Cornwall Youth Choirs fundraising to compete nationally

They hosted a 12-hour sing-a-thon over the weekend

Author: Sophie SquiresPublished 24th Oct 2023

A Cornish choir are aiming to give their young members experiences outside of the Duchy.

Cornwall Youth Choirs hosted a 12-hour sing-a-thon over the weekend, to raise money for them to compete nationally.

Anna is a member and tells us how Saturday's event went: "It was a really fun day and it was nice just to be together as a group raising money for something we're all so passionate about.

Balen - a member of Cornwall Youth Training Choir - adds: "I was expecting to lose my voice but surprisingly I didn't! As I went home, I was amazed at how well we had done for that whole length of the day."

Cornwall Youth Choirs is a collection of young singers aged 3-25 from all over the county - ranging from Sennen to Saltash.

So far, they've raised more than £2,000 to take part in national events.

Founder and Artistic Director, Angela Renshaw, said: "We've got a lot of singing going on in Cornwall and one of the aims of the staff team and the Friends of CYC - who are the group of volunteer parents who have formed a charity who look after us - is to actually raise aspiration.

"I've been a teacher for nearly 40 years as a music teacher and I know the impact that it can have on lives, very young lives, to feel that you're connected to something very passionately and strongly - be it sport or music.

"Within Cornwall, there's only so much really you can do with local competitions - which are fantastic and we wholeheartedly support them - but we all know that there's a lot happening out of Cornwall as well and I think it's trying to tap into and give our young people other experiences as well; but within that, the backbone of it all is about selling our Cornish identity beyond Cornwall."

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