NYCoS National Girls Choir was formed in 2007 for singers aged 12 - 16 years. Membership is granted by audition on a yearly basis and is open to girls who are born, resident or studying in Scotland.

The choir then meets annually at Easter time for a 6 day residential course where its time is split between high quality vocal coaching, musicianship training and full choir rehearsals with highly qualified staff who are experts in their fields.

NYCoS National Girls Choir is conducted by Christopher Bell. Concerts are organised at the end of the course and at other times as appropriate. In 2009, NYCoS National Girls Choir performed as part of BBC Proms in the Park at Glasgow Green and in 2010, the Choir's first commercial recording was released -  Britten A Ceremony of Carols and Poston An English Day-Book. In August 2010, as part of the opening concert of Edinburgh International Festival, the National Girls Choir joined Edinburgh Festival Chorus and BBCSSO in a performance of El Niño by John Adams. In 2011, NYCoS National Girls Choir performed at the Lammermuir Festival in East Lothian.

The first ever National Girls Training Choir was formed in 2010. It offers girls who audition successfully, but whose voices are not quite ready for National Girls Choir, a chance to benefit from all that is offered by the National Girls Choir course.

*****
The Herald, April 2011

"The National Youth Choir of Scotland Girls Choir provided one of the few emotionally engaging moments in the serene final chorus"
The Independent, August 2010

"This debut recording by Christopher Bell's NYCoS National Girls Choir could so easily have been just another recording of Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, but for two things: the wholesome confidence of the choir itself, which performs the Britten briskly and with glorious precision; and the successful partnering (also with royal harpist Claire Jones) of Britten's masterpiece with Elizabeth Poston's edgy and colourful An English Day-Book." *****
Album review, The Scotsman, October 2010

"supreme, consistent and wonderfully articulate"
The Scotsman, December 2010

For more information about the NYCoS National Girls Choir or National Girls Training Choir, contact Ruth Townsend, National Choirs Administrator.

Click here to pay your membership fees online.