Young People's Chorus of NYC

ABOUT US

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City® (YPC) is a multicultural youth chorus internationally renowned not only for its superb virtuosity and brilliant showmanship, but as a model for an inclusive society that is being replicated globally. Founded in 1988 by Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez a MacArthur Fellow and Musical America’s 2018 Educator of the Year, this groundbreaking program harnesses the power of music to fulfill the potential of every child and has established the youth chorus as a significant and often untapped instrument for making music.

Nearly 2,000 children from ages 8 to 18 participate annually in YPC through its core after-school program, YPC’s School Choruses program in 18 New York City schools under the direction of Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Núñez, in addition to two thriving after-school community choruses in Manhattan’s Washington Heights and at Goddard Riverside Community Center.

The repertoire for YPC ranges from renaissance and classical traditions through gospel, folk, pop, contemporary, and world music. In addition, YPC has extended and invigorated the repertoire for young voices by commissioning well over 100 pieces of new music from many of today’s most distinguished composers. Through its Transmusica series, YPC collaborates with choruses from as far as Indonesia, Australia, Japan, and Israel in cross-cultural performances that build understanding and bridges across other societies and cultures of the world.

YPC’s commitment to artistic excellence and diversity inspires frequent invitations for collaborations and performances from a global array of festivals, cultural institutions, and cities on four continents. 

YPC is frequently seen on national television, including an Emmy Award-winning feature on PBS-TV’s “From the Top at Carnegie Hall,” ABC-TV’s Good Morning America, CNN’s New Day, and NBC-TV’s Today Show, Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, among many others. YPC’s performance for Pope Francis at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum on his first trip to America was streamed to more than a billion people worldwide.

YPC was named New York’s first radio choir by WNYC, New York Public Radio, the first children’s chorus to open Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and has received over a dozen first-place wins in international choral competitions. YPC is the only U.S. chorus to win first place in the history of the European Broadcasting Union’s Euroradio Let the Peoples Sing choral competition, and most recently, the only North American chorus to be named “Choir of the World” in the history of the International Choral Kathaumixw competition in British Columbia. Among its many other awards and honors are a Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, a Chorus America Education Outreach Award and two Chorus America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. In 2011 YPC received America’s highest honor for youth programs—a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

More information is available from www.ypc.org