1 day – 4 songs – 6 locations throughout the whole country – 2500 young singers. Sounds like a dream scenario, right? It actually happens every second year in Denmark. The event is called “Operation Syng” and is organized by the Danish youth choir organization Syng, which I am working for. Last month the event took place at 6 different high schools all over Denmark. In combination to the project, Syng publishes every second year a songbook with 4 pop choir arrangements that are rehearsed on the “Operation Syng” day with a choir of 300-500 singers at each location. This year I had the honour to be one of the choir leaders for this event. It was an amazing experience to see the joy and passion for pop music in the singers’ faces. The fact that all choirs were singing the same songs on the same day created the spirit of unity and being special. In the years in between there is a similar event called “Operation SyngEfter” for even younger singers.
Another event for young singers is Syng’s elite youth choir. Over 60 singers from all parts of Denmark were applying with a video audition to become a member of this national selection choir. In October we met for the first weekend with all the singers, one beatboxer and their choir leader and Syng consultant, Thue Thesbjerg. The first rehearsals already showed the high quality of this new youth choir. We succeeded in gathering an a cappella pop choir with 24 singers and a beatboxer that manages 7-part-arrangements. I am sure that we will hear fantastic choir music from them in the near future. So watch out, Aca-people! The singers are between 18 and 30 years old and have different backgrounds in music. Some of the singers are well-known faces in the Syng family, because they have been singing at other events of Syng before.
The goal of the organization Syng is to support young singers with many different choir events, publishing songbooks with youth choir arrangements and arranging workshops for choir leaders. Every year we arrange together with Kor72 a summer camp that I mentioned in my first blog. Furthermore, we support our assigned choirs with founding for travelling, concerts, workshops and recordings. One of our next projects is to connect with youth choir organizations from other countries and exchange ideas for supporting young singers. We are also interested in finding an international partner youth choir for an exchange with our new elite choir. At the Aarhus Vocal Festival (AAVF) on May 22nd-25th 2015 there will be an open discussion about the work of youth choir organizations in different countries. The goal is to get inspired by each other and to build an international network. Syng and AAVF are looking forward to hear your ideas in Aarhus!
To get more information about Syng and AAVF, check out the following links:
