Young Voices of Colorado

Background Statement

Young Voices, incorporated as the Littleton Children's Chorale in 1990, was started with several neighborhood friends to inspire children to a lifelong love of singing. In 1996, the name was changed to reflect the broader geographic area from which the singers hail, and the mission was updated to "achieve excellence in children's choral music through education and performance." We offer the strongest children's choral music education program in Colorado. Today, our traditional program serves 200 singers, predominantly from Arapahoe County, while our outreach and scholarship programs benefit several thousand children.

Young Voices produced the first children's opera on the Newman Center stage. Our Concert Choir performed, in Chinese, the American premier of Chinese composer Tan Dun's Symphony of Peace with the University of Denver's Lamont Symphony. We have performed, by invitation, for Colorado Music Educator's conferences and with local talent like the Denver Brass. We have collaborated with local adult chorales and orchestras. Our choristers have performed in Carnegie Hall, throughout Europe, and in festivals and competitions around the USA. We have commissioned and premiered lasting music, some of which is performed internationally.

Over 250 individual singers have auditioned and been selected for regional and national honor choirs, while two boys won international Solo competitions at the International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales in 2005. This summer our Concert Choir and Signature, selected by international judges from hundreds of competitors, will participate in the finals of the historical Eisteddfod.

Concert Choir and Signature were selected through a competitive process to perform for the 2008 and 2010 Southwestern Divisional conferences of the American Choral Directors Association the 2008 national convention of the Organization of American Kodaly Educators and all 5 choirs performed at the National Orff Educators Conference in 2013.

In 2006, Young Voices launched Sing A Mile High, our national children's choral festival, bringing together world renowned conductors and composers and exceptional youth chorales from across the nation. This week-long festival has become one of the most popular youth choral festivals in the country enabling us to sell out every year since inception with the exception of 2011. Several hundred singers and their families will attend this June. Special music is commissioned for and premiered at the free community concerts during Sing A MiIe High.

The festival became international in 2011 with two choirs from Canada.

Young Voices has progressed from an all volunteer team to a staff of three full-time employees, two part-time staff as well as two part-time directors, and four part-time accompanists. We have five choirs at progressive levels. Our choristers come from almost 100 schools. Our office and rehearsal spaces are located in Arapahoe County.