Young Voices: The Largest Children's Choir Concerts in the World

For the past 20 years, Young Voices has staged the largest children's choir concerts in the world. Over 2 million children have taken part in a Young Voices concert, inspiring young generations to find their love for music. We recently spoke with Adam Lind, who manages American Young Voices , to find out more on how this program started, how it benefits educators, and how music teachers can get involved.

What was the inspiration behind this organization?

In 1996, David Lewis, founder of the Young Voices organization, became aware that school music in the United Kingdom was on the decline. Along with his family, Lewis went on a mission to assist music teachers, especially at schools with little to no music programming, in giving students an opportunity that would inspire a love of music in a momentous way: through amazing massed-voice concerts in local arenas. Today, the Young Voices educational program features over 200,000 different students each year singing over multiple nights in cities across England, as well as Ireland, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, and since 2015, the United States.

Now in collaboration with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Young Voices’ focus on music education is what makes this program unique. By design, it is not a competition, but instead a year-long journey that focuses on highlighting the musical potential of all students. Young Voices is an engaging, multi-faceted, all-inclusive program, that supports students’ developing 21st century skills, including self-reflection, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. The adapted curriculum is engaging, fun, and exciting with arrangements from standard choral literature and familiar rock and pop songs, to others of hope, inspiration, and empowerment. Students’ skill sets will be strengthened in vocal range, diction, music literacy, and other musical elements that will complement and enhance students’ learning in other areas of education.

How does Young Voices benefit music teachers?

Young Voices provides registered teachers all necessary resources needed to successfully prepare the music in classes and rehearsals throughout the school year. Materials include scores to the high-quality performance repertoire, vocal and accompaniment recordings, conducting notes, teaching aims and objectives, as well as curricular materials and lesson plans in inquiry-based format structured on the National Core Music Standards. In addition, Young Voices has a closed online community for educators to interact and engage and fosters community among participating teachers. Workshops are offered to review music and logistical information in which teachers earn valuable Professional Development Hours for their participation.

The community we try to provide music teachers with allows them to have their students’ performance be a once-in-a-lifetime experience that energizes their music program in a very unique way. Teachers have raved about their student’s participation with comments such as:

"We had the time of our lives! I have been getting comments from parents like this was 'the best night of my child’s life!' The kids were already asking about next year as we were walking to the bus [after the concert]." —Emily, Music Teacher, Little Falls, NY

"What a wonderful night! It was terrific, and the students and families are still re-living the musical joy that you brought to them! Thank you! Our 4 ^th graders attended this year, and will be going on to our Intermediate school next year. I asked my students about returning to AYV again and it was a resounding and excited 'YES!' Music is powerful!" —Cathy, Music Teacher, Manassas, VA

“Experiences like American Young Voices give students a reason to get excited about all of the opportunities they CAN achieve .” —Courtney, Music Teacher, Albany, NY

How does Young Voices benefit students, parents, and the community?

Parents and guests are amazed at the scope and scale of their student’s performance. Audiences not only experience a professional arena production, but they are seated in direct view of their child’s school. This creates an additional sense of community within the audience of those who are collectively supporting their participating school and gives families the best view possible for an equally enjoyable experience as their child.

The benefits of the Young Voices experience are not limited to the students and their teachers, but bring communities together by sharing the love and power of music. The music often highlights themes of peace, hope, togetherness, empowerment, and unity. In an effort to prove that “music brings us together,” the Young Voices experience supports community building and emotional connections to all walks of life.

Since its inception, the Young Voices organization has brought this experience to over one million children, and it is the intent of Young Voices’ CEO, Ben Lewis, to continue that mission in the United States and beyond for millions more. Ben explains the mission of Young Voices as “that to inspire the next generation, children deserve the best introduction to music [by giving them] opportunities to find a place for it in their lives.”

Why should more schools get involved?

American Young Voices is an all-inclusive educational program designed to use music to develop 21st-century skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity, mindfulness, and innovation. We provide extensive support materials and resources for teachers and a multifaceted experience for children that encourages a life-long love of music.

In today’s world of ever decreasing support for music in schools, it is more important than ever to inspire a love of music through classroom education and participation. We all know the benefits of music and especially singing on student’s well-being. Even Time Magazine is quoted as saying;

“ Study after study has found that singing relieves anxiety and contributes to quality of life. What researchers are beginning to discover is that singing is like an infusion of the perfect tranquilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves and elevates your spirits.”

The Young Voice musical journey culminates in your local arena where thousands of students come together as a massive chorus. At an American Young Voices concert, the students are the stars! They are accompanied by a live band of accomplished musicians with professional lighting and sound in front of an audience of thousands of their families and friends from your community!

Where can people learn more?

Fore more information, please visit www.americanyoungvoices.com .