Earlier this year we partnered with National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, an organization responsible for running choirs of the highest standards, providing outreach to children in primary and secondary education in the UK, and also supporting young composers through various programmes.
Initially, we were given the opportunity to get involved with NYCGB’s Young Composer Scheme by becoming their ‘Technology Partner and Innovation Grant Sponsor’. We were pleased to be able to support their scheme by funding Innovation funds for two of the composers of the scheme, providing free licenses of our Dorico Pro music notation software as well as training to all four young composers who participated in the scheme: Nathan James Dearden, Amy Bryce, Lisa Robertson and Joseph Bates.
Daniel Spreadbury, Dorico Product Marketing Manager, and Lillie Harris, Dorico Technical Writer with the 2019-20 NYCGB Young Composers. (Left to right): Nathan James Dearden, Lillie Harris, Amy Bryce, Lisa Robertson, Daniel Spreadbury, Joseph Bates.
Later in the year, we were excited to find out about NYCGB’s New Music Programme; each year they commission two to three established composers to write a new piece for their choirs: one for their flagship National Youth Choir and the other one for their National Youth Girls’, Boys’ and Training Choirs. And of course, we were pleased to extend our partnership with NYCGB as their ‘New Music Sponsor for 2020’, by supporting two of their new pieces; one written by Sruthi Rajasekar and the other one by Ben Parry which were performed by the National Youth Training Choir and the National Youth Girls’ and Boys’ Choirs respectively.
Shruthi Rajasekar is an Indian-American composer and vocalist exploring identity, community, and joy through her work. Shruthi creates intersectional music that draws from her unique background in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical idioms. Ben Parry is an established British composer who has composed a significant amount of choral music published by Peters Edition, Oxford University Press and Faber Music, as well as the Artistic Director & Principal Conductor of NYCGB. Both music pieces explore the theme of ‘Cultural Identity’; Shruthi’s piece, ‘The Change We Need’ was released in November to celebrate Twenty-Five Years of the National Youth Training Choir. Ben’s piece, ‘Just Being Me’ was recorded by the members from their homes, as part of NYCGB’s online summer course in August, and was released earlier in December along with a video produced by NYCGB.
We interviewed Shruthi and Ben about their new works and we’re pleased to share the video interview with you:
Both ‘The Change We Need’ and ‘Just Being Me’ are now available to listen on Spotify, Apple Music and other music platforms.
Listen to ‘The Change We Need‘ by Shruthi Rajasekar
Listen to ‘Just Being Me’ by Ben Parry or watch the video here