Are we born performers, or do opportunities shape our journeys?
Connor Going is a professional actor, singer, and musician based in London. He showed promising creative and musical instincts in early childhood which have helped to shape the person he has become.
“The earliest instance of me singing was probably in our Primary 1 show. The head teacher had clocked me when I was 5 years old – because apparently a child that could sing in tune at that age was rare(!) – so she had asked me to be the leading boy.
I can see myself as a kid looking out at a sea of adult faces and thinking ‘this is fine – I can sing, I know what I’m doing’. I was told that I should be nervous… I wasn’t nervous, and it felt strange to me then that people thought that. Afterwards, hearing all the things like ‘wow, you were so brave, well done’, it was the first time I realised that this thing – performing and singing – seemed to be held in some value to other people.”
Connor’s mother played a bit of piano and guitar and she liked to lead the family through a few carols at Christmas time. There was always a CD or radio playing at home, and Connor was cared for by a community that valued his creativity. From there, his confident spirit and assured skill propelled him towards finding a place in NYCOS.
“From that show in Primary 1, my closest circles decided for me that I was the ‘singing guy’, so I was lucky then when Christopher Bell came to my school a few years later to recruit for his choirs. I don’t remember exactly, but our teacher would have told us that [Christopher] was coming to look for talented young folks who could sing and be part of his high-quality choir. I met him and it was clear he knew what he was looking for and was good at what he does.”
Connor then joined the RSNO Junior Chorus, which was led by Christopher at the time. From there, he felt as if he had “graduated” to be part of the NYCOS National Boys Choir when he successfully auditioned in 2005.
Pictured: NYCOS National Boys Choir concert in Spring 2005
“Whether I was progressing through the National Boys Choir or the NYCOS Training Choir, every ‘next step’ felt like I was going up a marker and looking to the singers that were further on.”
Pictured: Musicianship lessons at the National Boys Choir residential course 2005
At its heart, NYCOS is committed to providing a place where every young singer feels that they belong – particularly for those who need it most. Young male voices begin to change in late childhood and early teenage years, and boys often struggle to hold onto their singing. One common strategy in choirs is to let boys leave as their voices change, only to then welcome them back when they have settled. This is not the case at NYCOS, where we work hard to ensure a developing young voice is given expert vocal support, training, and guidance at each and every stage. This is particularly important when, at the same time as male voices change, the noise around them says that ‘singing isn’t for boys’ or that singing ‘isn’t cool’. Connor’s experience really bears this out:
“Me, David, and some of the other guys were coming up to that time when our voices were changing. Obviously so much of Christopher’s MO at NYCOS was about the importance of keeping boys singing during their voice changing, and not just saying to them ‘ok, you’re no use to us now, go off and do some other stuff for a few years and come back’ – but then of course they never come back. So I think we just put it to Christopher… ‘at RSNO Juniors in Glasgow there is no avenue for us to continue singing’. We just didn’t shut up about it; he started the changing voices section.”
In November 2025, the RSNO celebrated 20 years of their Changed Voices choir. How many singers from that choir’s history can connect with Connor and his tenacious friends?
“At NYCOS, you’re surrounded by people that were above you that had such great talent and work ethic; it was very aspirational – it was great. Singing Mozart Requiem at the Proms in 2014 sticks out in my mind as a particular highlight – I think because I knew it was going to be the final thing, so I remember that one quite vividly. There were so many returning faces for that too so it felt very special.”
Ten years later in March 2024, Connor returned to sing with NYCOS again at the alumni singing day.
“What was wonderful is that we got to experience a little bit of what singing in NYCOS feels like. The experience that I’d want to replicate is that experience of being in a rehearsal room with all these world-class singers and being part of that environment when we’re all working together to be part of something. I just remember doing the opening of the requiem with those F/D minor chords, and Christopher stopping to say how beautiful it was. In so few rooms are you going to experience something like that.
If I could, I would just plonk myself back into the Wednesday of a NYCOS residential course – where we’ve got all the notes and we’re adding that lovely detail – and we can look forward to the ceilidh and the dinner later on.”