Chicago Children's Choir

Chicago Children's Choir backstage at Jay Pritzker Pavilion

The Chicago Children's Choir is a choir founded in 1956. It was founded in the neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago by the late Rev. Christopher Moore. The choir is located at the Cultural Center at 78 E. Washington Street. The President and Artistic Director is now Josephine Lee.

Organization

The Choir currently serves 2,700 children aged 8–18 through choirs in 40 schools, afterschool programs in 8 Chicago neighborhoods and the top-level Concert Choir. The Choir collaborates regularly with choral, orchestral, opera, theatre and dance organizations, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The 8 after school programs are Hyde Park, Lincoln Park/DePaul, Rogers Park, Pilsen/Little Village, Humbolt Park, Garfield Park, Beverly and now Albany Park. The Choir also has a program called DiMension for boys with changing voices.

Under President and Artistic Director Josephine Lee, the Concert Choir has undertaken national and international tours, performed for such dignitaries as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, was featured on the 2007 PBS series From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall, and received a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for the 2008 documentary Songs on the Road to Freedom.

The mission of Chicago Children's Choir is to be a "multiracial, multicultural choral music education organization, shaping the future by making a difference in the lives of children and youth through musical excellence." This is based on the founder's belief that by bringing children of differing races, creeds and socioeconomic backgrounds together through music, he could help them better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the Choir raises approximately $1.5 million each year in order to provide reduced tuition on a sliding scale according to family income.

Recordings

Chicago Children’s Choir has four studio-recordings: Open Up Your Heart (2004), Sita Ram (2006), Songs on the Road to Freedom (2008) (featuring music from and inspired by the Civil Rights Movement) and Holiday Harmony (2009). These recordings are available from Amazon.com, iTunes and www.ccchoir.org.

Tours

Concert Choir tours:

2011 - Baltic Tour: Estonia, Finland & Latvia w/ Bobby McFerrin
2010 - Alaska
2009 - South American Tour: Argentina and Uruguay
2008 - South Korea
2007 - "Freedom Tour": Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi & Louisiana
2006 - Czech Republic
2005 - Japan
2004 - Canada
2003 - Germany
2002 - Japan
2001 - Germany, Austria & Hungary
2000 - Colorado
1999 - England, Scotland & Wales
1998 - Pacific Northwest & British Columbia
1997 - Italy, Sicily & Sardinia
1997 - Ukraine
1996 - South Africa
1995 - Canada
1994 - Russia
1992 - Japan

1956-1981: After Chicago Children's Choir began tours (overnight concert trips) in the mid-1960s, touring continued annually through at least 1981. Trips below that lasted less than a week are marked *. Those below lasting more than 11 days, always in summer, were Montreal I (1967: 3 wks), Boston (1969: 2 wks), and Europe (1970: 6 wks). Tours listed here all involved members of the Choir's top performance unit, designated "Senior Tour Unit" during most of this period.

1974-81: list incomplete

 1978 - East Coast (April)
 1978 - ? (March)
 1977 - Ohio* (November)
 1977 - East Coast (April) and simultaneous trip in northern Illinois*
 1977 - Southwest (March)
 1976 - Madison*

 1973 - East Coast (late April)
 1973 - Tennessee (early April)
 1973 - New England (March: "the blizzard tour")
 1972 - New England (April)
 1972 - Texas (March)
 1971 - two simultaneous April tours to different parts of the East Coast
 1970 - England, Denmark, West Germany (June–July)
 1970 - New York III (April)
 1970 - Colorado? (March)
 1969 - Minnesota* (November) and another* simultaneously
 1969 - Boston area
 1969 - Washington, D.C. area (April)
 1969 - New York II (March)
 1968 - Kentucky-Tennessee* (autumn)
 1968 - Iowa* (May)
 1968 - New York I (April)
 1968 - Madison WI* (March)
 1967 - Montreal II (October: to Expo '67)
 1967 - Montreal I (summer: to Expo '67)
 1966 - Indianapolis* (November)
 1965?- Madison*
 1964?- Southwest (Tulsa OK)

External links

• Chicago Children's Choir