Finding a Voice: Choral Singing Groups for Seattle-Area Kids

A formative experience

Like participating on a sports team, choral singing gives a growing youngster a sense of shared mission and shared responsibility for achieving it.

The work of a chorister requires following directions, practicing well and paying attention to the cues of others. The youngest singers, kindergarteners and first graders, work on developing good breathing rhythms, the skills of listening and matching a pitch.

Sarah Salomon sang in the Northwest Girlchoir from second grade through high school. “I was in kindergarten, in the school choir, when the Girlchoir came to perform. I just remember being really blown away, running home and saying, ‘I want to do that.’”

“It was a formative experience for a young woman,” says Salomon, a public health research manager who still sings in the Girlchoir’s alumnae group, Mirinesse, and with the Seattle Jewish Chorale, of which she is president. “You have to memorize all your music. Learn to blend your sound with others. Work and work until you get it right, no matter what language you’re being asked to sing in!”

How to choose a choir

Is your child ready for a choral singing group? If he or she is a first grader or older, ready for reading and tracking instructions and able to match — sing back — a pitch, then the answer is probably yes.

Teachers can tell who should go out for chorus, says Judith Herrington, artistic director of Tacoma Youth Chorus. “Something within those kids sparks an inner passion: They could be ADD or whatever, but when they’re in that music world, they’re focused.”

Looking for a group? Consider several factors, including performance anxiety and finances. Is your child ready for the pressure of concert performance? If so, maybe he or she would love to sing with a group like Northwest Boychoir, which appears with the Seattle Symphony and other professional musicians in major concert halls.

Or maybe a smaller group is a better fit. Herrington recommends church and school choirs, which give kids a chance to practice and solo in a familiar environment. But she urges parents to not reject a chorus due to financial considerations. Tacoma Youth Chorus, like many others, offers financial aid on a sliding scale.

About auditions

If the choral group your child is interested in holds auditions, ask the group’s leaders what to expect. In many choirs, auditions aren’t held until second grade. Directors are supportive, usually inviting parents to be present.

Depending on age, there may be a request that the child sing something prepared in advance. You’ll be told whether the piece is personally chosen or predetermined. Auditions often include a pitch-matching challenge.

Many auditions last ten minutes, but some are longer. Herrington says her auditions last about 20 or 30 minutes per child. She assesses voice and pitch-matching ability, and also offers an exercise lesson similar to what her chorus does so she and the child can get a sense of whether they work well together.