The power of music, especially singing, can be monumental in a child’s life. Our singers responded to the question. “What is singing to you?”
Singing is . . .
…for everyone . . . is my favorite because it makes me happy . . .is calming . . . is everlasting joy . . . for everyone . . .my passion . . . a story . . . is fun!! . . . is connecting with others . . . the ability to express yourself . . . brings me joy . . . awesome . . . Singing is self-empowerment.
We are in our 18th season! As the premier chorus for children and youth in the Greater Sacramento area, we are asked to do several community events as well as producing our own concerts each year. The California Firefighters Association asked to perform at their Annual memorial service. December 2024 took us to the Sacramento Capitol Rotunda to sing for the lighting of the holiday tree. We performed with the Folsom Lake Symphony in their holiday concert at the Harris Center Performing Arts Center and with the Placer Pops Chorale. Our oldest choir performed at Grace Cathedral this spring, and another choir has been invited to participate in the Crescent City Choral Festival in New Orleans this summer.
To have a better understanding of where we want to go, here is some history of where we have been the past 15 years.
The Northern California Children’s Chorus was founded in 2008 by Artistic Director, Judy Britts, to fill a void of children singing in a community choir in the Placer County area. The one choir grew to four levels: Training, Intermediate and Advanced children’s choirs and an ensemble for high school women. We now draw students from Auburn to Elk Grove, Lincoln to El Dorado Hills, and all the cities in between. The singers are making life-long friends with those they would have never met had it not been for their love of singing.
Beyond learning to work with their choir peers, the youth have had many opportunities to work with other musicians in the region. Past projects/concerts include a collaboration with Dr. Beverly Wesner Hoehn, harp, and Anita Fetsch-Felix, violin, in a concert which included a piece for children’s choir, harp, and violin. Other highlights include performing with the Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet and the Folsom Lake Symphony in "The Nutcracker", Ethan Bortnick at the Harris Center for the Arts, sharing the stage with David Benoit at Three Stages as the kid's choir for "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," and a performance of John Rutter's "Mass of the Children", with Chanteuses, a local women's choir, and a chamber orchestra. The children's chorus released its first album, "Child of Tomorrow," a collection of lullabies.
Creating lifelong singers involves training the voice, understanding the music they sing, and giving them confidence to sing in multiple parts. Our different levels speak to a well-planned growth for each singer.
TRAINING CHOIRS: The primary goal for our youngest NCCC singers is that they enjoy their experience of learning to sing. Through singing, activities, and games, the children learn the basic skills of reading music, the vocal skills appropriate for their age, and the steps to becoming a confident performer. There are two choirs at this level. The desired outcome of all this training is for singers to progress to the next level. Due to COVID, our youngest choir is suspended this year.
PERFORMING CHOIRS: Our performance groups are an advanced children's choir (Bel Canto) and a high school women's ensemble (Bella Voce). These singers meet for two hours per week to rehearse as well as participate in our music theory program. Skills are developed in vocal production, breath control, and in creating a pure head tone for bel canto singing. Music theory training includes sight reading skills, rhythm performance, and musical terminology. Both groups perform repertoire from a variety of styles and languages. The high school ensemble performed at Carnegie Hall, New York City in 2017 and 2019, and the advanced choir at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco The choirs have toured to Oregon, Los Angeles, performed at the Pacific International Children's Choral Festival and most recently toured to England and Wales singing at magnificent cathedrals like Gloucester Cathedral.
The Board of Directors, donors, and staff are passionate about continuing the excellence that our chorus provides children and youth in the greater Sacramento area.