National Youth Choir AlumniWelcome to the National Youth Choir Alumni community! If you are a former member of any National Youth Choir ensemble or emerging professional artist programme, then you still part of our National Youth Choir family! We’d love you to stay connected to our work and the ever-growing community of talented National Youth Choir graduates across the UK and abroad. Whether you’ve recently been a member or were involved back in the early years – you are very welcome. We are so proud that our alumni have gone on to achieve such wonderful things. National Youth Choir alumni are graduates from across the choir’s 40-year history, including doctors, nurses, teachers, conductors, CEOs as well as professional singers from The Swingles, BBC Singers, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, Gabrieli Consort, Monteverdi Choir, Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera and Royal Opera House Choruses and come together from as far afield as America, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Germany. Whatever your journey, we’d love each and every one of you to stay in touch. There are a number of ways you can choose to get involved. To be part of our supportive online network, join our Alumni Facebook Group; come together to sing with other alumnus by taking part in concerts and events or be part of the National Youth Choir's future by getting involved in fundraising initiatives to support more young people to be part of its life-changing programmes. Join our alumni communities on on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Meet the committee Alumni events Alumni news Alumni Champion Fundraising What we do Alumni Where are they now? Wendy Nieper sang with the National Youth Choir from 1988-1992. She now lives in Worcestershire. When were you in NYCGB and what part did you sing? I was in the National Youth Choir from 1988-1992. Alto 4 or lower! Where do you now live, and what do you do? I'm living in Evesham, Worcestershire, with two very under-aged kids for someone my age. Currently a Soprano (getting higher in the world), still singing and also now lecturing in contemporary music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Do you still sing, and if so, in what capacity? Yep! Still hanging in there as a pro - a classical and jazz singer, session singer, voice overs… whatever you want! I’m currently in Dresden and tonight (19 April 2018) enjoyed a fab gig with the Dresden Staatskapelle orchestra in the glorious Semperoper with seven other singers, two of whom I know to also be ex-NYCGB-ers: Jo Goldsmith and Chris Neale. What is your standout moment from your time in NYCGB? So many stand out moments, in the choir of life! Friends, more friends, and glorious music to a standard that mylittle school at that time could only dream of. What is the one piece that if you heard it again would remind you of NYCGB? Mendelssohn’s 'Hora Est': four separate choirs from four corners of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Roof-lifting stuff, and right through to your soul. If you were to design a tour for the current National Youth Choir where would you take them? My niece Ella (who has a fabulous voice) has been recently singing with NYC - and continuing the Nieper tradition! Perhaps I’d design the tour for her to include Japan (for culture), Lebanon (for history), Brazil (for parties) and always ending up for a festival in a small sleepy village in Italy for fine cuisine and atmosphere. What skills did you gain in NYCGB that you still use in everyday life? Shortly after leaving NYC I learned that the Swingle Singers' 'Bach Organ Fugue' was quite a useful thing to know when auditioning for... the Swingle Singers! Yes, they asked for that very one and being a Swingle was certainly a career-changer, especially after I'd failed my NYC Chamber choir audition (bad nerves i’m afraid). In NYC I fell in love with singing the inner harmony parts (Penderecki) and have spent a career doing so, those crunchy, tasty, clashy notes that come in contemporary music. Love it! NYC was an amazing place to get a taste for excellence, and the rewards great quality music brings, I’ve always strived to meet those kind of standards ever since. You are having a fantasy dinner party: who's invited? Luciano Berio - The finest contemporary writer for voice, though mind you he was a grumpy so and so. Probably not the best for dinner, he might sack the cook. On second thoughts my husband and kids would do nicely! Your house is on fire. Your family and pets are safe, but you have time to save just one possession. What do you save? A picture of my late brother. What is the theme tune to your nightmares/ dreams? Bam bam... Wendy Nieper was speaking to Andy Farris. Would you like to keep up with our news and events? Sign up Manage Cookie Preferences