Dublin Youth Choir

Rehearsals: Thursdays 4-4.20pm online

Ages: Junior Infants, Senior Infants, First Class

Our Pre-DYC programme is designed to provide accessible early years music education for young singers and their parents/guardians across Dublin. The short classes help the young musicians to develop fundamental musical concepts through games and activities. Participants will learn a repertoire of songs and rhymes and will receive resources to continue learning throughout the week. The programme will prepare the singers for Junior Choir.

Rehearsals: Tuesdays in Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church (Year 1s: 4.15-5.15pm)

Ages: Beginning in Second or Third Class

Young singers usually begin their DYC experience in Year 1 of Junior Choir as they enter Second or Third Class. It is a four-year children’s choir programme, after which singers are invited to audition for Training Choir. Through Junior Choir, singers undertake a wonderful journey through music and musicianship, and young singers are not required to have previous experiences of music education to be part of this unique programme!

Rehearsals: Tuesdays, 5.30-7pm in Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church

Ages: Fourth Class (Primary School) to Second Year (Secondary School)

Dublin Youth Training Choirs comprises both a Treble Choir and a Cambiata Choir. The singers receive expert tuition by experienced vocal tutors and highly skilled musicianship staff in Dublin’s city centre. The Treble Choir is for all young people (including boys whose voices have not yet begun to change). In addition to singing in choir, all the young singers receive musicianship training through a Kodály-inspired programme and music theory classes. Advanced singers are invited to stay until 7.45pm and sing with the Youth Choir.

Dublin Youth Training Choir has taken part in several exciting and varied projects, including writing a new piece of choral music with composer Jim Papoulis, undertaking a professional recording for composer Dr Seán Doherty, travelling to Belfast to perform at the Belfast Children’s Festival 2023, and singing with Clannad and the Belfast Philharmonic Youth Choir to celebrate 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement in the Abbey Theatre.

Rehearsals: Tuesdays, 5.30-7pm in Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church (note: lower voices stay until 7.45pm)

Ages: Fourth Class (Primary School) to Second Year (Secondary School)

Dublin Youth Cambiata Choir began in 2022 as part of DYC’s Training Choir programme. A Cambiata Choir is specifically for adolescent boys whose voices are changing. Directed by Brian Murphy, the singers receive expert tuition by experienced vocal tutors and highly skilled musicianship staff in Dublin’s city centre. In addition to singing in choir, the young singers take part in a Kodály-inspired musicianship programme. Members of Cambiata Choir who have no previous music experience/training are supported with foundational musicianship classes. Lower voices receive singing lessons and have opportunities to sing as part of the Youth Choir in performances and competitions.

Rehearsals: Tuesdays, 7-9pm in Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church

Ages: 14–18

This SATB choir offers young singers (aged 14-18) the opportunity to develop their performance experience through sectionals and full-choir rehearsals, vocal technique with dedicated singing teachers, and their musicianship skills through weekly musicianship classes.

In July 2018, Youth Choir performed Carmina Burana in the National Concert Hall with Tallaght Choral Society and the Belfast Philharmonic Society and have since performed in that National Concert Hall on two other occasions. In both 2019 and 2024, Youth Choir was awarded first place in Feis Ceoil’s Youth Choir Competition, and in 2019 they also won the Oliver O’Brien Award, the overall prize for choirs at Feis Ceoil. They were part of Cross Border Youth Choir’s recording of ‘Away in a Manger’, which won Best Youth Choir in the RTÉ Lyric fm Choirs for Christmas competition 2019. They will travel to the Cork International Choral Festival in May 2024.

Rehearsals: Thursdays, 7.15-9.30pm in Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church

Ages: 18–28

Bringing together some of the most committed young choral singers in Dublin, DYC Singers performs a wide variety of challenging and exciting repertoire. Singers receive expert training from experienced vocal tutors and take part in workshops aimed at developing the singers’ musicianship. DYC also offers professional development opportunities for its singers, making DYC Singers a valuable experience for emerging professional musicians, music teachers, composers, and music students, as well as enthusiastic and committed choral singers studying/working in other fields.

Among many other successes at competitions in Ireland and abroad, Dublin Youth Choir was named Ireland’s Choir of the Year 2022 at the Cork International Choral Festival and Youth Choir Champions at the European Choir Games in Sweden in 2019. The choir was awarded 2nd place overall in the RTÉ Lyric fm Choirs for Christmas competition in 2023 and won the Youth Choir category in 2022. In 2024, Youth Choir was awarded first place in Feis Ceoil’s Youth Choir Competition,

By combining the Dublin Youth Choir and the Belfast Philharmonic Youth Chamber Choir, new opportunities are created for both choirs to come together and engage in ambitious projects. Singers travel around the island to work together, learn and create new music, and perform for new audiences.

After working with the BBC Singers in May 2017, this unique collaboration has brought the young singers together to perform in an array of performances, including the Great War Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, Young at Art’s Belfast Children’s Festival and in the Abbey Theatre for a celebration of the Good Friday Agreement, organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs. CBYC has also won first prize in the National Youth Choir competition at the City of Derry International Choral Festival 2018 and won the Youth Choir category of the RTÉ Lyric FM Choirs for Christmas competition in both 2018 and 2019.