Vancouver Youth Choir (VYC) is a place where youth can pursue excellence while feeling a sense of belonging, says the choir’s founding artistic director Carrie Tennant. VYC’s annual concert Village returns May 24 at the Orpheum, featuring more than 600 singers aged 8 to 24.

“We all come together under one roof and enjoy being in community,” Tennant adds. “The art that they create, the music that they create is so important, so full of joy [and] beauty.”

For Tennant, the concert—which showcases multiple languages—reflects VYC’s mission of creating a community diverse in cultural and social backgrounds. The program includes songs in French, Irish Gaelic, Spanish, Mandarin, Cree, Italian, Farsi, Fijian, Indonesian, Innu and Persian.

A wealth of knowledge

VYC works with culture bearers to bring these songs to life—ensuring accurate diction. Because the choir’s membership is diverse, many singers can coach pronunciation in their respective languages. Family members of the singers also support this knowledge transfer.

“It’s very much a part of our mission and values to not just approximate a culture’s [diction] or imitate a culture—we’re very serious about honouring the cultural traditions that we’re learning about,” Tennant adds. “I’ve never been a position where I programmed a song and say, ‘Does anybody speak Latvian?’ and have the answer be ‘no.’”

Village will premiere a new arrangement of Persian pop icon Googoosh’s “Shenhaye Saheli (Sea of Yearning).” Tennant herself is a big fan of Googoosh. This new piece was arranged by Amir Haghighi and Amy Stephen.

“We have two brand new works by singers—one by Alex Vollant [who] is Innu, from Northern Quebec, and is an alumnus of VYC,” Tennant shares of Vollant’s “Tipatshimun.”

Kelk Jeffery’s new work “We Must Be the Sun” will also be performed. It will be sung as a collaboration between one of the Choir’s youngest groups, Treble 2, and their Sopranos & Altos group.

Tennant sees this collaboration as a sign of VYC’s commitment to mentorship. Village will also showcase two works from folk musician Luke Wallace: the premiere of the new song “Be the Arc” (arr. Karla Mundy) and the premiere of a new arrangement of “Easy on the Earth” (arr. Shawn Kirchner).

Pursuing excellence 

Despite the big venue, Tennant sees the concert as an intimate experience, filled with audience engagement. Many of VYC alumni, she says, have gone on to professional singing careers. Some have also started bands.

“This is really a pre-professional training program,” Tennant adds that VYC also values inclusivity—they have space for anyone who wants to sing. “We don’t turn anyone away, but we pursue excellence.”

For the artistic director, VYC is more than an after-school activity. It is a place where youth can momentarily find refuge from the constant pressures of their daily lives, shifting their focus to finding joy and community.

“There’s a lot of spaces in their lives right now where they are competing and comparing themselves to others,” she reflects. “This offers them a space where that’s gone for two and a half hours a week, where they are eagerly and enthusiastically pursuing something incredibly important and beautiful with their peers.”

The choir recently won the Cork International Choral Festival’s top international competition, bringing home the Fleischmann International Trophy. Tennant was awarded the festival’s McCurtain and McSwiney Memorial Trophy, given to a conductor in the international competition whose work emphasizes imaginative and artistic programming. It was VYC’s first time entering a competition.

“The singers really wanted to push themselves and try a competition,” Tennant recalls. “We attended with very reasonably expectations, and the outcome was beyond anything we had expected.”

Tennant hopes Village encourages her singers to continue their pursuit of joy, beauty and community, while inspiring the audience to recreate similar sentiments in their lives. VYC will hold auditions and interviews for next season’s intake in May and June.

For more information on Village, see https://vancouveryouthchoir.com/performances/village-2026/.

For more information on the Vancouver Youth Choir, see https://vancouveryouthchoir.com/.