PAST SEASONS
2023-2024
In addition to our usual annual events, we participated in a Frostiana collaboration with 6 other choirs at Johnson Chapel, Amherst College. We also brought back our Community Outreach Tour, visiting schools and senior centers. And in May we celebrated our 25th anniversary with a festive concert featuring alumni from every decade!
2022-2023
We welcomed many new singers this year and had a full schedule of events:
Veteran's Day Retreat @ Woolman Hill
Hampshire Choral Society concert @ Mount Holyoke
South Church service
Illuminati Vocal Arts Ensemble collaboration, world premiere @ Abbey Chapel
Handel + Haydn Treble Choir collaboration @ Grace Church, Amherst
Gospel Benefit Concert @ Grace Church
YPC Spring Concert @ All Saints' Church, South Hadley
Carmina Burana collaboration @ Sanders Theatre, Cambridge
We look forward to our 25th Anniversary celebration next year!
2021–2022
We were back to meeting in person! Initially we rehearsed outside, and our Chamber Singers participated in a collaborative concert at the end of September in Sweetser Park in downtown Amherst. In April the Chamber Singers enjoyed a choir retreat at Woolman Hill with guest clinician Arianne Abela. And the entire choir gave their first full concert in nearly three years at All Saints’ Church in South Hadley!
2020–2021
We met for an entire year on Zoom! We learned new repertoire, worked on vocal technique, and strengthened musicianship skills. We created virtual choir videos and enjoyed a wonderful collaboration with the Handel & Haydn Society Youth Choruses for two additional recording projects.
2019–2020
What a strange year this has been! Our season was cut short in March by the coronavirus, but we still managed to participate in several wonderful events:
Veteran’s Day Retreat @ Woolman Hill (CS)
Abbey Chapel Concert w/ Hampshire Choral Society
Toy Fund Benefit Concert, St. John’s Church, Northampton
Outreach Tour to Sunderland & Shutesbury Elementary Schools & Loomis Village Retirement Community
We finished the season with Zoom lessons and will be fully online in September!
2018–2019
What a busy choir year we had! Highlights included:
Tour to the Sing A Mile High Festival in Denver, CO
World premiere of Geoff Hudson’s A Passion for the Planet
Twentieth Anniversary Concert with 3 newly commissioned works
St. Matthew Passion at the UMass Bach Festival
Singing with the Sweetback Sisters at the Academy of Music
Benefit concerts for the Toy Fund and Amherst A Better Chance
Annual concert at Abbey Chapel with Hampshire Choral Society
Retreat, Big Sing festival and Outreach Tour
We accepted new singers in June and look forward to bringing in more new members at our next auditions!
2017–2018
Here's an overview of our 2017–2018 performance season:
Chamber Singers Concert with Moriah Chamber Choir
Abbey Chapel Concert with Hampshire Choral Society
Hansel & Gretel with UMASS Opera Workshop
Local Outreach Tour to schools and Northampton Senior Center
ACDA Big Sing West Children's Choir Festival
ABC Gospel Choir Benefit Concert
Annual Spring Concert
Chamber Singers/Hurricane Singers Concert
At our Spring Concert we bid farewell to our longtime accompanist, Joyce Crouch, who retired after 19 years!
In September we’re launching a brand new mixed-choir High School Division, under the leadership of Dr. Stephen Paparo.
YPC received an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England (CANE) for a Twentieth Anniversary Commissioning Project! Three local composers will write new works for us, which will be premiered in spring of 2019.
YPC Chamber Singers and High School Division will travel to Denver, CO in June of 2019 to participate in the Sing A Mile High Children's Choral Festival!
We welcome our new accompanist, Triin Vallaste!
We’re looking forward to our Twentieth Anniversary Year!
2016–2017
We welcomed many new singers to YPC this year. It’s an amazing process watching these ensembles take shape each fall! In November, the Chamber Singers had their annual overnight choir retreat at Woolman Hill. They learned a lot from working with our guest clinician, Mallorie Chernin, Director of Choral Activities at Amherst College. And of course they enjoyed the meals, the hiking, playing cards, making art, and hanging out with friends.
We’ve wrapped up another very full choir season! Highlights for this year included:
Concert at Abbey Chapel
Advent service at South Church
Valley Light Opera’s Hansel & Gretel at First Night
Panopera’s Carmen at the Academy of Music
Collaboration with the Valley Winds
Big Sing West
Spring Concert w/ the University Chorale
Collaboration with Novi Cantori & NMH choirs
We look forward to meeting our newest members of YPC at our next auditions!
2015–2016
What a busy season we’ve had! We’ve just returned from our Chamber Singers tour to New Jersey and New York. We partnered with two wonderful organizations – the New Jersey Youth Chorus Sola Voce Choir and the Grace Episcopal Church Youth Choir (Madison NJ). We enjoyed a combined concert, a music literacy workshop with Fred Meads from the American Boychoir, a trip to Broadway to see Matilda the Musical, and participation in a beautiful Sunday service at Grace.
Other highlights of the year include:
Veteran’s Day Retreat with guest clinician
Annual concert at Abbey Chapel w/ Hampshire Choral Society
Singing with The Sweetback Sisters at The Academy of Music
Concert Choir Local Outreach Tour
Eric Carle Museum Concert
Big Sing Choir Festival
Spring Concert at South Church