For Argyll

Alan Baird, a member of the Furnace Team in the Out There For Argyll project, is just back from his annual session with the National Boys Choir (NBC). This included a series of concerts - detailed below - with the main one from St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh being broadcast on Radio Scotland’s Classics Unwrapped programme, Sundays 8th and 15th June between 8 and 10 pm.

Furnace woman, Margaret Campbell’s grandson Kyle Renton, from Inveraray is now in the Junior Corps (the youngest boys) of the NBC.

The National Boys Choir was formed in April 2002 by the National Youth Choir of Scotland and gives a unique opportunity for boys with changed and unchanged voices to sing together to the highest standards. The choir meets annually around Easter time for a residential course. Any boy in Scotland between the ages of 10 and 15 can apply to join and all applicants are given an audition. Choir members come from all over Scotland.

Concerts have been given in Belfast, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kendal, Linlithgow, Londonderry, Perth and Stirling. In 2004 NBC performed live on BBC1 as part of the BBC Proms in the Park in Glasgow.

The NBC have now had 2 cantatas composed especially for them by Scottish composer Tom Cunningham, lyrics by Derek Roberts. The first, first performed in 2006, was entitled “The Saga of the Seven Days”, and the second, which premiered this year, was entitled “Seven Planets and a Cosmic Rock”.

The boys sing a mixture of classical, folk and contemporary pieces conducted by Christopher Bell. They sing in many languages and all music is learned in a 5 day period during their residential course. They are taught using the Kodaly method.