Choirs cannot thrive without new music, and composers cannot thrive without opportunities to create. That’s why National Youth Choir is committed to commissioning new choral works that inspire singers, support composers, and enrich the musical landscape for everyone to enjoy.

As the UK’s national youth choir, we work with some of the most talented young singers in the country. They allow us to push the boundaries of what new music for young voices can be. We champion both emerging composers and established favourites, commissioning works that will shape and strengthen the choral repertoire for generations to come.

Our commitment to excellence goes hand in hand with our commitment to change. By amplifying new voices and focusing on representation, we strive to ensure our commissioned works reflect a diverse range of experiences.

From high-profile performances to pioneering commissions, National Youth Choir delivers initiatives that are essential to the future of choral music in the UK. We perform to over 100,000 people each year, and our digital record label reaches more than 2 million annual listeners - bringing bold new choral music to audiences around the world.

New commission spotlight: I'm Here - Roderick Williams

There is a significant shortage of high-quality choral music for young voices, and few organisations are commissioning for this age range. National Youth Choir is committed to addressing this gap and has a strong track record in creating new work. Over the past decade, we have commissioned 25 pieces from leading composers—among them Errollyn Wallen, John Rutter, Jonathan Dove, Roxanna Panufnik, Thea Musgrave and Oliver Tarney—and a further 43 works from emerging composers.

We prioritise composers whose writing for voices is both artistically strong and appealing to broad audiences. In the last year alone, our choirs premiered eight new works to more than 3,800 audience members across the UK, including performances in Kent, Oxford, Cambridge and London.

While many artist development programmes focus on instrumental music, our Emerging Professional Artist programme is the UK’s leading initiative dedicated to training early-career composers to write for vocal ensembles.

Each year we commission three new works, all of which receive a world premiere by one of our outstanding choirs. Every commission is professionally recorded and released through our digital record label, ensuring new works reach far beyond the concert hall. In 2024, these releases were streamed 130,000 times. Through commissioning, performance and wide public distribution, we significantly expand the choral repertoire and increase audiences’ access to new music.

Our approach to new music is unique in that every commission is also recorded for public release on our digital record label. Every recording is produced to professional standards and fully licensed for distribution. Our new music releases were streamed 130,000 times in 2024. By creating new works at this scale, performing them across the UK and sharing them with the public through our record label, our organisation has a profound impact on the size of the choral music repertoire and the public’s exposure to new choral music.

How do we make this happen?

We are extremely grateful to our partners who support our commissions.

Each year, with the help of supporters such as the John S Cohen Foundation, we commission three new works from professional composers for each our national choirs.

Our Emerging Professional Artist programme is the leading programme dedicated to giving emerging composers the skills to write for vocal ensembles and choirs in the UK. Each year, four emerging composers taking part in the programme are supported to write new works for choir and for an eight-piece vocal ensemble. For several years, we have worked with Steinberg Music Technologies (Dorico) to commission one composer graduating from the programme to write a new work for our 15-18 Years choir.

Another important partnership connects talented emerging composers with Stainer & Bell, who provide training sessions and publish one emerging composer’s work each year as part of their Choral Now ;series. This is invaluable to our emerging composers, whilst enabling Stainer & Bell to discover the newest talent in choral composition.

Help us create new music for generations to come. Contact us today