The Handel and Haydn Society Youth Choruses Celebrate 30 Years of Training Talented Young Singers as Enrollment Opens for Spring Semester
30th Anniversary Season Will Include 8-Day Tour in Austria
(Boston) The Handel and Haydn Society is celebrating 30 years of excellence from the Youth Choruses program as HHYC opens enrollment for the Spring Semester. HHYC offers seven choruses for singers of all ability levels ages 7-18. HHYC singers will take part in a number of concerts both around Boston and internationally throughout the year including a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Austria. Singers can sign up to be part of HHYC at HandelandHaydn.org/HHYC.
The H+H Youth Choruses inspire and unite young people ages 7-18 through transformative experiences with music in a welcoming and inclusive environment. Singers gather on Saturdays in Brookline to sing choral ensembles, have small group vocal instruction, and participate in weekly musicianship classes. HHYC choral groups also collaborate with other youth choral ensembles throughout New England and on tour, and work regularly with professional artists including the H+H Orchestra and Chorus. H+H offers seven youth choral ensembles to meet the skills and interest of every youth artist.
Having just wrapped up the HHYC Winter Concert, the Chamber Choir will perform on GBH’s Music Holiday Spectacular at Calderwood Studio on December 13th. The very next night the Chamber Choir will also take part in Baroque Christmas with the H+H Orchestra.
The Spring Semester begins January 13 and will offer singers in all seven choruses plenty of opportunity to develop and showcase their talents. The Concert Choir will perform with Cantata Singers for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion February 18 at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre and on the H+H subscription season for Bach + Telemann March 22 + 24 at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. The Chamber Choir will also perform on the H+H subscription season in Beethoven’s 9 March 15 + 16 at Symphony Hall. The Chorus of Tenors + Basses will take part in a pre-concert performance before a Blue Heron Renaissance Choir concert on March 23 and join with the Boston University Singers for a performance of Duruflé Requiem on April 7. The Chorus of Sopranos and Altos will join Cappella Clausura for a pair of performances April 27 + 28. New Voices and Treble Chorus will delight Symphony Hall before the H+H performance of Bach B Minor Mass on April 7. In addition, all choruses will perform during the HHYC Spring Concert which will take place May 18 + 19.
In June, more than 50 HHYC singers will embark on a life-changing trip to Austria. The young singers will be performing European music with an American twist, songs composed in Europe that were transformed by American singers in the Handel and Haydn Society through songbooks the organization produced in the early 1800s. These works will be performed alongside music composed in America, highlighting songs by Florence Price and Negro spirituals. The singers will spend 8 days touring and performing in Salzburg and Vienna. Singers will also partner up with a chorus in Austria and give a joint performance. This trip marks the fourth international expedition for the HHYC and first trip abroad since 2019.
About the Handel and Haydn Society
Boston’s Grammy-winning Handel and Haydn Society is dedicated to performing Baroque and Classical music with a freshness, a vitality, and a creativity that inspires all ages. H+H has been captivating audiences for 208 consecutive seasons (the most of any performing arts organization in the United States). Today, H+H’s Orchestra and Chorus delight more than 50,000 listeners annually with a nine-week subscription series at Boston Symphony Hall and other leading venues. Through the Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program, H+H supports seven youth choirs of singers in grades 2-12 and provides thousands of complimentary tickets to students and communities throughout Boston, ensuring the joy of music is accessible to all. H+H’s numerous free community concerts include an annual commemoration of the original 1863 Emancipation Proclamation concert on December 31. H+H has released 16 CDs on the Coro label and has toured nationally and internationally. In all these ways, H+H fulfills its mission to inspire the intellect, touch the heart, elevate the soul, and connect us with our shared humanity through transformative experiences with Baroque and Classical music.
