History

The Madrid Youth Choir began their adventure in July of 2014, but the musical journey of many of its members and of their director, Juan Pablo de Juan, goes back even further to their time in other choirs belonging to public institutions. With the firm intent of creating their own choir, they started off as guests of the Orfeoi Gazte, the youth choir of the Orfeón Donostiarra, with a concert in San Sebastián. This concert became the starting point of an international tour, with concerts at the church of Saint Eustach in Paris, in Berlin, in Waldfischbach (Germany) and the church of Santa María del Pí (Barcelona), and took them to the 10th International Youth Chamber Choir Meeting in Usedom (Germany), in which the Choir had the chance to work with prestigious directors such as Bo Johansson (Sweden), Ursa Lah (Slovenia) and Kjetil Aamann (Norway). The international tour and the participation in the Usedom festival were the theme of the documentary "Cantar para Vivir", by Guillermo Mealla (Madrid Films).

Temporada 2014/2015

During the 14/15 academic year, especially after the Christmas season, the Youth Choir embarked on the ambitious project of organizing the successful I International Childrens' and Youth Choirs Festival of Madrid, which presented to the public more than 15 national and international choirs. Later on, the Choir participated in the XLIV Ejea de los Caballeros Choral contest, obtaining the second prize in their category from the jury and the people's choice prize, receiving praise and positive feedback from the audience and from the jurors. They also participated, with their voices, in the performance of Medea and Antígona, directed by Andrés Lima and Miguel del Arco, working within the project "Teatro de la Ciudad", which took the choir in 2015 to perform on stage the play "Medea" with the castat the 61 Mérida International Classical Theater Festival. The season ended with the Choir's 2015 tour, which took them to Barcelona, Venice, Milan, and Budapest, as well as to the XIX EUROPA CANTAT in Pécs, where thwy were split in to two workshops, in which they worked with Basilio Astúlez and Karmina Silec.

Temporada 2015/2016

In the 15/16 academic year, the Choir colaborated with the National Classical Theatre Company (CNTC) at the reinauguration of the Teatro de la Comedia of Madrid, for the opening of the season of the CNTC. They also participated in the annual representation of Don Juan Tenorio, a play performed every year in Alcalá de Henares on All Saints Day. After colaborating with the Spanish television show "El Hormiguero", they embarked on a Christmas tour through the market places of Madrid, so as to take music to these spaces during the Christmas Holidays. At the same time, the choir was invited by the Coro de Voces Graves de Madrid to participate in the "Un juguete, una ilusión" fundraiser in December 2015. On Christmas Day, the Choir went to the RTVE studios to sing live on the morning show. In 2016, the choir worked once again with the project "A Kiss For All The World", and performed Beethoven's 9th symphony at the Royal Opera House of Madrid, being the first time the Choir performed in this emblematic stage. In April, they were invited to the IV National Choral Gathering for Children and Youth Ciudad de León. A month later, the Choir was invited to the XXI Musical Springs in Pejinas de Laredo (Cantabria), and to the festival Agrupacoros Madrid, celebrated at the Teatro del Bosque, Móstoles. In the summer, the Choir performed at the 62nd Internacional Contest of Habaneras and Polyphony in Torrevieja, receiving an Honorary Mention in the Habaneras category and winning the Audience's Award. They finished the season in August with a two week tour theough Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Barcelona and France, participating in the 22nd Choralies Festival where they shared the stage with the Philippine Madrigal Singers and the African Youth Choir. They finished their stay in France with the concerts of two workshops from the festival: Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, conducted by Denis Menier, and an acapella contemporary music program conducted by the Philippine director Jonathan Velasco.

Temporada 2016/2017

Last season, the Madrid Youth Choir participated at the 38th National Lullaby and Christmas Carol Contest “Villa de Rojales”, where they were awarded for their outstanding performance with the 1st Award of the Jury as well as the Award to the best choir conducter Once again, they went, along with the city council, through all local markets in Madrid singing traditional Christmas carols. They ended the Christmas season on January 6th presenting their current repertoire on the spanish national radio (RNE). Furthermore, the choir participated at a benifical concert for UNICEF (the “Concert for a better World”), traveled to Rascafria to take part in The Water Symposiums, performed again at the TV shows “El Hormiguero” and “Viva la Vida” and attended to the 8th International Festival “Musica Eterna Roma”, where the choir obtained the 1st Award of the Jury in the category “Sacred Music” and two additional Golden Diplomas. Juan Pablo de Juan was awarded, once again, for the best conduction. An exceptional event that put the finishing touch to this remarkable season was, without any doubt, their participation in the 11th World Symposium of Choral Music in Barcelona, where they had various concerts and open rehearsals and had the great honor part at the Final Concert in the Sagrada Familia.

The current season begun with a performance at the Gran Teatro de Manzanares (Ciudad Real), and was followed by an inaugurating act of the National Congress of Cardiology at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid a few days later. After this, the choir initiated once more the intensive Christmas campaign along with the Madrid City Council, touring trough all local markets of the town. Meanwhile, they also gave various Christmas concerts at the Museo del Prado in Madrid and in the city of Villareal at the V Festival Coral “Ciutat de Vila-Real”. By the end of the year, the upcoming project to set up a children’s choir that should broaden the pedagogical and artistic work of the Madrid Youth Choir was finally brought up to life. The Menudos Cantantes would from now on permit the younger ones to live such great experiences as the one that would come to them a few weeks later.

Just started 2018, both choirs performed together at the Cabalgata de Reyes de Madrid (Three Wise Men Parade) in the city’s famous Cibeles Square. Following this, the choir started working on the enactment of the play “La vida es sueño” along with the Young Theatre Company of Bordeaux and the National Company of Classical Theatre, which took place in February at the Teatro de la Comedia de Madrid. A few weeks after, the choirs record label was released on Spotify and their new album “A tu lado” got recorded, but it wasn’t till their return from Switzerland and their participation in Basel at The European Festival of Youth Choirs in May that it got launched.

At the end of this season, the choir participated in the LI Contest in Sea Shanties of San Vicente de la Barquera, receiving the 1st Award of the Jury "Lira Marina de Oro" (Golden Lire), the Special Audience's Award and the Award to the best preformance of a ''barquereña'' piece (a song about San Vicente de la Barquera).

The Choir is comprised of around 70 singers with ages ranging from 16 to 30 who, despite their young age, are already "veteran" singers, given their extensive musical trajectory. Many of them share musical experiences from Childrens' Choirs. With this experience, they have been able to forge a choir with an impressive repertoire, that can take on musical works of great technical and vocal complexity with great speed and agility. This new road is an opportunity for the boys and girls of the Madrid Youth Choir to live the dream of sharing music with friends, and allows them to reach out to younger audiences, and have them participate in the magic of choral music.