YPC Full Bio

 

For more than two decades, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City™ has provided children of all ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds with a unique program of music education and choral performance, while maintaining a model of artistic excellence and humanity that enriches the community.

Founded by Artistic Director and 2011 MacArthur Fellowship recipient Francisco J. Núñez in 1988, YPC has become one of the most celebrated and influential youth choruses in the world, performing around the globe, releasing acclaimed recordings from across the musical spectrum, and collaborating with many of the most highly regarded composers, performers, and organizations of our time. This February YPC partners with Carnegie Hall in a three-day Transient Glory Symposium, based on its groundbreaking, 10-year commissioning program encompassing more than 60 new works for youth chorus by composers that include Pulitzer Prize, Oscar, and MacArthur “genius” grant winners. It regularly collaborates with countless other artists and institutions, which include American Public Media, American Ballet Theatre, Bang on a Can, the Kronos Quartet, the Stephen Petronio Dance Company, and The New York Pops.

 

More than 1,200 children from ages seven to 18 participate annually through YPC’s core after-school program, its Satellite program in New York City schools and its first national affiliates in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Tenafly, New Jersey. The resident chorus at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, YPC is frequently seen on national television, such as appearances on Good Morning America, the Today Show, and an Emmy Award-winning feature on PBS-TV’s “From the Top at Carnegie Hall.” YPC choristers have also introduced millions of radio listeners to the newest cutting-edge music through their national Radio Radiance™ broadcasts on American Public Media.

YPC season highlights include: return engagements at St. Patrick Cathedral, collaborations with the Kronos Quartet, the Carnegie Hall Family Sing in February, and performances at the American Choral Directors Association National Conference in March. YPC is also celebrating 10 years of Transient Glory® with performances at (Le) Poisson Rouge with the Kronos Quartet, "Works & Process" at the Guggenheim Museum, and the Transient Glory® Concert of newly commissioned works at the 92nd Street Y in May 2011.

YPC has received worldwide recognition for its performances on four continents. The chorus just returned from its South American debut tour of Brazil and Argentina. Last year YPC debuted in Wales and Switzerland followed by its third trip to Japan in a 14-city sold-out summer tour. This season the chorus debuts in Sweden, the Dominican Republic, and has been selected as the only chorus to represent the North American continent by the IFCM at the World Choral Summit in Beijing in 2012. YPC was also selected as one of only two youth choruses worldwide to participate in the biennial Polyfollia world choral music showcase being held in Normandy, France, in November 2012.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City holds almost a dozen gold medals won in international choral competitions in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria. Among YPC’s many other awards and honors are Chorus America’s Education Outreach Award and two Chorus America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. YPC was one of the first inductees in the WNET/Thirteen Community Hall of Fame and has been recognized for its work with urban at-risk youth by the New York State Assembly, the Mayor of the City of New York, the Manhattan Borough, and by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities as “a national model of artistic excellence and diversity” under the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations.

September 2011

 

YPC on PBS's "From the Top at Carnegie Hall"