Miami Children's Chorus
With character, commitment and passion, the Miami Children’s Chorus develops the artistry of youth age 8-18 in Miami-Dade County. Using choral music as the medium, children participating in the MCC develop the knowledge and skills necessary for proficient practicing artist. Their excellence has garnered them the praise of music professionals and audiences around the globe.
The Miami Children’s Chorus has provided high quality singing instruction since 1965. MCC offers the children of Miami-Dade County the opportunity to study and perform standard and experimental forms of choral music. Through this study the children learn musicianship, vocal technique, discipline, commitment and the rewards of sustained and dedicated effort. In weekly rehearsals the children also learn that there is no greater result than giving their personal best.
Ever mindful of its civic responsibility, MCC has designed numerous community service projects for choristers and residents. Sing With Us is the primary MCC community service offering. It has two components – a series of family sing-alongs in Homestead, the City of Miami and Miami Beach; and a choral outreach providing free lessons in partnership with social service agencies Abriendo Puertas, The Leadership Learning Center, Overtown Youth Center, The Thinking Child Academy, Sweet Vine Inc., and Playing the Game of Life. Bring on the Boys is the MCC effort to share the joy of making music in boys with unchanged voices. This project is with support from the Men’s Chorus at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Throughout its long history, MCC has prepared children to appear and record with artists in a wide variety of musical settings. They have sung with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, at Super Bowl with Queen Latifah, with André Rieu, Gloria Estefan, Jon Secada, Nestor Torres and Raul Di Blasio. MCC has performed numerous productions with the Florida Grand Opera – La Bohème, Tosca, Carmen, Turandot, Pagliacci; former Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Master Chorale of South Florida, Miami Bach Society, at Sunday Afternoons of Music for Children and Festival Miami.
New Works for Children’s Voices is the MCC commissioning project. MCC has commissioned new works for children’s chorus from Haitian-American composer Sydney Guillaume (CA); Jim Papoulis (NY); David L. Brunner (FL), who the New York Times called, a “prolific writer whose name figures prominently on national repertory lists” and the Grammy-Award winning composer Eric Whitacre (CA). Children’s choirs around the world perform the more than 38 works commissioned by the MCC. Boosey & Hawkes and Walton Music Corporation publish many of the works in their catalogs.
The Miami Children’s Chorus is supported in part by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council and the City of Coral Gables.