A Life in NYCOS

by Sandy Rowland

 

My name is Sandy Rowland. I am 27, originally from Livingston, studied music and vocal performance at York from 2018 to 2022, and I currently work in Cambridge as a teaching assistant and a singing teacher. Having recently performed in the Lammermuir Festival with the NYCOS Chamber Choir, I have just ended my 18th and final season singing with NYCOS.

My story with NYCOS began at 9. After a fun and illuminating taster session with Lucinda Geoghegan and a terrifying audition in front of Christopher Bell, I joined the Junior Corps of the National Boys Choir for the 2006 residential course. This was a huge leap for shy little Sandy, who was so scared at first that the House Staff had to hold him down so his parents could leave! Despite my rocky start, the week was so much fun that I was hooked and later joined the West Lothian Area Choir.

For me, the most important moment by far came in 2016 when we were on tour in the States. After an electric performance in Chicago, we went to Wyoming to sing Beethoven’s 9th with Sir Donald Runnicles. Before this, we performed one last concert with Christopher. Something about it struck a chord deep inside me. I was a little lost in life at the time, but the feeling of pride, satisfaction and sheer joy in my chest coming away from that performance was intense and led me to an epiphany: why had I been trying to do anything but music this whole time?! Thanks to NYCOS, I had found my path.

Those yearly courses stoked my love for campfire songs and church hymns into a powerful passion for music and singing, while the weekly musicianship classes at Area Choir gradually honed my skills and abilities. Although I didn’t realise it for a long time, NYCOS made me into a proper professional singer.

Now I find myself at the other end. Part of me expects to feel at a loss as to what to do now, but thanks to NYCoS, I have plenty to do! Not only has it set me on my life’s path in music performance, but it’s also given me the skills I need to make a career for myself in music education. Thanks to the solid grounding in musicianship my Area Choir teachers instilled in me, I now have the skills and confidence to make my living helping others of all ages to find the same passion for music that NYCOS gave me.

I also have NYCOS to thank for beginning some of the best and most enduring friendships in my life. I remember when my best friend first sat next to me at NBC. It took a while for me to warm up to them, but we became inseparable at NYCOS events, and there were a few tears as we finished our last concert together in September.

I may have aged out of the choir itself, but my relationship with the organisation remains strong. I find myself looking forward to Easter every year again, but now as a member of the House Staff, just like those who helped me settle into that first adventure. With an Alumni Choir singing day just around the corner in March 2024, it seems that I won’t be without NYCOS for very long.

If I had any message for my younger self, or for any young person thinking about singing with NYCOS, it would be simple: “You’re gonna love this!”