City set to relaunch Sunderland Youth Choir

Sunderland Youth Choir, organised and funded by Sunderland Music Hub, is launching on Monday December 6 and will meet weekly on Monday evenings during term time from 5.30pm to 7.30pm at Sunderland's new City Hall to rehearse and prepare for performances throughout the year.Sunderland Music Hub have been training a team of young vocal leaders to work with the musical director to train the choir, which will be open to youngsters aged between seven and 16 and will be free to attend thanks to funding from the Department for Education through Arts Council England.

There will be no audition process.Vocal Leader Laura Taylor, said: “We are looking forward to building on the brilliant singing that takes place in our schools. This is an amazing opportunity for the young singers we have in Sunderland to continue to develop their musical interests.”Lizzie Nixon, Music Hub manager, said: “It’s been almost 20 years since Sunderland had a city youth choir and it’s important to us to make sure that young people in the city who are talented and interested in singing have a space to come together to do so."We want to unlock the talent of young people in the city by providing spaces where they can progress and the Youth Choir will be a welcoming, inclusive space for young people to develop their singing without the financial barriers that can sometimes stand in the way.”

By meeting in a city centre venue accessible by public transport and encouraging members to travel to rehearsals in a climate friendly way, the choir is also aiming to be as climate friendly as possible, in line with Sunderland's ambitions to become a carbon neutral city.Lizzie added: "We're very excited about becoming a climate friendly choir. The climate emergency is important to all of the young people we speak to and it’s the responsibility of all of us to make sure that our activity does not negatively impact on the climate crisis.”Anyone interested in joining the new choir can email Lizzie at [email protected]