Image credit: Belinda Lawley

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The end of an era! Singing at the 2025 Emerging Professional Artists’ Showcase and reflecting on my year as a Fellow…

Our time as Emerging Professional Artists (EPAs) with National Youth Choir has drawn to a close with a full-circle moment: showcase! In February 2024, right at the start of our time together as a cohort, we gathered at the VOCES8 Centre to film the 2024 Showcase and heard the Fellowship Ensemble sing expertly. This was an exciting taste of what the year had in store for us, but I truly had no idea just what a life-changing experience the programme would be. As I sit here now, shortly after the 2025 Showcase, I am reflecting on all that we have gained as a cohort over the course of our year together and how these things were reflected in this final performance.

This year’s Showcase was the first to include a live in-person audience since the pandemic! ‘Sleek’ and ‘positive’ were the words of the day, ensuring that every detail was in place for the performance itself at St John’s, Waterloo. The event was a beautiful joining together of live music and discussion with pre-recorded video content about our amazing partner organisations, as well as interviews with each of the EPAs about the year we have enjoyed together. It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster feeling so happy to be there with everyone, but also sad to be coming to the end of an era, all while trying not to cringe at the sound of my own voice in the interview footage!

I got to chat to so many people... making a number of new connections in the world of choral music that evening. How amazing to see so many people from different organisations and pathways, all joined together thanks to National Youth Choir!

Perhaps my favourite thing about this year’s Showcase was the opportunity to mingle with the audience, among which were friends and family of the EPAs as well as industry guests and, of course, lots of familiar faces from National Youth Choir. Both before and after the performance I got to chat to so many people who were genuinely interested in what we, as EPAs, have to offer, which was incredibly uplifting. As well as having the privilege of making a number of new connections in the world of choral music that evening, it was a complete joy to reconnect with so many individuals who have played such a significant role in my journey so far. How amazing to see so many people from different organisations and pathways, all joined together thanks to National Youth Choir!

It has become increasingly apparent to me just how strong and well-connected this network of Emerging Professional Artist alumni is.

Singing as part of the Fellowship Ensemble brought our cohort of Fellows together with four fabulous alumni from the scheme. Through both the Showcase performance and the recording of the Young Composers 6 album, it was so wonderful to chat to them, hearing about their time as part of the programme and what it led them to do afterwards. It has become increasingly apparent to me just how strong and well-connected this network of EPA alumni is. At the Showcase I was fortunate to bump into Lillie Harris, a former Young Composer who I actually went to school with! We discussed the possibility of programming some of her music for an upcoming concert with my newly-formed choir, Omnium Ensemble. Additionally, the Showcase finale was a piece by Nathan James Dearden, another EPA alumnus who I first met at Royal Holloway, University of London when I was a member of the choir there, and conducting Nathan’s piece was former Fellow Jason Ching, who I also first met at Royal Holloway. Safe to say it is a small world! I’m incredibly excited to become a part of this amazing network of former EPAs and to continue to cross paths with them and all their talents throughout my career.

Of course, a very important part of the Showcase was handing over to the 2025 cohort of EPAs. It was such a pleasure to meet them and I felt so excited for them at the start of this incredible journey together. I am hugely looking forward to working alongside them in various projects over the coming year and can’t wait to hear the next NMC album! Singing the Showcase finale, Everything About Us with the Fellowship Ensemble, 2024 EPAs and 2025 EPAs combined was so thrilling and yet another example of the strength and vibrancy of this network of young professionals drawn together by National Youth Choir.

Conducted by Joanna Tomlinson, we also performed the four pieces written for the Fellowship Ensemble by our cohort of Young Composers. Each of these pieces contained so much personality and craftsmanship, and we had so much fun performing them live for the first time following the launch of Young Composers 6. Our performance of Áine's piece Dreamer:1 even featured some ‘choral-ography’ including the ‘twenty-one frisbee salute’, which I’m sure will become popular culture in no time! It’s not every day you get to sing the words "the mummy marries my friend Ellen" and also delve into elements of traditional Cypriot music (Crystalla’s Kyrie Eleison) in the same concert! I learned so much working on all four of these pieces, and it was fascinating to hear what inspired each of our Young Composers.

As well as the Young Composers’ pieces and the finale by Nathan James Dearden, we also performed two pieces selected by our cohort of Young Conductors. Frankie chose Stephen Paulus’ The Road Home, which was a beautifully fitting tribute to our time together as a group and the sense of belonging we have all felt as part of the organisation. Gabrielle, on the other hand, provided her own stunning arrangement of Jehovah Sabaoth which was a complete joy to sing under her excellent direction.

Imogen, Adam, Daniel, (Fellows), Gabrielle, Frankie (Conductors), Áine, Crystalla, Jamie, and Cameron (Composers) have been the most outstanding colleagues and friends this year. It has been so wonderful to watch them all grow and flourish and to be so supported and encouraged by all of them in my own development too. I can’t wait to see all that they go on to achieve!