How Choral Singing Changes Lives

Chorus America is committed to advocacy for quality music education and the role that choruses can play. Part of this effort has been interviews with choral singers about how singing has affected their lives. Choral singers start young. Among the many striking findings of America's Performing Art, Chorus America's 2003 study of American choruses and choral singers, was the fact that 69 percent of today's choral singers had their first choral singing experience in elementary or middle school. 

Veterans of these experiences cite everything from learning skills to acquiring a sense of discipline and commitment. They understand the creation of community and the joy of striving for an artistic result that is greater than the sum of its parts. Young people who may feel out of place elsewhere find a home in a chorus—students find mentors and begin to understand about leadership. Some are drawn to become professional musicians and music teachers; others find that the skills and experiences learned in a chorus have subtle but far-reaching implications in many areas of their lives.

The nature of choral singing is such that one can actually teach sophisticated skills that lead to a satisfactory whole-group experience to quite young children. Rebecca Berger, now an administrator at the Johns Hopkins medical school, started singing with the Children's Chorus of Maryland when she was six and stayed until she was 16. She remembers those first years in the training choir as "Lots of ear training, rhythm training, sight-reading, and imitation. It was all done with games, rounds, and folk songs. We'd learn the Dorian mode by singing 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor?' It was all fun, something a kid could enjoy without feeling pressure. You didn't know you were learning."

Once children realize they are actually learning skills, they also find that those skills are immediately applicable to what they are doing. "When I was 14, the learning was more academic, but by that time I was hooked," Berger says. "I remember not particularly loving learning about the circle of fifths, though it's cool how it all comes together. But we were still applying everything we learned in rehearsals and performances, so it seemed worthwhile. I never felt that way about math."

Fostering Commitment and a Sense of Belonging

The sense of commitment to the group is part of what makes the learning seem both fun and worthwhile. Stephen Holmes joined the Maryland State Boychoir when he was nine. "I remember it as something totally different, connecting with kids who were same as me, who had similar passion for music and for expressing themselves. It was also a male experience—there was something fraternal and masculine about it. In school, the singers were all girls. I also felt very wanted, very special as a chorister."

Shaun Rushforth, who joined the Children's Chorus of San Antonio in fifth grade, wasn't sure about it at first. "My mom saw an ad for the Children's Chorus," says Rushforth. "I wasn't too keen, because choir's a girl thing at that age, but my mom convinced me. The first day I realized that I had friends there in choir that I didn't know about. I felt welcome, and realized it wasn't just 'a girl thing.'" Rushforth, who is now at Brigham Young University studying psychology and Jewish studies, notes, "Not a week goes by that I don't think about it. One day I walked into my roommate's room and he was listening to song we sang in choir. I'm studying Hebrew, and in my textbook, I recognized the words from a song we sang in choir."

That social bond creates lifelong friendships, as well as a sense of belonging for young choral singers. For some, it is something that they do not feel in other areas of their lives. Rebecca Berger says, "Choir was removed from the rest of my life. The kids in my school had no idea what I did. It was a refuge, a different world. I didn't love school, so it was a contrast with my daily life. It was for me, something I chose to do and enjoyed, with people I generally liked a lot. I became close to singers in the chorus and I still keep in touch with them." Stephen Holmes recalls the sense of commitment as a very positive element in his life. "When all my friends were outside playing, I wanted to stay and play too, but I had a rehearsal," he says. "I realized that I had a commitment to it, so it was not cool to not go. Then you get to rehearsal, and you realize how much you love it."

Holmes went from chorister to assistant director of the Maryland State Boychoir, attending college locally and working church jobs as well. Now in his early 20s, he is applying to graduate programs for choral conducting and will be leaving the area—but not the field. "To leave working with children has never crossed my mind," he says. "I would like to do choral conducting at an adult level, but I would never leave kids. You are not only imparting amazing musical ability, but also your knowledge, your moral view. It's an honor to think you're impacting lives. Choral music has become my life. Everything else flows out through it."

