Young People's Chorus of New York City Launches World Bay Arts Dialogue Project with China Tour

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC), a multicultural youth chorus internationally renowned for its superb virtuosity, brilliant showmanship and innovative model of diversity, will launch its World Bay Arts Dialogue Project by touring in China with youth from Guangdong Experimental Middle School Choir. Together, choristers ages 13-18 will perform from October 4-14, 2024, in concerts that will take place at Shenzhen, Guangdong Xinghai Music Hall, and Zhuhai Grand Theatre Concert Hall.  

“Music is one of the greatest unifiers in the world,” says YPC Founder and Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez. “No matter where you live, what your beliefs, or what language you speak, music has the ability to bring people together and remind us that we are all global citizens. That’s why I am so proud of this project and the message it continues to send to our young people and to the world.”

Núñez and Maestro Xie of the Guangdong Experimental Middle School Choir first met in 2005 on tour in Kyoto. Over the past two decades, their choirs have formed a deep friendship, competing internationally and meeting in various locations from China to Spain to California. They share a belief that music fosters global dialogue and builds bridges of peace and understanding. The World Bay Area Arts Dialogue Project continues this 20-year partnership. The cultural exchange unites children from the United States and China through singing, shaping a future where they become global ambassadors, creating a more connected and harmonious world.

In partnership with the United Nations and in honor of International Day of Peace, YPC and Guangdong Experimental Middle School Choir combined voices in the Fall of 2023 in a virtual online chorus, singing two touching original compositions by Chen Si’ang “A Wish from Across the Sea” and “The Call of Song.”  Watch the performances here:https://ypcfilms.org/2023recap/peace-project/.

Now, 40 YPC choristers will travel to China to continue their partnership with the Gaungdong Experimental Middle School Choir in person. By living with host families, spending their days with students from Gaungdong, and performing in cities from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, YPC choristers will serve as Ambassadors of the Arts for New York City, celebrating the music and year that connect us all.

The partnership will continue in the Fall of 2025 when YPC will host 40 singers from the Guangdong Experimental Middle School here in NYC. In collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music, universities including Yale and Princeton, and the broader New York City musical community, YPC will create a Chinese Festival, performing at great concert halls across the city, including Lincoln Center, and spreading peace and awareness of Chinese culture through choral music and dialogue.

“The most powerful gifts we can give our children are the gifts of peace, empathy, and understanding,” says Núñez. “The arts are an amazing way to offer those gifts.”