Page 4 - 16389 BYC Aurin Concert Program 2023

Over 30 of our adult leaders are now fully accredited Youth Mental Health First Aiders and we received central government funding to develop the Northern Academy of Vocal Excellence (NAVE) here in Barnsley and have been working closely with the Council and the team who will realise this exciting vision.
We’ve raised vital funds through a grand raffle and a Singathon and have been fortunate to have had support from a variety of sponsors and patrons, most notably ASOS who became a sponsor this year and
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Barnsley College that provides extraordinary support to the choir and invest so much into the work that we do. Penistone Grammar School continues to offer free use of their building to support our work in the west of Barnsley, and we established 3 new Little Singers Groups (0-4) and a new Junior Choir in Penistone too. BYC now has 9 choirs (16 if you count the separate Little Singers Groups) and 700 children and young people on our database, with around 550-600 regular members.
We have also taken part in a special ‘teaser’ documentary about the World Choir Games in Auckland with a film producer from New Zealand which we hope will evolve into an exciting project.
The 60 strong volunteer team continues to evolve and make seemingly impossible tasks possible, and the Trustees, including the newly appointed Charlie Brammer, and Leadership Team work really hard
in the engine room to make things happen. Karen Davis was selected from a field of 5000 people to become a Kings Coronation Champion because of the extraordinary work she does as a Trustee and General Secretary of the choir. We have new section leaders and mentors
for the choir, including section leaders for the Intermediate Choir as well as Senior Choir. We continue to invest in young people with singers Catherine Wroe, Charlotte Bentley, Tom Masters, Rosie Masters, Gorgey Bennett, Livi Bloomer, Leah Saxton taking on important leadership roles in our volunteer and music teams.
In August we will take part in the Underneath the Stars Festival with Kate Rusby and showcase our wonderful Children’s Choirs as well as some of our older leaders, with a performance planned in the main tent that holds around 2000 people. The next few months will be exciting ones with the NAVE development and we anticipate an intense period working with architects and the design team to ensure that the building is realised by March 2025. We will also continue our quest to raise enough money to take up our invitation to represent Great Britain in the 2024 World Choir Games in New Zealand, but there is a lot of work still to do. It’s a herculean task, but with your support it may be possible.
I couldn’t be prouder of BYC and all those that make this possible. I often reflect back to those first meetings with our dearly missed Keith Norton and wonder what he would have thought about all of this. Those memories of meetings in his conservatory and his smile as he opened his briefcase are still lucid and powerful and
I hope that he is looking down on us, glowing with pride.
There’s so much more that I’d like to talk about and I this introduction does not do justice to the tireless and selfless endeavour of so many people including volunteers, music leaders, patrons, sponsors, partners and supporters. If you have time, please look through the special thanks section of the programme to cast your eyes over what is the most special and courageous team of people that make all of this happen. The town owes them a great debt
of gratitude.
Sincere thanks for your incredible support of our young people. Barnsley is a special place with a big heart
and it feels such a privilege to serve
this community.
Mat Wright Artistic Director
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AURIN CONCERTS 2023