For Vance George, well known choral leader and director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for 20 years, choir served an important social function as well as being the catalyst for his life's work. When he was growing up in rural Indiana, he recalls, "I was 10 or 11 when a neighbor, a trained soprano, decided to create a children's choir. Twelve of us would gather in her house. I had a strong voice and could sing harmony, so she put me on the middle voice. We sang in church once a month—somebody cut neck holes in white cloth to make choir robes. Growing up on a farm, you're very alone. In choir, you're with other people, doing something you're good at, and it gives you a sense of belonging."

When George went on to high school, choral singing continued to be an important part of his social life: He sang in a barbershop quartet with the captains of the baseball and the basketball teams. "I had gone to a one-room country school and didn't know many people. The quartet gave me cachet—I was okay because I was in with the big school jocks." The quartet recently sang at their 50th high school reunion.

I formed a strong core group of friends in choir that I could always count on to be there for me through all the cattiness and stress of middle school...

Martina Brendel, a junior at Columbia, where she is the arts and entertainment editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, spent several years in the Chicago Children's Choir and then joined high school choirs. She cites the importance of "finding an activity that was non-academic where everyone shared the same passion and enthusiasm. I formed a strong core group of friends in choir that I could always count on to be there for me through all the cattiness and stress of middle school, for example. There was solidarity among the singers."

Charissa Martus and Gabriela Garcia, two seventh-graders who have been singing with the Handel and Haydn Society's youth chorus program for three years, have no problem giving up other pursuits for their Saturday chorus commitment. "It sometimes gets in the way of other activities, but I still go," says Charissa. "Singing is very important to me." Gabriela concurs. "If there is a birthday party, I just miss it. This is for my future. When I was little, I used to tell my mother I wanted to be in one of those concerts on television. I used to just sing. Now I know what the notes mean and I can play the piano. My friends at school think this is a great opportunity. Some day I'll be up there at the Grammys, winning an award!"

In high school, Martina Brendel took eight classes a day rather than seven so that she could sing in the choir. One year she decided to take only seven classes and drop chorus. "I thought I'd get more sleep, and I had lots of homework," she says. "I ended up petitioning to add it after a month. I needed it. My day felt empty without it." Ashley Gaffney, a ninth-grader, has now aged out of the Colorado Children's Chorale, a fixture in her life since third grade. "Fitting it in with my life meant a lot of rushing all over the place," she says. "I used to think, it's so tiring, I don't want to do it any more. Now, it feels as though I have nothing to do!"

Working as a Team

Being part of an avocation group drawn together for a common goal has a lasting impact. Adrienne Rau, who sang in school choirs in her native Maine, participated in the Berkshire Choral Festival, and is now a math major at Barnard College in New York. She says, "The biggest thing I learned from choral singing was how to work together on a project, and that you could be competitive without trying to put someone down. I didn't like competitive sports for that reason, because someone won or lost. If you sing, you can all win."

Richard Carrillo, who spent five years in the Children's Chorus of San Antonio and is now studying music education at the University of Houston, talks about he learned team skills through chorus. "As an individual, you need to work, but if the majority of the group isn't working, it won't help. You understand that everyone is important and that you need to do your part to help the group succeed." In sports, he feels that the emphasis is different. "If you're not good, they'll bench you, or you'll be in the outfield. Choir works hard at including everyone, being sure everyone becomes a part of it."

Fostering that sense of community and the idea of working towards a common goal is the job of the choir staff and conductors. Former young choristers speak with tremendous love and respect for their directors, who can become important mentors. As children move into their teen years, caring adults who are not their parents take on new significance. The ideal balance of high expectations and love means a great deal. "Marguerite McCormick was very energetic and warm," says Richard Carrillo. "She didn't talk down to us." Shaun Rushforth remembers, "Miss McCormick would say, 'I want you to know that you are my very favorite people.' I went back a year ago to a concert. I hadn't seen her for a long time and I asked her about people who had been in chorus with me. She knew where they were. She had kept track, and that meant a lot."

