Awards

Dale Warland Singers Commission Award
June 15, 2012
The Young People's Chorus of New York City received the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award at the annual Chorus America conference in June, enabling YPC to commission Missy Mazzoli to write the 70th composition in YPC's Transient Glory and Radio Radiance commissioning series

Centro Civico Cultural Dominicano
December 2012
Francisco J. Núñez honored for his dedication and efforts in promoting Latino culture

2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award
November 2, 2011
Young People's Chorus of New York City receives the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award administered by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

2011 MacArthur Fellowship
September 20, 2011
Francisco J. Núñez, the Dominican-American artistic director and founder of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City has been named a recipient of a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the first choral conductor to receive this honor.

New York Choral Society’s Choral Excellence Award
March 9, 2009
Awarded to YPC's Founder and Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez

Gold Medal Winners, 2008 World Choir Olympics, Graz, Austria
July 2008
• Concert Chorus
• Men's Division

Chorus America Education Outreach Award
Francisco Núñez & The Young People's Chorus of New York, recipients

29th annual Chorus America Conference
June 8, 2006
Francisco Núñez, keynote speaker

"Children's Champion Award" by Child magazine
November 9, 2005
Francisco Núñez, recipient

"100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Hispanic Business magazine
October 2005
Francisco Núñez honored as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics.

"Liberty Medal Award " by NY Post
September 12, 2005
Francisco Núñez, recipient

7th Annual World Symposium on Choral Music, Kyoto, Japan.
July 27-August 5th 2005
YPC Invited Choir and Participant

Gold Medal Winners, 2004 World Choir Olympics, Bremen, Germany
July 2004
• Equal Voices Youth Choir division
• Young Male Voices division

Award Recipient, WNET/Thirteen Community Hall of Fame,
June 23, 2004

Prize Winners, Festival International de Musica de Cantonigros, Spain
July 17-21, 2003

2002 International Kathaumixw Choral Festival and Competition
• First Place, Children's Choir category

Gold Medal, 1999 Des Moines International Choir Competition
• First Place, Solo Performance
• First Place, Chamber Performance
• First Place, Contemporary Music

Silver Medal, 1997 Prague International Choral Competition

Artists-in-Residence
• Festival of Light, Salon des Arts Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria; 2002
• Choral Music Experience, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY; 2000, 2001
• Disneyworld, Keynote Arts Associates Children's Choir Festival, Orlando, FL; 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002

Honors

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg congratulated the YPC on their winning first place at Kathaumixw, writing: "You did a brilliant job representing New York City in such a prestigious competition."

• Senator Charles Schumer also praised the Chorus: "The YPC's diverse composition represents New York City's rich culture and character...[helping] to bring a unity that the city has been much in need of since September 11. The YPC's recent win at Kathaumixw shows that great things can be accomplished when socio-economic divides are brought down."

• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had this to say: "I was delighted to read of the gold medal wins of The Young People's Chorus [in the International Choral Olympics]. The young New Yorkers in the Chorus represented our city and state with extraordinary talent and grace."

• Named a Nationwide Model Program by the President's Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The YPC was one of three children's choruses nationwide selected by Hilary Clinton, along with Harlem Boy's Choir and the Chicago Children's Chorus.

• YPC was the only chorus to perform Mozart's Requiem in New York City as part of the worldwide Rolling Requiem in commemoration of the 9/11 tragedy.

• At Festival 500, in Newfoundland, 2001, the YPC was the sole chorus selected to represent the U.S. Forty choruses participated from eight countries around the globe.

Critical Acclaim for the Young People's Chorus of New York City

“The young choristers performed demanding new works by Samuel Adler, Richard Rodney Bennett, Benjamin Lees, Judith Weir, Tod Machover, Bright Sheng and Jim Papoulis, as well as a 1996 work by Morton Gould (composed with the songwriter Phil Galdston), and performed them all with impeccable pitch, luminous sound and palpable energy: and all from memory, including texts in Chinese and Greek…It’s a rare night that a major professional orchestra performs with such engrossing involvement.”
- The New York Times

“A superb ensemble with pan-stylistic programming and supreme precision.”
- Gramophone

“While the general public is thought to resist contemporary concert music…Transient Glory…breaks down some of those perceptual barriers.”
- The New York Times

“…a superb ensemble of young voices largely representative of the city’s mix of cultures and socio-economic levels.”
- Choir & Organ (London)

“Young People’s Chorus of New York City…ethereal quality and soaring range.”
- American Record Guide

“This teen-age chorus’s latest program is so sophisticated it could put many adult choirs to shame.”
- The New Yorker

 

Transient Glory CD on Vital Records

“This is an essential disc for fans of new choral music and for anyone who wants to experience the virtuoso capabilities of one of today’s finest youth choirs.”
- Classics Today

“Splendid.”
- The New York Times

“This world-class youth choir offers us a string of impressive world premieres…they sing modern music of considerable difficulty here—and they deliver it with amazing assurance, skill, and spirit…The singing of these gifted young folks simply blew me away! There are many competent and seasoned adult ensembles out there that would be hard-pressed to match this group’s intonation, rhythmic precision, and enthusiastic confidence in these often very tricky pieces.”
- American Record Guide

“Phenomenal! Yes, it’s that good… the purity of the voices, the degree of accuracy of pitch, the total sophistication of these young artists, you have to ask yourself how they can do that.”
- Copley News Service

“It's hard to know which is the more impressive achievement - the fact that the
YPC has spurred the creation of such a rich and varied body of new choral works,
or the completely convincing and professional performances that these gifted
young singers have produced. And while the project title itself acknowledges the
fleeting beauty of the voices that these pieces were written for, there are some
real gems here, works of character and substance that could potentially endure
for many years.”
- John Schaefer, WNYC

see also: Book A Concert