H+H Youth Choruses
New Voices
"The teachers are amazing and they balance fun with learning very well." — HHYC Singer
New Voices (grades 2-4) is a beginning choral experience for children who show interest in music and a desire to sing. Singers learn how to produce a blended unison sound with healthy tone and how to internalize a steady beat and sing rhythm patterns, and are introduced to the choral ensemble setting through a curriculum that emphasizes movement and singing music in many languages. New Voices performs regularly at the Boston Children’s Museum and Symphony Hall.
Rehearsals
Rehearsals for New Voices are on Saturdays at 9:00-10:40am. The HHYC season lasts from September to May. Rehearsals and classes take place at United Parish in Brookline.
Faculty
Nurt Villani, conductor
Leona Cheung, collaborative pianist
Tuition
Tuition for New Voices is $700 for the full year or $350 per semester. Full and partial scholarships are offered for families demonstrating financial need. Families registering more than one singer pay full tuition for one singer and reduced tuition for all additional singers from their household.
Watch + Listen
Faculty
Conductor
Nurt Villani
Nurt Villani joined the faculty of the Handel and Haydn Society as conductor of the New Voices choir in 2019, and in 2023 also started conducting the Treble Chorus. After receiving her BA in music from the University of Cauca in Popayan (Colombia), she went on to study Choral conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris and Gregorian Chant conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris (France), where she was awarded the first prize. During that time, Nurt was assistant conductor of the Maitrise de Paris, and was invited to conduct the Maitrise of the Cathedral in Metz, France, two leading youth choral organizations. Nurt has founded and directed various ensembles including the training choir at Conservatoire Francis Poulenc, the choir of Palais de la Culture in Puteaux, the World Music choir in the Cite Internationale Universitaire, and the Popayán choir celebrating Latin-American music. She was invited to conduct the Junior Chorus at the Cremona International Music Academy.
After working in the Boston area on the faculty of Project STEP and as a teaching artist at Handel and Haydn, she worked at Andover Public Schools and now teaches at Lawrence Public Schools. She also regularly returns to Colombia to transmit her experience to the next generation of educators. In addition to Choral conducting, she holds diplomas in musical pedagogy from the Kodaly Institute in Esztergom, Hungary; Willems in Lyon, France; and Dalcroze in New York.
Collaborative Pianist
Leona Cheung
Leona Cheung is a Boston-based collaborative pianist. An expert in the vocal repertoire from art songs to opera, she is especially known for her musical leadership and responsiveness while collaborating with singers and conductors. Her collaborators include GRAMMY® Award Winning Handel and Haydn Society, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Seraphic Fire. She has collaborated with Helmuth Rilling and Hong Kong SingFest in multiple choral-orchestral projects. Leona was a founding member and pianist with Cantoria Hong Kong, and can be heard on the Chinese choral music album entitled "Half Moon Rising", presented by the Edition Peters. Since 2023, she has served as a choral pianist for the Massachusetts All-State Choir, performing at Boston Symphony Hall. The choir consists of more than 200 talented singers selected from schools across the state each year.
Leona is the recipient of the Graham Johnson Art Song XXI Prize 2024, an award named after one of the most respected pianists and Art Song scholars of our time. Her deep devotion to vocal-piano repertoire has brought her to perform extensively in many international festivals, including Aspen Music Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Franz Schubert Institut and Songfest, where she worked with many esteemed artists and scholars across the United States and Europe. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Leona earned her Master of Music and Graduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano from New England Conservatory.