We are sorry to share the news of the death of John Robertson (1938-2026).
John was one of the first people to join the working party in 1995 that met to discuss the possibility of forming a national youth choir in Scotland. At that stage he was the Scottish Representative for the British Federation of Young Choirs and together with the federation secretary Andrew Fairburn, actively supported the newly formed National Youth Choir of Scotland, joining the board and helping provide pump priming money to get our first year off and running.
Trained as a mathematician, in his spare time John sang in the big amateur opera companies in the central belt of Scotland – Glasgow Grand Opera and Edinburgh Grand Opera. He was later a founding member of Scottish Opera, singing both solo roles and in the chorus.
Christopher Bell, NYCOS founder, recalls John commenting after an early performance. “He told me that NYCOS had sung well, but that, if I was open to a comment, that it didn’t sound like the music was in their voices. He explained that they sang the piece well enough, but that they were not performing it as singers who had absorbed it into their being, using all their vocal capabilities which only happens when you really know a piece. Ever since then, I have sought to make sure that NYCOS singers perform with every fibre of their being and will ever be grateful to John for lighting that candle for me, and for helping create NYCOS.”