life on the podium. I've just had the beset times in my life conducting choirs and that's what keeps me going; I can't put my finger on it."
It's this sense of excitement that the conductor relishes and expects from music. "The singers have to take risks. They're six feet from the front row and – that's it! There's no instrument to blame. It's just you and that special thing. It's part of the soul and part of the body working in harmony.
"This is where a lot of choral directors go wrong," continues Beardsell. "Saying that it's fun, I don't think that fun is the right word. I knew from the age of eight that fun had ceased to be cool. Fun was playing in the sand pit. What young people want now is to go on a journey. They want to experience something new. It's spiritual and physical; it's something they won't have experienced before. It's not fun – it's deadly serious.