When All Saints went marching in

The All Saints Catholic College Choir, Huddersfield, formed less than one year ago, has just returned from a major international choral competition with a medal! All Saints Catholic College Choir were awarded a bronze medal in the Youth Choir category of the World Choir Games held in Gratz, Austria.



Inspired by the BBC documentary ‘The Choir’, All Saints Catholic College, in conjunction with the OPAL foundation and the Diocese of Leeds, in September 2007, formed a choir ‘from scratch.’ In April 2008, All Saints Choir took first prize in the OPAL ‘Magic of Music’ competition in the Royal Albert Hall in London – their prize being an all expenses paid trip to Austria this Summer to compete in the World Choir Games.



All Saints Catholic College Choir, numbering 36 male and female singers, competed in the Youth Choir category against choirs from Europe, Africa, South America and Asia.
The choir sang four pieces: Shto mi e milo – traditional Macedonian, Flying Free – Don Besig, Anima Christi – Russian, Benedictus and Hosanna – Emily Crocker. The choir was conducted by Christopher McElroy (Assistant Director of Music, Diocese of Leeds) and accompanied on the piano by Dr Christopher Johns (Choral Director, Diocese of Leeds.) School music teacher, Catherine Lunn played the flute.



With over 400 choirs from 91 countries, the World choir games is the biggest international choral competition in the world. The All Saints Choir competed against choirs who had worked together for many years and who were a great deal older. Mary Nixon, Headteacher said, “The whole college community is bursting with pride at this success. We took the view that ‘participation was the greatest honour’, – but to triumph so spectacularly on the world stage is a moment these students and our college will savour for a very long time. We have already taken bookings for the Autumn!”

In addition to singing themselves, All Saints choir had many opportunities to explore singing styles and repertoires of other cultures, as well as interact with singers from across the globe!

Choir Director Chris McElroy said: ‘The choir have performed marvellously: Over the last year they have worked hard together as a team, inspiring each other to further develop their choral singing skills. The bronze medal which they have been awarded is richly deserved!’

BYC @ Llangollen Eistedffod

The Bradford Girls’ Choir have just returned from Wales, where they have finished in the top 10 in an international Choir competition! Click here to watch the choir!

The choir took part in the Senior Children Choir’s Class of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales, home of the famous ‘Choir of the World’ Competition.



They competed against choirs from Australia, Russia, USA, Ukraine, South Africa, Wales and England. This is the choirs ever performance in an international festival: To be chosen to compete in the finals, 100’s of choirs from around the world send in CD’s, from which 14 choirs are chosen to compete on the prestigious Royal Pavilion Stage in Llangollen.



Competing against some of the worlds finest choirs, the Bradford Girls’ Choir came a commendable 8th place (out of 14) which for their first international competition was a great achievement. The adjudicators praised the choirs tuning, diction and presentation noting that with further experience in such events, the choir would continue to improve.



The Bradford Girls’ Choir is a choir run by the Diocese of Leeds, and is directed by Christopher McElroy (Assistant Director of Music, Diocese of Leeds.) There are 50 girls (aged 10-17) in the choir drawn from St Josephs Catholic College, Yorkshire Martyrs, Holy Family Keighley and catholic primary schools in Bradford and Keighley. The Bradford Youth Choir (of which they are part) is the largest Catholic Youth Singing Program in the country, and attracts attention nationwide: Christopher McElroy was recently interviewed by Aled Jones on BBC R3 about the program.

The choir have just returned from a weeks tour to France, where they performed concerts in Paris and Lourdes (In the Rosary Basilica, to an audience of over 1000 people!)