National Youth Choir of Scotland
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| Founded | 1996 |
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| Founder | Christopher Bell |
| Headquarters | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Website | www |
The National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) is a youth arts organisation, dedicated to providing high-level singing opportunities for Scotland’s young singers aged 0–25. Led by Artistic Director, Christopher Bell, NYCoS provides a national infrastructure for young people, teachers and choir directors to support and develop choral singing in Scotland.
NYCoS activities currently include four National Choirs, a growing network of Area Choirs across Scotland, Mini Music Makers classes and a broad range of educational projects. NYCoS also commissions and publishes a range of publications, songbooks and educational resources.
NYCoS was founded in 1996 by its current Artistic Director, Christopher Bell and the then Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Richard Chester. It was felt that, whilst Scotland had national youth ensembles for orchestra, strings, jazz and brass, there was a lack of opportunity for young singers in to participate at a national level and standard.
NYCoS National Choirs comprises a total of four choirs for young people aged 10–25:
Membership for all NYCoS National Choirs is granted by annual audition and is open to singers who are born, resident/studying in Scotland, or of Scottish descent. The basis of the Choirs' activities stems from a residential course where time is split between individual vocal coaching, musicianship sessions and sectional/full rehearsals.
NYCoS became the first youth organisation to win a coveted Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) award when its flagship National Youth Choir of Scotland won the 2012 Ensemble prize. The Choir has toured to Ireland (2000), Sweden (2001), USA (2004), Hungary (2007), Germany (2010), Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia (2013), the USA for a second time (2016) and Belgium (2017). NYCoS tours internationally every three years, with those in the touring choir being offered a two-year membership. In the tour year, a second group is formed named NYCoS Scotland.
NYCoS Training Choir, formed in 1997 trains singers aged 16–19 who need more experience in a wider repertoire, and receive vocal and choral and individual coaching.
The National Boys Choir was formed in 2002 with financial support from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund. It was initially for boys with unchanged voices, but expanded in 2003 to include a changed voices section. Entry is by audition and is open for boys aged 10–16. Structured in three sections, Junior Corps, NBC and Changed Voices, the choir meets annually around Easter time for a residential course, followed by concerts. The choir has performed in Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Linlithgow, Londonderry, Paisley and Stirling. In 2007, NBC toured to Kendal and Dumfries giving concerts in Kendal Town Hall and the Crichton Church in Dumfries. The Choir has a repertoire including classical, sacred and Scots songs. Recent commissions include Tom Cunningham's Saga of the Seven Days and Sheena Phillips Sea Shanties. The patron of the boys choir is Scottish actor Billy Boyd.
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