Vancouver Youth Choir: All is Bright

PRESS RELEASE

A Decade of Light: Vancouver Youth Choir Celebrates 10 Years of
All Is Bright this Holiday Season

Hundreds of singers, ages 5–24, perform alongside VYC’s internationally acclaimed flagship ensemble in a festive concert spanning cultures, languages, and musical styles

Vancouver, BC – Vancouver Youth Choir (VYC) presents the 10th annual All is Bright, its beloved holiday concert at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on December 5, 2026 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm. The concert brings together singers from across VYC for music that lifts spirits, sparks wonder, and brightens the dark days of winter. Hundreds of singers, from Kindergarten through age 24, will take the stage across two performances, each featuring a different lineup of VYC ensembles alongside the flagship Vancouver Youth Choir. 

“All Is Bright is a holiday concert, but we don’t build the program around one particular holiday or tradition,” says Carrie Tennant, founder and artistic director of VYC. “We choose music that excites us, that challenges our singers, and that we want to share with our community. You’ll hear everything from Vivaldi to contemporary choral music and indie pop. We take the music seriously, but there’s a lot of joy and fun in this concert, too. The holidays don’t have to mean the same thing to everyone for us to celebrate the season together.” 

Renowned for its diverse repertoire, VYC’s holiday program features musical selections sung in Basque, French, Hawaiian, isiZulu, Sesotho, Cree, Finnish, Estonian, Latin, and German, ranging from Baroque and contemporary sacred works to Americana, indie folk, and pop. That same adventurous approach is at the heart of VYC’s debut album, Here Comes the River, which will be released on November 5, 2026, featuring new Canadian works commissioned by VYC alongside inventive choral arrangements of indie and alternative songs. The concert brings together singers at the very beginning of their choral training alongside VYC’s flagship ensemble, considered among the best youth choirs in the world and winner of the Fleischmann International Trophy at the Cork International Choral Festival in May 2026. 

The matinee performance will feature VYC’s youngest singers, from Kindergarten to Grade 6, together with the Vancouver Youth Choir. The afternoon includes seasonal songs with audience participation from VYC Tiny; a traditional Basque round, Airia, and Tim Minchin’s When I Grow Up from Matilda from VYC Kids; and the French chanson Le coeur des gens and the wonderfully kooky Scottish folk song Aiken Drum from VYC Treble 1. VYC Treble 2 sings the joyful Sesotho song Ke Nna yo Morena before joining the flagship choir’s sopranos and altos for Belle and Sebastian’s indie-pop Fox in the Snow. The Vancouver Youth Choir also performs the Hawaiian cowboy song Nāmolokama Lā, the North American premiere of Injongo Yami by South African composer Lindokuhle Thabede, the Cree-language Nipîy

(Water Song) by Sherryl Sewepagaham, and the Finnish a cappella Pakkannen, in which the singers plead with a powerful frost not to freeze them, with staging and movement. 

The evening performance features VYC’s older singers, from Grade 7 to age 24, together with the Vancouver Youth Choir. The evening opens with the exuberant drama of Vivaldi’s Gloria, performed by VYC Junior and the flagship choir with string quartet, and also includes the American folk protest song More Waters Rising and Song of Life by Métis singer-songwriter Sandy Scofield. VYC Voices opens the second half with Sanbonnani, an energetic isiZulu greeting song welcoming the audience, followed by Beautiful Noise, the gospel-inspired anthem by Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile about finding and using your voice for justice. The Vancouver Youth Choir brings a meditative, wintry sound world to the stage with the Estonian Tali 1, inspired by the gentleness of snow, and Arvo Pärt’s Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátima. 

Both performances feature a new choral arrangement by Andrea Ramsey of Brandi Carlile’s song The Joke, and both close with Auld Lang Syne, the concert’s annual finale that has become a tradition audiences look forward to. With the singers from each performance gathered on stage, hundreds of voices end the concert with a song about friendship, memory, and the turning of the year. 

Creative team credits for All is Bright include: Founder and Artistic Director Carrie Tennant, along with conductors Luke McAndless-Davis, Kelly Proznick, Michelle Hartley, Caroline Lempert, Caroni Young, and Bev Willms Best, assistant conductor Rosie Ding, and pianists Caitlin Hayes, Helen Pei, and Danielle Lee, joined by a string quartet of Yuel Yawney, Cameron Wilson, Genevieve MacKay, and Heather Hay. 

Tickets and information at vancouveryouthchoir.com 

About Vancouver Youth Choir (vancouveryouthchoir.com)
Founded in 2013, the award-winning Vancouver Youth Choir (VYC) is one of Canada’s most dynamic youth arts organizations, welcoming more than 700 singers aged 5–24 across 16 ensembles and eight choir levels. Committed to accessibility, VYC offers subsidized tuition to every member, and additional financial aid to one in three singers. Internationally recognized for its adventurous programming, VYC 

has represented Canada at the American Choral Directors Association Convention, performed at Carnegie Hall, and served as the North American representative at the Jeju International Choral Symposium in South Korea, and the IFCM World Symposium on Choral Music in Istanbul. In May 2026, the flagship ensemble won the Fleischmann International Trophy at the Cork International Choral Festival in Ireland, the first international choral competition VYC had entered. The organization is the recipient of the 2025 Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement from Chorus America — one of the most prestigious honours in the North American choral world. 

Beyond the concert stage, VYC delivers free outreach programs that reach more than 2,000 children and youth in schools and communities across the Lower Mainland each season, including Indigenous-led classroom workshops, elementary school performances, and concert bursaries for schools. This work is part of the organization’s broader commitment to access, community, and reconciliation. The VYC also curates the Vancouver Youth Choir Choral Series (Cypress Publishing), championing new repertoire by emerging Canadian composers. Now entering its second decade, VYC is shaping the future of choral music in Canada and beyond.

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Photos by Derek Stevens

Carrie Tennant
Vicki Cummings

Laura Murray
lmurray@mpmgarts.com
604.418.2998

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