Even the little lessons of choir can have a lasting impact. Rushforth still remembers how another children's choir director told them, "Does everyone know how to bow? When you prepare for concert, you make sure your shoes are shined. When you are standing there, everyone will clap. You'll look at your shoes and come up with big smile, because you know your shoes are shined. And you are prepared." That director died of cancer during Rushforth's choir years and he sang at the memorial service. "I am so grateful for what I learned from Mr. Shepherd," he says.

The example of such directors had a powerful influence on Richard Carrillo's choice of career. "Growing up, I thought I would be an engineer—both my sisters are. But around my freshman or sophomore year, I thought what do I really like to do? Singing is my passion. I considered vocal performance, but then I thought I'd love to be the person up there, waving my arms and getting the beautiful sounds out of the kids." He is planning to be a music teacher.

Jim Hayden, a high school senior who began singing with the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus (now Anima) when he was in eighth grade, says, "Emily Ellsworth [director] is a huge inspiration. She has taught me the meaning of music—that it's not just notes, it's what you feel. She's shown me what I need to do to be a great choral conductor." Hayden also says that he appreciated the discipline of the choir.

One thing I took from my choir director as I grew and matured in my career was that he got everything out of his singers by respecting them, not yelling at them. I learned a lot from that... I always tried to treat people with respect. I built companies with that in mind, and it worked.

Many decades later, Sherif Nada, former executive with FMR Corp. and Fidelity Investments and a trustee of the Boston Lyric Opera, still speaks of the choir director who became a role model for him. Nada came to the U.S. from his native Egypt in the 1950s to finish high school at a boarding school in Massachusetts. "Everybody at the school sang, and it really made it possible for me to feel part of a group very quickly. I was in a foreign country with a different language, culture, habits—it was very important for me to belong. One thing I took from my choir director as I grew and matured in my career was that he got everything out of his singers by respecting them, not yelling at them. There was no fear factor. We delivered so much more with passion and love. I learned a lot from that throughout my career. I always tried to treat people with respect. I built companies with that in mind, and it worked."

Acquiring Life Skills

Choir can serve as an entry into an adult world where young people are treated with respect and appreciation for what they can do. Megan Marshall, who sang with the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus and is now one of its assistant conductors, particularly remembers the choir's experiences singing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus at Orchestra Hall with Margaret Hillis. "We did our own pieces and at the end, sang with the CSC," Marshall recalls. "To sing in such a large, beautiful place, with adults, and to be considered professionals, gave us real dignity and self-esteem. We were doing something well, and contributing to something beautiful, and people came to hear us."

Many young choristers enjoy the unusual opportunity to travel, to meet other singers, and feel a part of the music world beyond their own towns. Ashley Gaffney went to France and Italy for a music festival last summer; other young singers have toured the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Rebecca Berger attended several Kodaly conferences with her choir and recalls, "We felt recognized and important. What we did on Saturday mornings was part of something much bigger. When I was 10, we went to Banff in Canada and stayed with families. It was so moving the way the town enveloped us and appreciated what we did. American culture doesn't bring us up to respect music training as it does athletics, so music is not something kids are generally appreciated for here. In England, choir boys are revered! But people were so excited about us in Canada."

Choral singers emphasize that they acquired major life skills through chorus. Elise Holman, a charter member of the Milwaukee Children's Choir who is now pursuing her dream to sing on Broadway, says that choir "made me a more responsible person. I was never in any trouble with alcohol or drugs. I didn't worry about peer pressure. I was too busy, I had too many goals, and I couldn't risk screwing up. I got a work ethic from it that most 11-year-olds don't have, and I've kept it. In college I could always stay focused."

