From 10:30am on Saturday 25 October 2025
to 2:00pm on Sunday 26 October 2025Venue: York St John Creative Centre
Venue: York St John Creative Centre
We’re delighted to be returning to York for our 39th Convention, at York St John Creative Centre, right in the centre of the historic city of York.
Join us for a unique weekend of workshops, repertoire, exhibition and networking for everyone who leads singing, whatever their experience. Catch up with colleagues, meet new ones, browse new repertoire, brush up on skills with leading practitioners and take part in debate. Come for the weekend – or just for a day. Find out more about the history of our famous Convention here.
Convention is for anyone and everyone involved in leading singers of any age. It’s a place where everyone is an equal, whatever their experience. Leading a choir can be lonely! Everyone is your colleague at Convention, whether you’re tentatively taking the first steps into leading singers, or you’re one of our best-known choral leaders and composers. Come to network, come to learn new skills, come to find piles of new music, come to recharge your batteries, come for inspiration.
About the weekend
- meet and network with fellow choral leaders, teachers, publishers, composers and more
- choose from three strands of sessions running through the weekend
- follow our dedicated strand for everyone working with young voices (marked with an * below)
- discover the latest repertoire to try out through the weekend
- inspirational and practical sessions for all leaders, covering technique, repertoire, running your choir and more
- a full day of sessions on Saturday. Convention starts at 10.30am and sessions run until 6pm.
- sessions on Sunday morning, starting at 9.30am and finishing with lunch at 1.15pm.
- optional concert by the amazing Barnsley Youth Choir followed by informal dinner on Saturday night
- our famous trade exhibition to browse over your coffee
Our presenters and sessions
Saturday sessions include:
- Compelling concert programmes: ideas for themes, concert presentation and sourcing music with Christopher Kiver (Pennsylvania State University)
- Repertoire discovery sessions: discover the latest new music for your singers. Our Vice-President Susan Hollingworth leads delegates through *repertoire for young voices, Tom Leech leads sacred repertoire for mixed voices, and Sarah Tenant-Flowers leads secular repertoire for mixed voices.
- Groove is in the heart – discovering your inner drummer. Develop your personal sense of rhythm and improve your internal metronome with Liz Swain
- Bridging the gap: expanding the age-range in choirs. Tom Leech explores working with multi-generational choirs and how groups might sustainably expand the age-range of their membership
- Good vocal health throughout life with Charlotte Mobbs, member of The Sixteen, vocal coach and Vocal Habilitation Specialist
- *Health and wellbeing: taking care of yourself as a musical director, with Naomi Norton. Promote and protect your health and wellbeing as ensemble director, including hearing health and psychological wellbeing
- a not-to-be-missed birthday special composer forum, with composers Bob Chilcott, Douglas Coombes and Kerensa Briggs.
- Singing for our minds: introducing a ground-breaking new training programme supporting people who lead singing in any form, to build an inclusive, welcoming atmosphere, with Jeremy Haneman
- *Creating a vibrant learning community: Barnsley Youth Choir founder Mat Wright explores the pillars that underpin vibrant choir communities, considering values, ethos and vision
- *Nurturing musically engaged singers in primary school, with the In Harmony Opera North team who share their favourite resources and explore how musicianship can be taught as an integrated practice within choral delivery
- Discover ABRSM’s new Music Directing Diplomas with Andrew Dibb, Chief Examiner for ABRSM. An introduction to these innovative qualifications, for anyone involved in music directing
- Enjoy a pre-dinner performance by the internationally award-winning Barnsley Youth Choir. BYC is currently the highest ranked choir from Great Britain in the Interkultur World Rankings. With a wide and diverse repertoire, the choir’s 10 sections consist of around 700 singers aged 0-24 years old. Around 70 singers will be with us for an exclusive performance for delegates in the main hall.
Sunday sessions include:
- Conducting masterclass with Sarah Tenant-Flowers. Practical feedback and suggestions for developing singer-friendly gestures which get the best out of your choirs: attend as an observer or get in touch if you’d like to be a participant
- *Leading young singers: the teacher as musical leader, with Tom Leech. A wide-ranging practical session for anyone leading children’s singing, whether in school or with choirs
- Working with words: connecting music and meaning, with Christopher Kiver (Pennsylvania State University). Chris addresses issues such as how to establish vowel uniformity and clarify consonants, with practical techniques to apply in rehearsal
- *Inspiring teenage singers: warm ups, repertoire and resources to energise KS3, 4 and 5, with Shivani Rattan. Engaging repertoire for teenagers so that they can leave their inhibitions at the door and feel confident and empowered on the way out.
- Good business for conductors and their choirs, with Making Music‘s Barry Holloway. Whether you’re part of a traditional choir set-up with a committee, or running choirs as a sole-trader, good business practice is essential if your choir is to thrive.
- Repertoire discovery sessions: discover the latest new music for your singers. Sunday’s session covers repertoire for community choirs, led by Jeremy Haneman
- The Big Sing! Finish your weekend in rousing style with a sing led by composer and conductor Bob Chilcott of his Little Jazz Mass.
Our exhibition
Our trade exhibition is open all weekend in the Atrium: chat with publishers and composers, browse through some real sheet music, book players and singers and start planning that long awaited choir trip!
Our venue, accommodation and travel
York St John Creative Centre was a very popular venue for Convention two years ago, so we’re delighted to be able to return there. It’s a modern, award-winning building built to house music, drama and other creative courses at the university, within sight of York Minster and the city walls, and around a mile from the railway station. There is no accommodation on site, but there is a good choice of accommodation in hotels, guest houses and self-catering within walking distance. Find out more using the links below.
York is ideally positioned in the heart of the country with direct rail links bringing you from London, Edinburgh and Manchester in around 2 hours. Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds/Bradford airports are all within easy reach. York is just 20 minutes from the M1/M62 motorway network, so within comfortable driving times of most regions in the UK. Plan ahead and check the i-Travel York website for the most up-to-date public transport and travel information.
Delegate fees
Delegate fees includes full access to sessions, our exhibition, online access to new repertoire listings, tea, coffee and lunch. abcd members get 25% discount on fees – find out more about joining us here.
- Full Convention £275 (£206.25 abcd members)
- Saturday only £160 (£120 members)
- Sunday only £125 (£93.75 members)
- Saturday evening two-course dinner including a pre-dinner glass of wine or soft drink – £27, bookable separately
Our Convention photos are courtesy of York St John University or Visit York, or taken by abcd.