Junior Choristers receive guidance from Finland's YL Male Choir
For more than 130 years, the YL Male Choir has been at the cutting edge of the art of male choir singing in Finland. Established in 1883 as Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat [the Helsinki University Chorus], the YL Male Choir is Finland’s best-known male choir and a national institution. It is the oldest Finnish-language choir, and as such an indivisible part of Finland’s history.
With many award-winning recordings and extensive foreign tours to its credit, the YL Male Choir has made itself known and respected worldwide. This has also resulted in bringing the Finnish choral art into the canon of international classical music. Today, the YL Male Choir often seeks to transcend the conventional bounds of choral music through collaboration with soloists and musicians from various genres. In addition to performing with world-class orchestras, you might see the YL Male Choir performing with stars of Finnish popular music, at the Music Centre in Helsinki or at Carnegie Hall, for the Empress of Japan, the President of the Republic of Finland or the club scene in Helsinki.
Dulwich College Suzhou is very blessed and honoured to have the artistic director of the YL Male Choir and *Tapiola Choir, Pasi Hyökki (M.Mus.) visiting our junior choir class last Tuesday.
*The Tapiola Choir (Finnish: Tapiolan kuoro) is a children's and youth choir from Espoo, Finland. The choir was founded in 1963 as a children's choir by Erkki Pohjola (1931–2009). In 1971 the Tapiola Choir, conducted by Pohjola, won the BBC Let the People Sing contest with a programme that included "Aglepta" by Arne Mellnas. The choir went on to win a Unesco Prize. In 1984 former members of the choir founded the Tapiola Chamber Choir.
After the session with the junior choir, Pasi dropped by the Zhangxin Theatre to surprise our Community Choir members, who were practicing their pieces for the upcoming Xmas Concert.
Dulwich College is blessed with the generosity of our global community to share knowledge and ideas across our global network. A big thank you to our parent, Laura V. who've helped made Pasi Hyokki's visit possible and made our children's day. Our junior choristers and community choir definitely had a pleasant surprise and a wonderful session from Mr Hyokki.
"It was truly an honour to have you visit our school, meet our parents and staff and to listen to some of our choirs today. Thank you for inspiring us to sing and teach better. We hope you will come again soon."
- Mrs Giles, Director of Music
