Yet after three decades of unbridled success, that is the legacy the two founders will leave the town and its young singers as they step away after one final farewell concert at The Anvil in Basingstoke on Saturday, July 9.
Under David and Gillian’s guidance, Farnham Youth Choir (FYC) has twice won the BBC/Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition as well as gold medals at the World Choir Games in Cincinnati and the European Choir Games in Germany, performed in front of The Queen at the Royal Albert Hall and twice appeared on Blue Peter, not to mention countless further radio and television appearances.
It all began in 1984 when David, a Royal College of Music-trained organist and schoolteacher, and Gillian, herself a schoolteacher and accomplished chorister, decided to set up a choir for their own children.
With the help of a £200 donation from Lloyd & Keyworth music shop in Downing Street, they spread the word around Farnham and to their great surprise around 70 children responded straight away, forcing them to hold auditions to trim this number down to a more manageable 50.
FYC began performing locally and found instant success. But after three years it was clear there was still plenty more children who wanted to sing, and so David and Gillian launched a junior choir for nine to 10 year olds as well as a training choir for “all the little bothers and sisters” aged seven to nine - adding to the now-well established youth choir for the older secondary-school age children.
Speaking to The Herald ahead of their well-earned retirement, David, who turned 70 on Monday, said: “It all evolved naturally and we never had any desire to win competitions, it was more about what these competitions could do for the choir. When you enter a competition, you see different standards, you learn from that and build a repertoire of songs and it just gives you the next thing to aim at.
“When we started it was the Aldershot Festival, then the National Festival, and then we thought well let’s try the Choir of the Year competition which was broadcast on the BBC. We entered this in 1988, 1990 and didn’t win at first, but the choir learnt a lot and wanted to try again, and then incredibly in 1992 they won.”
On the back of its victory in 1992, the choir’s reputation blossomed and it was soon invited to compete in its first international competition, the 1993 Tolosa International Choral Festival in Spain.
David added: “We always say we did very well and came sixth overall. But of course what we didn’t tell people was that there was only six children’s choirs there! We were distinctly last, but again we learnt a lot from that.”
In the following years, the choir won countless further awards both in the UK and internationally, including a second first prize at the BBC/Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year in 1998, while David received an MBE for services to Farnham Youth Choir in 1997.
And in 2003, the choir embarked on a fruitful relationship with iconic British composer John Rutter, premiering his new work the Mass of the Children at Guildford Cathedral and going on to perform his arrangements at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral.
But above all the concerts, competitions and festival appearances, the highlight of many choristers’ time with FYC are its annual tours. Over the past 32 years the choir has travelled to many far flung locations from China to the USA, Australia and most recently Rome this April.
“Touring is the pinnacle of each choir members’ yearly experience, it’s the thing they absolutely adore,” said Gillian. “Our tour in April was the 27th that we’ve taken, so we’ve experienced a great deal many different scenarios and we’ve performed all over the world. Big concert halls, and in village halls - a huge range of places.
“Our singers go to about 20 different schools and usually only meet each other for an hour and a half each week for the rehearsal, so a huge part of touring is about binding them together.”
Touring has also provided David and Gillian with many of their favourite moments of the past 32 years, as well as more than a few nightmares along the way.
“There have been both extremes of course - good and bad,” said David. “But one of my favourites was in the boat on Lake Garda when we told the choir that they had won the International Choir Competition in Riva del Garda.
“For that competition all the choir directors had to go and pick up the results the day after performing, so we left the choir to go on a boat trip across Lake Garda, and when we came back decided to play a little trick on them.
“We went on the boat and I said ‘I’m really sorry to say you didn’t come third, and you didn’t come second...’ and when I told them they had won, the whole boat started rocking and they sang all the way down Lake Garda with the beautiful mountains in the background. It was tremendous.”
Less fond memories include being trapped in Verona by the Icelandic volcano in 2010 just days before many choristers were due to take their GCSEs, and when a young chorister was hospitalised during a tour to China in 2006.
Gillian continued: “Whenever we go on tour, it sounds lovely but believe me, we all let out a big sigh of relief when we get home. It’s not a picnic and any of the adults who have gone away with us have realised that it is jolly hard work, which is one of the reasons we think it is probably time to hand it all on.”
David and Gillian are quick to point out that the choir’s success over the years has been dependent on the ample support of a vast number of volunteers and parents - reserving special praise for FYC’s pianist Julia Freeman, who has performed at all but one of the youth choir’s concerts over the past 32 years.
Also key to FYC’s success has been its founders’ belief that young people should have the opportunity to challenge themselves, and strive to achieve the highest standards in everything they do.
“Everywhere we go all over the world, people comment on the organisation of it, the care that is taken,” said David.
“But there are lots of people in the profession or teachers who run a school choir who have often said to me ‘we only sing for fun’. Well so do we - just ask any of our singers why do they keep coming back week after week, giving up all sorts of other things to be there if it’s not for fun?
“There has to be a certain amount of pressure, but it can be put on a lot of the time without them knowing it and there’s always a lot of laughter during the rehearsals too.”
“The whole thing is training for life,” added Gillian. “Whatever we do, we do it to the highest standard we can - whether it’s their uniform or singing, rehearsing or just respecting each other. That requires great discipline and commitment, and in the end they see the result.
“But although it’s hard work, FYC is an absolute release for many of our children - they’re coming and working very hard and concentrating, and it provides a distraction from the enormous pressures children today face at school or at home.
“Some of our alumni have told us they have walked into job interviews and thought I can do this, I’ve sung in the Royal Albert Hall!”
David and Gillian estimate around 500 children have come through the youth choir since 1984, and testament to the influence of FYC, many continue singing after leaving the choir - both as a past time and professionally.
“A lot of them are into adult choirs or amateur dramatics, but we’ve also got some high fliers who have made a career in music, which is lovely,” said David.
“There’s three or four opera singers like soprano Suzzie Vango, some are now conducting choirs themselves and another of our former singers Graham Ross is now the director of music at Clare College Cambridge.”
Gillian added: “We’ve even got in the choir now the children of a couple, Vicky and David, who met in the youth choir. We remember David in short trousers, and there he is with his children, and his son looks just as I remember him. Isn’t that wonderful.”
As for their own lives after leaving the youth choir, David and Gillian are looking forward to having a lot more spare time to spend with their family as well as travelling without the pressure of looking after 50 children.
They have also given the choir’s new conductor Jo Tomlinson - a vocal coach with FYC for the past three years - complete freedom to make the choir her own.
“It will change and it should change,” said Gillian. “It has changed during our time, so that’s to be expected. It has been our baby for so long, but it’s come of age and we have to hand it right over.
“We’ve had to make tremendous sacrifices, we really have. Fortunately our children understand, but it will be nice not to have that weight.”
David added: “It feels like the right time and we’ve got to allow it to become somebody else’s. Having won the title of European Choir of the Year just last year, it’s a nice way to go isn’t it.
“The Anvil concert will be rather emotional, and I’m partly looking forward to it and partly not. It’s one that you want to get over and done with, except for the feeling that once it’s over and done with, that’s it.”
“This year hasn’t been easy,” added Gillian, “but we’re certain it’s the right time.”
For more details about the Anvil concert, visit the website www.fyc.org.uk.
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