The Brighton Festival Youth Choir

Brighton Festival Youth Choir was founded in January 2002 and has a growing membership of talented young singers aged between 11 and 18. Their first performance was a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3, while their concert debut was at the Brighton Festival with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Brighton Festival Chorus under Paul Daniel.

Since their debut, this dynamic young choir have worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, City of London Sinfonia, Brodsky Quartet, Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, L’Orchestra National de Lorraine, under such conductors as Richard Hickox, Jacques Mercier, James Morgan, David Angus and Carl Davis. They performed to an audience of thousands at Leeds Castle with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by Carl Davis, and they have undertaken three foreign tours to Prague, Belgium and Italy where their concerts were a huge success.

Members of the choir have also sung on professional recordings for BMG and recently members of the choir were engaged to sing on a Christmas radio advert. They sang and led the Children’s Parade for the 2nd year at the launch of the Brighton Festival as well as performing their first solo recital in the Festival. In April 2008 they were awarded a silver cup at the 19th Verona International Choir Competition. They have a growing discography, having sung on Classic FM’s Songs without Words which entered the charts at no.21 in September 2008; they also appear on Poetry Serenade (Signum Classics) released in autumn 2008 and they will feature on Juliette Pochin’s next album to be released in 2009.

The aims of the choir are to create one of the pre-eminent youth choirs of its type in the country, to provide for its members the opportunity to receive first class training under its director, Juliette Pochin, and to participate in performances of the highest quality, working with orchestras, choirs and conductors of international acclaim. The members are trained as singers and musicians as well as part of a choir.