Finchley ChildrenÂs Music Group is a North London childrenÂs choir, dedicated to the promotion of choral music for young people. It is a highly versatile group of mixed-voice choirs producing a natural, vibrant vocal quality together with a high level of musicianship and professionalism. FCMG was founded in 1958 to give the first amateur performance of Benjamin BrittenÂs NoyeÂs Fludde, and for most of its life has been the most celebrated childrenÂs choir of its kind in the United Kingdom. Since its formation it has pursued an ongoing commitment to the commissioning of new music for childrenÂs voices. Composers who have written for the group include Brian Chapple, Malcolm Williamson, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Alex Roth, Piers Halliwell and Christopher Gunning. FCMG is regularly invited to supply the childrenÂs chorus for major choral works, performing frequently with the LSO, BBC SO, RPO, LPO and with the Crouch End Festival Chorus, under conductors including Kurt Masur, Matthias Bamert, André Previn, Vladimir Ashkenazy and our president Sir Colin Davis. Recent FCMG appearances at the BBC Promenade Concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, London include WeillÂs Propheten (1998); NielsenÂs Springtime in FÃŒnen (1999); Alex RothÂs Earth and Sky (2000) with Joanna McGregor, and BrittenÂs War Requiem (2004) while other highlights have included RavelÂs LÂEnfant et les Sortileges and BrittenÂs Spring Symphony both under André Previn, and High Mass at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris on All Saints Day 2003,
performing BrittenÂs
Missa Brevis. Many FCMG children have had the opportunity to sing with the English National Opera, the Royal Opera, the National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company and English National Ballet (for whom FCMG provides the ÂSnowflake Chorus for the annual
Nutcracker), as well as at opera houses abroad. FCMG has made recordings for television, radio, film and disc - most recently for a TV musical of
A Christmas Carol for NBC starring Kelsey Grammer of Frasier -and has led the singing in prestigious events such as the VE and VJ Day memorial celebrations before Her Majesty the Queen. Their 30th anniversary production of
NoyeÂs Fludde was the first fully staged Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and in their 40th anniversary year they took part in the world premiÚre of the childrenÂs opera
Alexander the Great by David Blake, on the island of Lesbos. FCMG has recorded a substantial amount of American Jewish music for the Milken Archive based in Santa Monica, California. A CD from that project is published in 2005 on Naxos 8.559436. FCMGÂs previous Christmas collection ÂLittle Donkey (1997), under the direction of Murray Stewart, was sold in aid of Great Ormond Street ChildrenÂs Hospital.
http://www.fcmg.org.uk
