Printer-Friendly Version

If you haven’t heard the Milwaukee Children’s Choir recently, you’ll definitely want to hear the great work being done by our singers.

Check out our video slideshow, "Excerpts of A Stroll Through the Countryside."

Dear Music Teachers: MCC has audition slots open now for enrollment in the 2013-2014 choral season. We deliver MCC informational brochures to many schools. Please let us know if you'd like brochures for YOUR school. Send an email to pbell@milwaukeechildrenschoir.org with the number needed and if you'd like them batched per grade level or classroom.

Want to see how MCC ended fiscal year 2012? Read our annual report here.

From simple singing games to complex works of the masters, we educate.
Quality repertoire. Comprehensive musicianship. Choral artistry. Fun.
We are Milwaukee Children's Choir.

Greetings! Thank you for your contributions to young singers. We rely heavily on teacher recommendations. With just a few minutes of your time, you can enrich your students' lives and help us keep MCC strong. Read our commitment to teachers and students.

How Can We Help
Music Teachers?

Could we loan you music? Milwaukee Children's Choir has a large music library and is willing to loan music. Click here to see our music inventory. Call or send an email if you would like to borrow music.

MCC policy on singers and schools: Milwaukee Children's Choir shares teachers' belief in the value of music education. We want to strengthen school music programs by strengthening the voices of its children. More than 150 schools from the seven-county Milwaukee area are represented in Milwaukee Children's Choir. We are hundreds strong, drawing children grades 1-12 from family farms and dense urban areas and everything in between. No one has been turned away for lack of financial resources.

The success of Milwaukee Children's Choir is dependent, in large part, on the support of music teachers in the Milwaukee area. MCC encourages its singers to participate fully in school music programs. Our members are expected to be leaders in music ensembles and active participants in school choirs when possible.

Advocacy -- Choral Singing Addresses Learning Targets: Choral singing is a mind and body activity. In addition to addressing music education, choral singing emphasizes the importance of physical health and healthy choices. Especially in younger choir levels it emphasizes movement and games and activities. All choral singing involves listening carefully, following direction and exhibiting self-control. It requires respect of oneself and others and depends on teamwork. Music involves mathematical patterns. It requires reading with expression and using phonics to learn unfamiliar words. Because choral repertoire comes from different cultures and historical periods, choir teaches children how cultures influence communities, how history is connected to culture, and how history and culture affect all of us.

Advocacy -- The 2009 Chorus Impact Study: Chorus America's 2009 Chorus Impact Study produced striking findings about choral participation. Data collected by an independent research company using standard best practices clearly shows that children who participate in choruses have more advanced academic and social skills than those who have never sung in a chorus. Educators across academic disciplines (more language, math, science and social science teachers were surveyed than arts teachers) were virtually unanimous in their support for chorus participation.

The study indicates that when children join choirs, they show considerable improvement in self-confidence, self-discipline, focus, memory, problem solving skills, and leadership qualities. Parents whose children sing in choirs say their child's ability to read others' emotions or manage their own improved after their child joined a choir. Educators say singing in a choir improves a child's overall academic performance, and over three fourths say they can tell which of their students participate in a choir. A remarkable 90% of educators believe that participating in a choir can keep students engaged in school who might otherwise be lost, especially in ethnically diverse schools. Read striking statistics.

According to the researchers, choruses are not the only activity most of the choir members participated in, "yet parents definitively date their child's improvements in a variety of areas to their joining a choral group. That, and the breadth of benefits described by both parents and educators, argues for a unique 'chorus effect,' one that isn't simply replicated by participation in other activities."

Choruses have a greater impact on their communities than simply their artistic contributions. The sustainability of these valuable organizations is essential for giving children the opportunity to develop their artistic, academic, and social skills.

...and yet, nearly one in five parents say there are no choir opportunities for their children in their locale. More than one in four educators say there is no choir program in their schools. And of that number, nearly a third said their school used to have such a program. Milwaukee Children's Choir augments choir training for some of its young singers. For others, it is the only avenue for them to express themselves with song.

...by the way, those of you who not only teach music but also participate in a choir, you've got friends: the data showed that more people in the U.S. participate in choruses than in any other performing art.

Links to: Chorus America website. Press Release for Teachers. Read the Study or its Executive Summary.

Advocates:

Andrea Peterson, 2007 Teacher of the Year: "The beautiful thing about music is that it can give kids skills that will transfer over into their reading, their writing, their math."

NEA Chair Dana Gioia: "The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society."

November 2007 Harris Poll conclusion: "While singing in a chorus or playing an instrument is fun, it can also provide important skills like creative problem solving that can help lead to higher education and incomes as well as personal fulfillment."

Click here for information on those who support MCC and organizations that support music education. Send us an email if you have an interesting article you would like to share. Click here to get our eNews!