My Year as a chorister for the BBC

By Jacquelyne Hill

When I was contacted by the BBC a year ago, to inform me I had been successful in receiving a place in the finale of BBC radio 2’s young chorister of the year, there was no way I could have imagined how much my life would be altered. On the day of the competition my biggest anxiety was weather anything would come out of my mouth, I had no time to consider what my life would be like should I be successful. Therefore when I heard my name being announced as the winner my mind began to whirl and hasn’t stopped doing so since.

The first official appearance I made as the BBC’S young chorister of the year took place at the beginning of December at Chelsea hospital for their charity carol concert which was in aid of cancer research. I sang a beautiful new carol, which had been written especially for the event. The whole night was magical and remains one of the best memories I have of the year. It was the perfect first event I could have had and also one of the most enchanting carol concerts I have ever had the privilege to sing at. From then on my Christmas seemed very packed. I sang at a number of Christmas events as well as being flown up to Belfast to take part in a Christmas recording, which was played on radio 2 as their Christmas service.

I found Christmas a very busy time for me, but if I thought I would have some time off I was very mistaken. After having three days off over Christmas I was back to work preparing for a recording session, which took place on January 4th in Manchester. I visited Manchester a number of times over the year, usually to record music for radio 2 and radio 4, which provided me with amazing experiences of radio work. I also received an interesting insight into the inner workings of radio when I was invited to appear on Aled Jones’ good morning Sunday in February. I arrived at the BBC studios at the crack of dawn and was hurried up flights of staircases until I reached the illicit “green room” where I was able to view the hustle and bustle of the radio station whilst awaiting my own interview.
The interview itself was a new experience all together, and proved to me how hard radio interviews can be; at least when you sing someone else has thought up the melody, but it did show me some insights into the general running of a radio station as well as giving me an interesting view of what you can’t see going on, for example in my case, the football matches being viewed in mute behind the interviewers head.

I was also lucky enough to appear at a number of functions including singing at Lambeth Palace for the archbishop of Canterbury, but the event, which meant the most to me, was actually a local event held in Angering in aid of chestnut tree house. I had been asked to sing by a family who had found need to use the organisation and wished to raise money for them as a thanks. The whole evening was wonderful and I really felt as though I was doing something worthwhile with my voice.

I am very grateful to the BBC for the amazing experiences I have had over the last year from live performances to radio recordings. I loved when radio 2 and radio 4 came down to Tarring to record me singing with my own choir as it gave me the opportunity to bring my gift to my parish and share this wonderful experience with those people who were so encouraging when I firstly applied for the competition. Although my year is almost over I am still looking forward to my appearance on Songs of praise, which will take place in October and my visit back to st Paul’s to welcome in the new BBC young chorister of the year.