Choir has had a professional impact as well. "I can sight-read anything, which is very helpful in auditions!" Seventeen-year-old Josh Pope, who sings with the Milwaukee Children's Choir, says, "The skills of tackling choral music helped me with other things, like math. Reading becomes a lot easier—when you're sight-reading music, you're doing three or four things at once. When you read books, you're doing the same thing." Courtney Chiavara, a Syracuse University sophomore, says that singing in the Syracuse Children's Chorus "taught me how to manage time, organize, focus, and study. The memorization skills—I still make songs up in my head to help me learn different things in my classes."

Cultivating Leadership and Self-Confidence

Jim Hayden says, "Singing in choir inspired me to do my personal best. Whatever I do, whether it's homework or anything else, reflects me, so I need to give my all—150 percent—in all aspects of my life. Just giving 90 percent is not enough." Carmen Smits, who sang with the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus and is now a junior in college majoring in vocal performance and music education, says, "Choir made me become more mature. The people I made friends with were a lot older, which enabled me to grow up faster. It also taught me to be independent. When you are traveling all over, away from home, you learn to do things on own." Smits sings in two choirs at college, and is also the paid soprano in a local church choir directed by one of her professors.

Megan Marshall says that choir teaches patience in a world where that lesson is hard to come by. "Kids learn to work hard over time. Today, everything comes so fast. In choir, you work on music a lot, you think about it, you fix things." Rebecca Berger says that with that patience comes "faith, knowing that eventually something will come together, because you have faith in your fellow performers. It's important to learn to trust the people around you."

Young choruses learn those lessons in a different way from young orchestras. Marshall says, "The power of singing is different, it comes from a different place inside you. Also, in orchestras, kids are coming from more similar levels musically. In chorus, there are some kids who are ahead in music, some behind. It doesn't matter—you have to meld them together. The musical expression can be there already and can come out without the musicianship skill, while an instrumentalist needs to master the instrument first. Kids who can't read a note of music can be comfortable being expressive faster because of the nature of singing."

Given that chorus can be such an egalitarian experience, it is interesting that chorus veterans cite leadership skills and self-confidence as major benefits. Thirteen-year-old Bob Weidenhoeft, now in his second year in the Milwaukee Children's Choir, started in chorus and in a regular middle school at the same time, after being homeschooled. He says that chorus—in which he had to stand up in front of people and sing - helped give him the confidence to integrate into his new school situation. Richard Carrillo says that being in chorus made him more comfortable talking to new people. "It helped me open up a lot more," he says. "I learned to appreciate music and I could talk about it with people, and be more sociable. I spent two years in the all-state choir, which is a big deal in Texas, and there were 250 people all there for the joy of singing!"

Megan Marshall says, "Choir teaches leadership even if you are never given a leadership position. It teaches you to be a quiet leader for the good of the group. The biggest thing I teach—and I don't even think about it—is how important each person is, that everyone is bringing something to this group."

Bridging Divides

That sense of mutual respect and value translates to understanding and tolerance across cultures as well. Singing the music of many cultures has become an important part of most children's chorus programs. Carmen Smits enjoyed learning music that incorporated new cultures. "Even if I didn't like it at first, I loved it at the end." Marshall says "Language and accent are some of the most powerful ways people relate to each other. When you learn to sing different languages, it opens your mind, and you think, I can relate to this culture. It's not only the text, but the style and the tone quality of the music." Courtney Chiavara, who spent a month in China with the Syracuse Children's Chorus, says it was one of the most important experiences of her life. "I didn't know the language, though I learned as much as I could, but on stage there were kids from China, Sweden, Israel, and the U.S., all singing the same thing—that was remarkable."

Josh Pope enjoys singing repertoire in many different languages. "When I was in second grade we had to learn songs in Hebrew, German, and Italian," he says. "I remember it being very difficult. When you're that young, it's tough to sight-read a song in a different language, but I really enjoyed singing those songs. I felt like a whole other person."

That cross-cultural experience works at home, too. When Stephen Holmes was singing with the Maryland State Boychoir, its demographics were changing. "We had been an all-white group in the county; now, we were in the city and we were half white and half black. We kids didn't think much about it until adults started talking about it. We just sang together. Then at some point, you notice that adults have a hard time getting along with people of different backgrounds, while we don't. We had this utopia world—I would never have met these people if not for choir."

