Our Story

Performance of ‘Anticlockwise’ with the Ulster Orchestra - Millennium Forum

North Belfast Youth Choir is an inter-denominational choir, a powerful symbol of consensus and cooperation, bringing together young people in a cross-community project, drawn from various post primary schools across North Belfast.

Led by acclaimed choral director Dónal Doherty, the project was launched in August 2015. NBYC provides a unique platform for young people, from schools across the different sectors in North Belfast, to nurture and showcase their talents and attributes, whilst simultaneously raising aspirations, celebrating the diversity and energy of a shared community and projecting a positive image of the neighbourhoods in which the young people live.  

Supported by global musical organisations, we offer young people extraordinary educational opportunities and collaborations. NBYC, through its variety of projects and travels, has pioneered and consolidated a new East/West link. These choral and orchestral collaborations with Codetta Youth choir, and the Ulster Orchestra, linking Derry/Londonderry and Belfast, create a criss-cross of performances and workshops at venues such as the Millennium Forum, the Titanic Hotel and the Ulster Hall including a residential for NBYC in Derry/Londonderry.

Recipients of the Peace and Reconciliation Award at the North Belfast Community Leadership Awards, with U.S. Consul General, Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau.

Performance at the Island of Ireland Peace Park for the Mayor of Ypres and Glen Barr, co-founder of the Peace Park

NBYC offers a heart-warming model of a sustained and ground-breaking collaboration for the young people of the community. A pupil led survey in May 2017, examined what NBYC means to its participants and identified improvements for the future. This strong collaboration extends well beyond young people to musicians, staff, parents and the wider community.

Trip to Londonderry to compete in the National Youth Choir Competition at the City of Derry International Choral Festival

North Belfast Statistics

Visiting the Peace Bridge, Londonderry

The impact of NBYC within these schools and communities is difficult to quantify, but most definitely stretches far beyond the number of those directly involved with the choir. NBYC has the potential to have a quantifiable, transformative impact on this generation of young people in North Belfast, raising aspirations, widening horizons and imbuing a confidence and pride in their own ability, with a respect for others in their community. The teachers, students, principals and staff in all participating schools, along with supportive and appreciative parents, have already demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the project and a keen desire for it to be sustained and developed over the coming years. 

 Our Objectives

  • Increase awareness amongst the students of the global citizenship and dimensions of the world they live in, by giving them access to collaborations and opportunities to travel to destinations that they may never otherwise have the capacity to visit.

  • Facilitate students, despite their socio-economic background, with the same opportunity as available in other schools to access the highest standard of choral and musical tuition.

  • Provide an alternative learning environment / experiences for students to develop their life skills, extending learning beyond the confines of the classroom.

  • Increase awareness amongst the students of their cultural heritage and shared cultural heritage, through music and song.

  • Leave a legacy of improving cultural relations in the divided community of North Belfast.

  • Encourage the students to have high expectations and aspirations despite the prevailing lack of optimism and hopefulness within their community.

  • Raise the profile of the young people from North Belfast community and the achievements of those students within the local and wider community.