Martina Brendel had a similar experience in her high school choir. "Choir was a way to step out of my magnet program and feel a sense of belonging to kids in other programs that I would never have had. With all the advantages I'd been given by my very well-educated family and a demanding academic program, I could find, sitting next to me in choir, a person who lived in a housing project who was a much better singer. That opened my eyes. It expanded my perceptions of people and challenged any sort of narrow beliefs that I might have had otherwise about other students."

Marshall remembers how difficult it was to articulate to people who were not in chorus why it was so important. "I once tried to write a paper about it!" Now, with the perspective of a choral music educator as well, she says, "If I were writing that paper today, I would explain that the art itself is a worthy thing to offer to people. It's a very spiritual experience, even as a child. You are offering something that's intangible, but so powerful. It brings you into a place you wouldn't be ordinarily. That angel-like, quality of children's choral sound is so unique—it seems to go up and into the heaven. And then there's the joy of being with people while you are doing it, learning how to work and grow together." Mary Nada, who met her husband Sherif in chorus at Duke University (he was a bass, she was an alto, and they began singing to each other), concurs. "I don't think there is a bigger high than creating a beautiful sound with a group of people."

Overcoming Obstacles

Ninth grader Katie Scheutzow, who says that singing in the Syracuse Children's Chorus was the ideal escape from some serious family problems when she began in fifth grade, had one of those moments last year on the choir's trip to Florida. "We were onstage singing 'Let there be peace on earth' with Voices of Liberty at Orlando, and I had tears running down my face. In that moment, I knew it was the best thing that had ever happened to me."

High school senior Erin Laro, who sings at school and through the Handel and Haydn Society youth programs, has found music to be a great help in weathering both large stresses, like family crises and a year in foster care, and small ones, such as too much homework. "If I didn't have music in those rough times, I would probably have done something negative," she says. Laro is now studying voice in H and H's Vocal Apprentice Program, but choral singing is special for her. "It's hard for me to do solo—I'm so used to blending," she says. "I really like chorus better than solo singing. I get so shy that I'm a nervous wreck when I have to sing in front of people. In chorus, there are others around to back me up, so if I screw up, it's not such a big deal." Singing in her high school chorus—an elite, 20-voice a cappella group—is hugely important to her. "If there was no music, I don't think I'd even go to school!" she says. "The world would be so dull without music."

The combination of the physical and artistic dimensions of singing seems to resonate in a particular way. Martina Brendel says that although she was good at academic work and enjoyed visual art, singing mattered most. "I found generating music through my body incredibly powerful and empowering." Adrienne Rau still feels that way. "A lot of times, I feel it's the only thing that has kept me from going insane. I resist going to rehearsals, because I have too much work to do and I'm tired. But I go, and then I have the energy to keep going. I just work on the music, and it doesn't matter if I have a test the next day. I probably do better on the test because I always feel so much better."

Singing in chorus was literally a lifesaver for Courtney Chiavara. When she was 16, she was stricken with a neurodegenerative illness that causes facial paralysis. "I couldn't see, talk, or swallow. Half my tongue was paralyzed. For several months, I only left the house to go to doctors and to chorus, to try to sing. The Syracuse Children's Chorus is like a second family and I'm very close to Dr. Tagg [director]—I felt comfortable enough to show everyone there what was going on with me."

Fortunately, Chiavara recovered and is now a pre-med student at Syracuse University. She is still extremely active in choral music. Could any group experience have worked the same way during her illness? "I feel a different connection with singing and with music," Chiavara says. "I love challenges, and we were learning very challenging pieces, so it was a way for me to focus my energies. Singing the text, immersing myself, striving to become one with music and what you're supposed to express—helped me get through it. Music was the place I turned to find comfort. I knew everything would be okay when I was singing."

This article is adapted from The Voice, Winter 2003-04.